NCS, feds meet finance ministry over delayed subvention
What you need to know:
In June, NCS and its 51 member associations welcomed an increase in the sports budget from Shs17b to Shs47b but none of the sum allocated to federations in budget support has been sent thus far.
Sports federations have not received their promised funding from the government following the increase in the budget for the 2022/23 financial year.
This has left some teams without funding to compete in events or committing to participate as they await support from the government through the National Council of Sports (NCS).
Three months into the financial year, the strife-stricken federations, led by NCS, met finance ministry officials yesterday in a bid to get the latter to release funds.In June, NCS and its 51 member associations welcomed an increase in the sports budget from Shs17b to Shs47b but none of the sum allocated to federations in budget support has been sent thus far.
During a meeting yesterday, Patrick Ochailap, the deputy permanent secretary/secretary to the treasury, moved to their nerves in the hope that money will be sent in the next three quarters.
"Sports is important to the development of the economy and the government considers it as a top priority but the funding for the sector would always be commensurate with the performance of the economy," Ochailap said.
"In recent times, the economy has been hit by international incidents (including global pandemics and war in Europe), plus the monster called inflation," he added.
Ochailap told the federations not to expect government to fully fund all their operations and activities, but to offer as much support, and urged them to prioritise fixed costs (wages and salaries where applicable, as well as varied operation costs) in their projections for the third (January to March) and fourth (April to June) quarters of this financial year.
He also recommended the drafting of comprehensive strategic plans to inform the course(s) of action and intervention for the subsequent Financial Years, starting with the next.
NCS general secretary Dr. Bernard Patrick Ogwel made an impassioned plea for the ministry to prioritise subvention to sector considering that the federations had received next to nothing in the first quarter (July to September), and a 'release' way short of adequate for the second.
Many of the federations heads, led by Fufa president Eng. Moses Magogo attended the meeting.
They urged the government to categorise sports as productive rather than consumptive, a sector which needed government support to in turn attract sponsorships, generate income, pay taxes, as well as save the youths from among others, crime and disease, which all came at a much higher cost to the country.
