With improved financial compliance, athletes and national sporting federations are expected to receive more diverse grants and opportunities as National Olympic Committees (NOCs) in their countries strengthen access to the Olympic Solidarity programme.
The ONOC Secretaries General Workshop – held in Guam earlier this year – also featured capacity building of, and knowledge sharing between, finance officers of the fifteen Pacific Islands NOCs.
ONOC said, “Our review of the 2017 to 2020 Olympic quadrennium showed that a lot of our member NOCs could be accessing more Olympic Solidarity grants but were held back by inadequate knowledge and information, connectivity, and financial compliance constraints.”
“As of 2021, our fifteen members in the Pacific Islands can access an annual grant of USD20,000 each to contribute to the salary of qualified finance officers, the total annual finance officer grant being USD300,000 – an investment of USD 1.2 million in order to build financial compliance in the quadrennium.
“However, we believed that all finance officers could benefit from a hybrid in-person and online targeted training, and networking that could lead to a buddying programme to build a support system.
“As it is, that buddying programme has eventuated and finance officers are being grouped to ensure they can consult each other when they need help. Another arm is an online chat group has been set up so they can share experiences and put up issues to enable group solutions based on individual strengths.”
ONOC continued, “We made the decision to support the position of finance officers in NOCs to ensure access to Olympic Solidarity funding, as this is based on the yearly production of properly audited accounts.”
“The other key reason was to promote the adoption of best practices to improve NOCs governance and embed them at the operational level with finance being a critical component.
“The training in Guam involved promoting the IOC Basic Universal Principles of Good Governance with a focus on finance as the finance policy is the instrument that is a beacon from executive to operations.”
Keziah Lewis, Finance Officer, CISNOC, Cook Islands: “Being able to connect with the other finance officers as well as the ONOC staff was extremely important. There is often frustration built up due to not knowing who to talk to, or whether you are the only one experiencing the struggles. To know that other people are experiencing the same things and now having someone who you know will be able to help on the other side is reassuring.”
Capacity building of finance officers
ONOC Finance Consultant, Maibole Digitaki, said, “Other training included the use of the IOC Olympic Solidarity online platform, RELAY, understanding the difference between allowable and non-allowable expenses, different accounting software, and financial reporting.”
Digitaki continued, “We have two key learnings from this engagement; the importance of encouraging NOC executive in putting in place finance policies that are relevant to each NOC but ensuring that key elements in finance – particularly, financial reporting – are included in the policies – such detailing is critical.”
“Secondly, the importance of sharing best practice templates and continuously upskilling and mentoring the finance officers as they, together with the sports development and education officers, are the often-ignored ‘engine room’ in an NOC, who will provide continuity and sustainability of the organisation.”
Coordinated by ONOC Finance, the new network of NOC finance officers will be meeting online to continue engagement and learning.
Janice Merep, Finance Officer, PNOC, Palau: “Overall, I’m very grateful to participate in the workshop. I came in with an open mind and ready to interact with other finance officers and exchange not only the hiccups we’re all encountering but most importantly sharing solutions or ideas, and to support each other to do our job/role better in our respective NOCs. With all the discussions and interactions, I can see we’re moving forward together on the same page.”
Article adapted from ONOC website.