With the eighth Bangladesh Games just 48 hours away, the participating sports federations are busy bickering with the Bangladesh Olympic Association for fund, which they say too inadequate to provide quality food, accommodation, transport to the athletes.
The Bangladesh Athletics Federation said it had initially submitted a budget of Tk 37.5 lakh but they were allocated less than one-third of the amount much to the ire of the officials.
‘We were just given Tk 12 lakh. I don’t know how to manage everything with so little money when our estimated budget was Tk 37.5 lakh,’ said Ibrahim Chengis, general secretary of the federation.
The officials of the Bangladesh Swimming Federation were equally frustrated as the BOA allocated only Tk 9 lakh to them to organise 42 events, which will see more than 500 contestants.
‘The BOA promised only Tk 12 lakh to us and we have been given only Tk 9 lakh so far. We have more events and participants than the other disciplines. I don’t know how they all will be managed,’ said Rafizuddin, general secretary of the Bangladesh Swimming Federation.
`It is very unfortunate that the BOA treated us equally with some other small federations and allocated the same amount of money. While Bangladesh Handball Federation was given Tk 22 lakh, we got just Tk 12 lakh. I don’t think it is fair. Even the Bangladesh Cycling Federation received close to the same amount (Tk 10 lakh).
‘I guess some federations are getting undue favours as their officials are involved with BOA,’ said Rafiz in an oblique reference to handball federation general secretary Asaduzzaman Kohinoor, who is member-secretary of the Games’ media committee.
Bangladesh Football Federation and Bangladesh Hockey Federation are also frustrated with their allocated budget. BFF, the only federation, which had been running the Games from the district level and finalised the eight qualifiers for the final round, was given Tk 20 lakh.
`We initially sought Tk 55 lakh but the BOA provided us just Tk 20 lakh, so it has become really difficult for us,’ said Abu Naeem Shohag, general secretary of the BFF.
To organise the 12-team hockey event the Bangladesh Hockey Federation had submitted a budget of Tk 10
lakh but received just half the amount, said Khawaja Rahmatullah, the BHF general secretary.
‘Eight of our 12 teams will come from outside of Dhaka and we have to provide them transport, accommodation and food and I don’t know how it is possible,’ he said.
The BOA officials said some federations have sent inflated budgets, some of which were even unrealistic, so they had to be tough on allocation.
‘It’s really tough to make everybody happy. We have a lack of funds and everybody needs to realise it,’ said steering committee chairman Harunur Rashid. ‘Also the list of athletes sent by some federations seemed exaggerated. We cannot provide money for so many people.’
-With New Age input
