BFF stops funding for Wangdue and Paro

24 October 2008

Bhutan Football Federation (BFF) has stopped its annual funding for Wangdue and Paro dzongkhags as a result of non-payment of dues of approximately Nu 0.8 million. According to the federation, the dzongkhags were required to submit bills reflecting the expenditure of the funds, which the two dzongkhags failed to do. The federation uses its internal funds to promote the sport.

“They used the funds for other activities such as archery and volleyball when it was only meant for football so we rejected the bills,” said Ugyen Wangchhuk, the General Secretary of BFF. The officials of BFF said the funds were allotted on an annual basis to four regions: West, Central West, Central East and Eastern.

Ugyen Wangchhuk said the federation decided to stop the funding as there was a due of Nu 1.3 million. Nonetheless, most of the dzongkhags, according to him, have cleared their dues except for Paro and Wangdue dzongkhags.

Ugyen Wangchuk said that Bumthang dzongkhag has already cleared the bills but Paro dzongkhag was not responding at all. He said that it was becoming cumbersome to recover the amount as most of the officials taking care of the fund in dzongkhags were either transferred or had retired.

“We will be writing off the dues and start the funding again,” said Ugyen.

He said that from next year the funding would resume but in a different pattern. “Before, there were such problems as the funds being given to the regional headquarters from where they were distributed to the dzongkhags but now we will give it directly to the dzongkhags,” he said, adding that from next year, every dzongkhag would receive an amount of Nu 20,000 from the federation. Ugyen also expressed concerns over the need to increase the funds for football.

According to officials at the Bhutan Olympic Committee (BOC), the committee releases Block Sports Grants (BSG) for some 14 different sports federations on a quarterly basis. “This year we got Nu 15 million from the ministry of finance,” said Sasi, the Finance Officer at BOC.

There are some 14 sports federations that receive fund from BOC which include Archery, Football, Taekwondo, Volleyball, Badminton, Shooting, Weight Lifting, Body Building, Basketball, Boxing, Cricket, Golf, Table Tennis, Bhutan Amateur Athletic Federation. He said that the funds could not be misused as the BOC has a system in place whereby every federation is required to clear the bills before they receive further funding.

By Pushkar Chhetri

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