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KUALA LUMPUR − Private companies involved in the Rakan Sukan programme, which the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) hopes to revive, need to be recognised as “serving the country”, just like the athletes.
OCM president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria made this suggestion in a bid to encourage private companies to be involved in the programme should the government agree to revive it.
“We, for example, involve ourselves in sports but we are not paid − it is more as a national service.
“There should be an element of national service in this… because the element of sports is tangible, that is, it gives you a feel-good factor and it gives joy to the people,” he told a media conference after chairing the third OCM executive board meeting for the 2021/2025 session here yesterday.
He said this after OCM reportedly proposed a collaboration with the Youth and Sports Ministry and National Sports Council (NSC) to revive the Rakan Sukan programme as an effort to help national sports bodies, including athletes, who faced funding cuts recently.
Norza, who hoped that the proposal would be brought to the attention of the Cabinet, added that yesterday’s OCM meeting was of the view that an appeal should be made to private companies − especially those which made huge profits during the Covid-19 pandemic − to return and help the community through sports.
As such, he urged the government to offer tax incentives as an encouragement for private firms to be involved in the programme.
He also suggested that the NSC Privatisation Financing committee be expanded in an effort to promote the idea more aggressively besides meeting with the Finance Ministry to see a list of companies, especially government-linked companies (GLCs) that have benefitted from government incentives before.
He said that by checking the data, they could identify companies that had never been on the government’s radar before and meet them to see if they are interested in getting involved in the Rakan Sukan programme.
Asked about the mechanism to prevent misappropriation of funds from the programme, he said auditing was definitely one of the comprehensive methods that could ensure the funds are used properly by sports associations.
The Rakan Sukan programme, which was initiated by former Youth and Sports Minister Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Othman on August 1, 1994, saw sports associations that were merged with private companies receive a minimum contribution of RM1 million each per year.
Meanwhile, Norza said the meeting also took note of the fact that the proposal paper for the re-inclusion of the Podium Programme into the 12th Malaysia Plan had been prepared to be forwarded to the Cabinet. – Bernama, January 12, 2022