There is light at the end of the tunnel for the Cook Islands Sports and National Olympic Committee (CISNOC), according to treasurer Dan OBrien.

Despite the disclosure that CISNOC is insolvent, OBrien says Monday nights meeting of the organisation was positive in respect of members gaining a full understanding of the financial situation.

A huge amount of progress has been made in the last six weeks. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) have been made aware of the position and have full financials and have come back to us in support. Weve also discussed with them the plan moving forward with the assistance of government.

It has been revealed that CISNOC needs up to about $800,000 to pay its debts, send Cook Islanders to the 2012 London Olympic Games and maintain normal operations until the end of this fiscal year.

But OBrien describes that as the worst case scenario because in some instances costs have been estimated such as the cost of attending the Olympic Games which will likely be less in reality.

But to be fiscally responsible, he has prepared a financial position taking into account the most money CISNOC will have to account for in the near future.

OBrien also says the money expected to come to CISNOC in the meantime must also be weighed against the organisations financial burdens.

In the three months to March 31, 2012, CISNOC is expecting about $88,000 to come in as operating grants.

OBrien says he does not think Monday nights insolvency confirmation came as a surprise to any of the members present at the meeting.

There appears to be very positive feedback from the codes that were in attendance in terms of now understanding what the actual financial position is and understanding what we must do to move forward. However, in saying that there was also in the meeting discussion raised about accountability and thats understandable.

About half of the CISNOC membership and almost all executives attended the meeting, which lasted almost four hours.

CISNOC president Sir Geoffrey Henry and secretary general Rosie Blake were there, alongside financial secretary Richard Neves and internal affairs secretary Bredina Drollet who were present in their advisory roles to the executive.

OBrien says discussion centred on ways to move forward, and it is clear that CISNOC relies heavily on government.

Obviously without government support moving forward CISNOC cant operate. Government has realised the importance of supporting CISNOC moving forward, but rightly so government are saying that we must ensure that we never, ever get into this position again. He says this financial year was the first in which government did not allocate as much money to CISNOC as usual.

It did receive, however, $160,000 of Allsports funding, of which about $30,000 is used by CISNOC for operating costs and the expense of running a sports development unit.

The rest is directly intended for use by sports codes.

OBrien says in order to reduce its debt burden CISNOC will likely use money in its term investment account (of which there is $62,252) to pay off a $49,083 bank overdraft which will otherwise annually cost the organisation about $8500 to service at a 16 percent interest rate.

Questions were also asked at the meeting by members in respect of the 2009 Pacific Mini Games per diems and whether that will see CISNOC further in debt, but these questions were dodged as executives endeavoured to keep the meeting focused on OBriens accounts.

CISNOC executives reportedly made no attempt to apologise to the membership for the organisations insolvency, or discuss the pressing issue of board resignations.

OBrien says there is nothing to stop members calling another special general meeting and CISNOCs annual general meeting for 2012 is due around March.

All executive board members need to do some soul searching in terms of this happened on their watch and they need to ask themselves are they contributing to the benefit of CISNOC are they in their current positions adding value. The codes and members are aware of what the position is now, they need to go away and make decisions themselves in terms of how they feel about the existing board.

If the consensus is that they feel there needs to be change, then theres a democratic process within the constitution that allows them to do that.

(As at November 30, 2011)
Assets
Operational Account $5844
IOC Account $18,614
Allsports Account $227
Term Investment Account $62,252
Total $86,937
Liabilities
BCI overdraft at 16% $49,083
New computer server $3700
OS payment to codes $18,614
Total $71,397
Net Position $15,540
Less
Creditors $35,755.97
Government (Pacific Games) $126,000
Government (Manea Games) $40,000
Codes Distributions Owed
IOC world programmes:
Women in sport – life skills $1485.44
Women in sport – Zumba $791.33
Women in sport – walk the talk $1572.26
Women in sport – woman of the month $1007.88
Women in sport – Te Fuinga O Niva $1060.44
Women in sport – Au Vaine Turamarama $1985.44
Sport and environment $8188.57
Legacy $11,719.16
Potiki sports $6080.72
IOC development of national sports structure $14,255.57
IOC London scholarship for athletes $17,107.30
Sub Total $62,109.59
IOC national activity programmes $40,563.95
Allsports $17,254

Future Provisions Required
Olympic advance payments (approx) $330,000

—The schedule of accounts presented to CISNOC member
organisations on Monday night.