Allegations of ‘missing money’ from the Olympic Solidarity programme is one of the key issues behind a possible legal action against the Cook Islands Sports and National Olympic Committee (CISNOC) by Geoff Stoddart and Taki Anaru of the Cook Islands Triathlon Association.

Anaru explains that last year when the full extent of CISNOC’s financial woes was unfolding, there were many questions over the flow and use of funds and corporate governance at the CISNOC board level.

Sustained demands by national federations for CISNOC to open their books revealed the national sports body was insolvent to the tune of $800,000.

“Included in this was the disappearance of Olympic Solidarity funds (along with other Olympic monies) which had already been approved for payment to national federations having met the funding criteria,” says Anaru in a letter to Oceania National Olympic Committee secretary general Ricardo Blas.

“The treasurer advised that these funds had been ‘misappropriated’. We took these semantic gymnastics to mean either used for unauthorised purposes or stolen.”

Anaru says that despite repeated requests for the board to account for these and other funds, no further information has been provided by the CISNOC board.

“In our view a forensic audit should have been conducted where funds were missing or unaccounted for. Later financial information was published in the media indicating extravagant expenditure by certain CISNOC board members at the same time that CISNOC was asking for a financial bailout from the Cook Islands government.”

Although Blas does not comment on allegations of ‘missing money’ at CISNOC, he explained that in the framework of the Olympic Movement, the Oceania National Olympic Committee (ONOC) is the administrative arm of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) when managing the 17 national Olympic committees of Oceania.

He says that all funding is derived from the Olympic Dividends and because CISNOC is the recognised member by the IOC, it is whom they deal with on all matters relating to national Olympic committee (NOC) programmes, funds and authority.

On the issue the triathlon association has with the $65,000 (USD) of the 2012 national activities programme (NAP) funds being used for just five Olympic codes – Blas says that funds are not for federations or sport codes but rather for athletes.

“CISNOC now has direct obligation to the athletes and to provide for their needs. In this respect and in the year of the Olympic Games, the priority and needs of the athletes are primary and priority over the concerns being addressed here,” says Blas.

The triathlon association further inquired into the equity and fairness of allocating all NAP funding to just eight athletes including three who are not residents in the Cook Islands in five codes to the detriment of all other sports codes who have hundreds of members to service as running various programmes.

“These six athletes whom you have chosen to cite in your grievance is the reason your NOC receives the benefits it does from their participation,” says Blas.

“Regardless of arguments, these five to eight (to include the three who are not residents of the Cook Island) athletes are the main reason CISNOC receives the support grants from Olympic Solidarity, not the national federations or sport codes with the hundreds of members at home.”

Blas pointed out 17 separate sports programme which the eight athletes have made it possible for CISNOC to access funds on a quadrennial basis.

Blas goes on to say that reading the grievances by the triathlon association, there appears to be a sense of entitlement and ownership of funds by the sport code.

“This annual grant from CISNOC to the national federation was never intended to be a supply of funds to underwrite the obligations of the national federation, there has to be a disconnect here with the understanding that this is NOC funds.

“There is a process to submit a grant to host an event, not the current practice as exercised by CISNOC and national federation in underwriting your yearly programmes.”

Blas was compelled to comment on the current situation at CISNOC after numerous requests by secretary general Rosie Blake and the seriousness of threats to dissolve the national sports body.