PORT MORSEBY – Tonga has announced that Papua New Guinea will give US$35 million to the Pacific kingdom to help prepare for the 2019 Pacific Games, according to a brief out of Nuku‘alofa reported in the Post-Courier newspaper.

From the office of Tonga’s Prime Minister Akilisi Pohivaa the brief said the amount of funding will depend on a pending visit by PNG officials to make an assessment.

PNG Sports Minister Justin Tkatchenko however, said when asked by the Post-Courier that the two countries have not agreed on the amount of funding.

“I will be travelling to Tonga on Friday with engineers and architects to assess the venues and infrastructure. Then we can tell the Tongans what we can assist with,” Tkatchenko said.

The construction of venues in Nuku‘alofa remains behind schedule while the government is also struggling to find the funds required to pay for the the facility upgrades.

Pohiva and Tonga’s Sports Minister Feao Vakata were in Port Moresby last week to follow up on PNG’s promise last year to help fund the 2019 Games in Tonga.

“It is likely that Tonga’s request for assistance towards the 2019 Pacific Games will be in terms of financial support, expertise and training of athletes,” Tonga’s Pohiva said in a brief made available to the Post-Courier.

“The expected areas for financial support will be in infrastructure development projects in preparation to host the Games,” it said.

However, the brief said this assistance should be coordinated by Tonga in line with similar donations and support from other development partners.

Depending on PNG’s financial capacity, the assistance should be part of the support for the project or to meet the outstanding balance of budgeted costs of infrastructure development after calculations of other donations have been factored.

This will depend entirely on PNG’s financial capacity to do so, the brief said.

On expertise and personnel, Tonga’s request is an area for PNG to offer international exposure and job opportunities for young PNG workers and project managers in the infrastructure development industry.

This will ensure that PNG also gains reasonable benefits from the support to Tonga. However, response to this request will depend on the outcome of the 2015 Games and the degree to which PNG nationals were engaged in project management and contribution by technical personnel,” the brief notes.

There are also the chances of the Tongan government requesting training for its athletes in PNG facilities for the 2019 Games alluding to the lack of facilities as the major factor for Tonga’s disheartening overall performance at the 2015 Pacific Games.

“As the 2019 Games host, it is equally important for Tonga that its athletes are prepared well to perform to expectation in front of the home crowd,” Prime Minister Pohiva said.

He said that in this case, PNG can offer to train Tongan athletes in selected sports in PNG or have PNG trainers have the opportunity of conducting the training in Tonga which is less costly.

This would provides excellent exposure for PNG trainers through a coordinated approach which maximises benefits for PNG in its status a significant regional development partner and leader, the brief said.

In Nuku‘alofa, there has been some confusion over who is actually responsible for the organisation of the 2019 Pacific Games.

The issue culminated in verbal exchanges between Prime Minister Pohiva and Lord Sevele, who is the chairman of Tonga’s Pacific Games Organising Committee.

The prime minister’s visit to Papua New Guinea “to further strengthen the economic and social cooperation between the two countries in the sports arena” has raised questions over who is organising the games.

This follows a controversy in December after Pohiva demanded that Lord Sevele and his committee resign because Tonga’s preparations to host the 2019 Pacific Games appeared to be at a stand-still.

There were allegations of mismanagement of New Zealand aid money for the upgrading of the Teufaiva Stadium, along with slow progress in the preparation of other facilities for the Games.

The “very high salaries” for Lord Sevele and his organising committee staff were also questioned.

Lord Sevele responded by saying that the Pacific Games Organising Committee is guided by the Pacific Games Organisation Act 2013 – and that the committee is financially autonomous and independent of government.

It was in the midst of this verbal exchange that the Prime minister along with the Minister for Internal Affairs Fe’ao Vakata and his CEO visited Papua New Guinea.

They met the PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill on January 18 where Pohiva invited PNG’s Minister for Sports and Tourism, Justin Tkatchenko, to visit Tonga “at the earliest opportunity to share their experiences of planning and preparing of a Pacific Games”.

However, after the delegation returned to Tonga last week, the Prime Minister’s Office released a statement confirming that “no monetary commitments were made during dialogue between Papua New Guinea and Tonga last week”.

Tonga’s bid to host the 2019 Pacific Games was announced as being successful at Futuna in 2012. It was estimated at the time that it will cost Tonga US$70 million to host the games.

In the government national budget for 2015-16 it was proposed for Tonga to finance the 2019 Pacific Games by introducing an Airport Departure Tax and a Foreign Exchange Levy. It was estimated that Departure Tax could bring in a minimum of $7 million per annum and the Levy $5 million.

However according to a spokesperson from the Ministry of Finance these taxes had not been implemented. The construction of the sporting facilities for the 2019 Pacific Games, according to the Minister of Finance ‘Aisake Eke, will start next year and he remained optimistic that Tonga will be ready to host the Pacific Games in 2019. - PNC