The Gambia National Olympic Committee (GNOC) on Friday, 31 July 2015 held its monthly briefing with National Sports Associations at the Olympic House.
The meeting, headed by GNOC Second Vice President Abdoulie Jallow, aimed at briefing the associations on the latest developments and plans at the Olympic House.
Speaking at the briefing session, Mr Jallow who doubles as secretary general of Gambia Basketball Association (GBA), said the current GNOC leadership put great emphasis on transparency and accountability, which is why they have introduced a periodical briefing with the associations to tell them what they have been doing and what they want to do and in turn listen to the associations in the interest of sports development.
He acknowledged that since the introduction of the process it has paid dividend for both parties.
1- IOC Auditors Satisfy with GNOC Accounts
Continuing his briefing GNOC second vice president revealed that the Olympic Solidarity (OS) in June this year sent an auditor to look at the accounts of the GNOC as part of their normal routine check on National Olympic Committees.
He revealed that at the end of the exercise the auditors were very satisfied with the level in which the GNOC accounts have been handled.
He added that the IOC auditor has hailed GNOC account department for their professionalism in handle the finance of the Committee.
2- Assistance to National Sports Associations
Second vice president Jallow also told sports associations that GNOC’s assistance to national sports associations so far in 2015 stands at two million four hundred thousand dalasis (D2.400.000.00) with athletics taking the lion’s share of the assistance due to qualifiers for the RIO 2016 Olympic Games.
He added that volleyball squad, who are on cause for RIO 2016 Olympic Games qualifiers, also benefited greatly from GNOC and presently two swimmers are taking part in the World Swimming Championship in Kazan, Russia, through funding from GNOC.
Mr Jallow disclosed that GNOC has paid the international membership fee of all the Sports Associations who have submitted their invoice from their International Federation (Ifs), and called on others to submit theirs to GNOC, so they can affect payment.
3- Equipped Secretariat for National Associations
“As part of efforts to help associations without secretariat, the GNOC has secured funds from Olympic Solidarity (OS) for the setting of a secretariat at the Olympic House.
The “common” secretariat, to be equipped with computers, printers and internet connection, will be used by associations to do their secretariat work and communicate with their international federations,” Mr Jallow told sports associations.
This will ease communication and the secretariat burden facing most sports associations in The Gambia, he noted, saying: “As we speak now all the computers for the secretariat have arrived and are waiting to be installed.”
4- Sports Infrastructural Development
Dilated on GNOC’s contribution to sports infrastructural development in The Gambia, Mr Jallow revealed that the Olympic Solidarity (OS) through GNOC has re-activated the one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars (US $175,000) as contribution to the construction of the tracks at the Independence and the money has been paid directly to the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) as parent body of the Gambia Athletics Association (GAA), who are the direct beneficiary.
He added that GNOC has also secured funds for the construction and completion of Serekunda East Basketball and Volleyball courts at the Olympafrica Center.
5- GNOC Annual General Meeting (AGM)
Continuing his briefing, GNOC’s second vice president revealed that as a constitutional requirement, the GNOC will soon call for an Annual General Meeting (AGM) to present reports of 2013 and 2014 activities to the general membership.
He added that a date will be set and communicated after the auditors finalize the audited accounts.
Another speaker at the briefing was the president of GNOC, Alhagie Momodou Dibba, who updated the associations about the activity plan of ANOCA ZONE II starting with a taekwondo competition in Mali in December 2015.
The associations in their turn hailed the GNOC leadership for their steadfastness and immense contribution to the development of Gambian sport.