SRAM has been accorded a 5 star rating by the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) together with Lawn Bowls and Sepak Takraw. These are the only 3 sports to get the 5 star rating. What about bowling? And where is badminton? Surely this 2 sports are better off than sepak takraw? They only received a 4 star rating. Below is the article from the NST.
Sportcheck: Five-star rating for three
By Christopher Raj
2008/06/17 THREE associations received five-star ratings while 11 received four from the 47 that came under the microscope of the national rating system. Lawn bowls, squash and sepak takraw were the special three while football, to the surprise of many -- including Sports Minister Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob -- was among the 11 with a four-star rating.
Conducted jointly by the Olympic Council of Malaysia, National Sports Council and National Sports Institute, the panel looked at three areas -- governance, programmes and achievements -- in deciding.
The associations were tasked with answering 124 questions -- the first 57 concerning governance, 34 on programmes and 33 on achievement.
The FA of Malaysia received 90.76 for governance, 82.89 for programmes and only 34.83 for achievements for a weightage total of 80.86.
For a five-star rating, an association had to have a weightage percentage of 90 and above and among the associations in the same bracket as FAM are the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) and Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress (MTBC).
MTBC's total weightage score was, despite receiving 100 per cent for achievements, 87.83 while BAM, surely more successful than FAM, had a total score of 87.16.
Of the three associations which got five-star ratings, the SRA of Malaysia was highest with 93.92 for governance, 89.47 for programmes and 100 per cent for achievements for a 93.52 total.
The Sepak Takraw Association of Malaysia, which withdrew from the Korat Sea Games over a dispute pertaining to the type of balls to be used, received 92.50 for governance, 93.24 for programmes and 87.90 for achievements for a 92.14 total while lawn bowls was awarded 90.10 for governance, 92.11 for programmes and 100 per cent for achievements for a total of 91.81.
It is learnt the rating was merely based on the answers which were either yes or no.
The type of questions included whether the constitution of the association had been amended within the last five years, whether the sport had qualified for the Olympics and whether there were anti-doping procedures.
An NSC source said the reason why FAM scored highly was because it had, thanks to the millions that had poured in before, relatively good administration and structure.
"Some associations have been delivering results but they lack good administration and don't have sound development programmes."
Ismail Sabri, however, believes the rating system needs to be improved and has asked the three parties to do so.
OCM deputy president Datuk M. Jegathesan, who headed the joint-working committee, said the objective of the system is to help associations improve and not penalise them.
"We have put a lot work into this and the minister can call us anytime and we will explain how it works," said Jegathesan.
He declined to give a breakdown though as the rating had been done in strict confidence.
Having gone through the questionnaire, I found that the questions are too general to determine how good the governance of an association is. Also the programme implementation part is very grey and touches on a few areas only. Then comes the achievements which doesn't split up individual and team championships. Good initiative OCM but please improve on it. Plus I think you should do an audit once you get back the questionnaire rather than believe everything an association says as a lot of thought differs in the interpretation of the questions.
So is SRAM a real 5 star association? We will take an in depth look at it in the next part of the series.
