SAN JOSE -- The National Olympic Committee (CON) of Costa Rica is in difficulties to complete the payment of the plane tickets for the delegations which will attend the Olympic Games of Beijing 2008, local daily La Nacion said Sunday.
International Olympic authorities will cover around 70 percent of the tickets, which means that CON will have to give the other 30 percent, which is around US15,000 dollars.
Currently CON does not have money, because it is waiting to be authorized to use the resources that are frozen, La Nacion said.
The situation is worrying the directives, because the deadline to deposit the tickets money finishes on Tuesday, president of CON Roberto Verdesia said.
"We are trying different ways, as private companies or the state. We have a lot of hopes of a government's help; we don't even want to think what would happen if we don't get the money in the coming hours, it will be catastrophic," Verdesia said.
CON has been able to negotiate an extension with the travel agency OTEC, which booked the tickets. The Costa Rican delegation has foreseen to depart on August 2.
The CON also needs money to respond to its daily obligations, like services and staff payments.
Currently the CON has two money resources frozen, which if are released will lighten its financial suffocation.
One is about US50,000 dollars which are pending because the Pan American Sports Organization decided to delay the payment due to problems with two previous liquidations.
The other is a state's resources of US127,000 dollars, from them have been released 58,000 dollars for the CON, but to be given as scholarships to the athletes.
The 69,000 dollars remaining are in a bank account and can not be used as the General Account Office of the Republic (CGR) requested it to the Administrative Contentious Tribunal.
The CGR requested to detain the funds when it was still working the previous Executive Committee of CON. It was done in order to assure the money to be used in the right way during the correct terms.
The CON's new directive has to loan money form the directives to survive these first weeks, with the compromise that the money will be given back to them once the frozen funds are released.
