Audit findings and opinions
1. Establishment and management of the East Asian Games Youth Centre
1.1. Examining the three decisions taken by the 4th East Asian Games Organizing Committee — Macao, S.A. (hereafter referred to as MEAGOC), the Commission of Audit verified that there was no sufficient documents demonstrating the decision on establishing the East Asian Games Youth Centre (hereafter referred to as Youth Centre) was preceded by scientific research and analysis to its viability, efficiency and efficacy, which implies the project didn’t resulted from prior and thorough discussions and analysis nor rigorous and detailed planning. The audit findings demonstrate that the analysis and planning for the establishment of the Youth Centre could have been better conducted.
1.2. The decision to establish the Youth Centre in the urban area of Taipa was not going to solve the “difficulties in transport”. If the concentration of youths, the promotion of the Games and the training of volunteers constituted the main functions of the Youth Centre, then the final localization was surely not the most adequate; or, if the storage and material distribution as well as the distance to the sport venues integrated the main factors of consideration, then their weight was really disproportionate. The audit findings show the localization of the Youth Centre should have been more closely assessed in association with the users’ needs.
1.3. One of the main functions of the Youth Centre was to host the training of volunteers for the East Asian Games. Indeed, the Youth Centre possessed at least 3 autonomous areas fit for training activities, offering a maximum total capacity of over 9 000 hours. During the period in which the Youth Centre was open to the public, from end of February 2004 to mid-October 2005, it saw 151 courses totaling 305 class hours and 8 856 attendances. The Commission of Audit is of the opinion that if the project of the Youth Centre, a structure dedicated to training, had been subjected to a more in depth assessment of the necessities and to an evaluation more closely based on data related to training, durations, number of trainees and class hours, the investment of resources would have been more rational and more effective and, at the same time, the insufficiency or over capacity of the equipment would have been avoided.
1.4. In order to make the Youth Centre a space capable of hosting simultaneously training, recreational and cultural activities and, on the other hand, with the objective to fully occupy the leased space, besides areas dedicated to training, other areas serving cultural and recreational activities were also created. However, it must be noted that those recreational and cultural activities were already offered by various other bureaus and public entities. According to the statistics available, the low rate of usage was registered not only with the paid facilities; also those with free of charge usage were ignored by the public, originating then a very serious underuse rate of the facilities. During the 673 days in which the Youth Centre was open to the public, its area of more than 100 000 square feet received only 101 000 visits, a daily average of 150 users.
1.5. In its written comments, MEAGOC provided on more table containing information on activities held in the Youth Centre and added that 615 activities took place in it during its 673 days of operation. After examining the data relating to the use of the Youth Centre, crossing the information on available hours with available days, the problem of low rentability and the unsatisfactory use of the Centre presented in the audit results were confirmed.
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Occupancy by hours |
Occupancy by days* |
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Facilities on lease |
Occupied hours |
Available hours |
Usage rate |
Occupied days |
Days of opening |
Usage rate |
Ballroom |
4,102 |
8,749 |
46.9% |
441 |
673 |
65.5% |
Billiard room |
4,565 |
17,498 |
26.1% |
580 |
673 |
86.2% |
Studio for bands |
2,353 |
8,749 |
26.9% |
478 |
673 |
71.0% |
Conference room |
415 |
8,749 |
4.7% |
119 |
673 |
17.7% |
Exhibitions area |
26 |
8,749 |
0.3% |
2 |
673 |
0.3% |
Auditorium for ecology themes |
217 |
8,749 |
2.5% |
55 |
673 |
8.2% |
* Based on figures contained in the comments of MEAGOC and data collected during the audit.
1.6. Regarding the functions as storage and logistic centres for the Games, it must be noted that no evidence was found in the whole documentation gathered during the audit pointing to other functions beyond those of training, recreational and cultural. However, admitting the information now presented by MEAGOC, it must be said that adapting a commercial building exclusively for being a warehouse, centre of distribution of uniforms and logistic centre with almost two years in advance, is certainly not a well thought decision and contrary to the good practice in resources application. On the other hand, if the reality was as revealed by the audit findings, according to which those functions were added afterwards to simply fill the space in excess, then the error raised right in the preparatory phase, where the research and analysis were not adequately and thoroughly conducted.
1.7. The Youth Centre opened from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., daily, meaning periods in which most pupils were in class and workers at their working places were also included, resulting in expenses which could be avoided with personnel, water, electricity and maintenance during periods with no or few visits.
2. Definition of the sport programme and organization of the sport venues
2.1. Twelve sport infrastructures were used to stage this edition of the Games, of which 4 were remodelations of existing equipments. The Commission of Audit is of the opinion that, if there was a generalized policy of using sport equipments already existing in the community, most of those equipments which were claiming renovation and remodelations would have been benefited from the East Asian Games.
2.2. Although the Government had clearly assumed the position of applying all efforts to make the East Asian Games in Macao a success, it doesn’t mean the fundamental thinking in public money management “not doing things beyond your capacity” could be forgotten. The Commission of Audit verified that the building of the soccer field at the University of Science and Technology, the Tennis Academy, the Bowling Centre and the Shooting Range, because of urgency, were started in a rush, with no adequate planning, which sowed latent undefined situations that later on came to damage the works programmes and their global financial supervision.
2.3. After the Games, the Shooting Range remained unused for large periods. The situation reinforced the belief of this Commission that the level of usage after the event the equipment was built for should be subject to detailed research even in the phase of planning. And this should be particularly true with equipments for sports little practiced in Macao, since experiences around the region showed that these equipments remained unused for long periods after the event took place. Besides, the good principle on applying public money recommends that any investment should be based on an adequate and far-reaching development plan, with the objective to ensure the investment would come to produce continuing results.
2.4. The building of a sport venue that satisfy all norms and regulations of a certain sport implies the investment of big quantities of resources, specially, with construction or remodelations works, acquisition of equipments or facilities as well as with operating the venue before and after the event. Regarding the programming of the 6 indoor and multisport venues, the Commission of Audit considers they should have had a more intense usage.
3. General comments on the management model of MEAGOC
3.1. The preparation of the East Asian Games lasted 4 years, during which MEAGOC went through and got involved in various phases and different types of works such as publicity and promotion, finding commercial sponsorship, ticket selling and TV production and broadcasting. However, the audit revealed that MEAGOC has been operating basically on an annual basis for the conception and planning of the Games; also, it had no clear objectives and no precise quantities. The Commission of Audit is of the opinion that was there a pluriannual plan with clear objectives and also an adequate mechanism for successive supervision, the preparation phase could have been more efficient and yielding better results.
3.2. MEAGOC entered into contract with publicity agents for getting commercial sponsors without having previously and thoroughly verified their capacities and execution plan, nor having defined targets to achieve. MEAGOC signed a service contract with China Sports Industry Co. Ltd. (China Sports) for expertise advices on the preparations of East Asian Games, whose price was 5.6 million patacas. However, the results achieved by the proposals presented in the final report authored by China Sports were very far from the purported levels. Fifteen services (out of a total of 27) implemented according to that final report didn’t produce the expected results. The Commission of Audit deems the contracts should have included precise terms on objectives and requirements in order that the execution and the supervision could be more efficient.
3.3. The Commission of Audit deems important to highlight that policies on public resources application should embody the principle of economy. One should look at some situations found by the audit: the Youth Centre was used as storage centre, centre for uniforms distribution and logistic centre; MEAGOC spent 7,9 million patacas for television broadcast and lighting equipment to be installed in the multisport hall of the Polytechnic Institute for broadcasting competitions of only one sport modality (karate-do) during two days; MEAGOC booked rooms for all the guests on a uniformed 13-night basis, resulting in many unoccupied rooms.
3.4. The control of objects of value and of selling and offer of tickets demonstrate the internal control of MEAGOC should have been better.
Major suggestions of the Commission of Audit
1. For facilities with specific functions like the East Asian Games Youth Centre, preliminary researches and studies should be thorough and wide consultations should be conducted in order to gather the opinions and to know the needs of the target-population, whose results should form the base to clearly define the objectives, the functionalities, the location and the offers in order to satisfy as much as possible the real needs and that the facilities can be used to the maximum capacity.
2. “Saving in resources and not exceeding one’s capabilities” should be the leading principle in the overall strategy for facilities planning and, for this reason, making use of the existing and adequate facilities should be a priority. This approach would benefit a considerable part of the community’s sport facilities and, at the same time, avoids creating financial burdens unnecessarily to the Special Administrative Region’s Government.
3. Regarding sport modalities whose rules and requirements can only be satisfied by new facilities, the following premises must be observed:
• the modalities should be considerably popular in Macao or there already are long-term policies for their promotion, so that the new facilities would be fully used by the population;
• for modalities of lesser popularity, provisory facilities should be considered, so that investment could be kept to a minimum and on the other hand the situation of unused facilities with costly maintenance would be avoided.
4. The executive body of any public department or department in charge of managing public resources should scrupulously observe the principle of prudence in the management of public money, both in organizational matters and in handling financial applications. It should plan and programme the activities in a systematic way in order to raise the transparency of the operations and to enable the internal control being more effective, as well as to ensure the existence of a control environment in which the public resources could generate maximum benefits for the Special Administrative Region’s Government.
