ASNOC President Joseph Victor Langkilde said the position is "one major change" as part of a draft charter for the organisation that has been presented to its members for review and comes following discussions with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC).

The amended charter, which needs approval from the ASNOC membership and the IOC, is aimed at "improving the organisation and improving operations", and comes after calls for Langkilde to resign over allegations of unauthorised payments last year.

The position of secretary general, if approved, would, instead of being elected, be appointed by the ASNOC, with the help of ONOC, and paid with ASNOC money.

The person would report to the Executive Board and will only be an ex-officio member with no voting rights in decision making matters.

"Instead of having the secretary general elected, [that person] will be appointed, meaning the position would be advertised to the public [and] within the organisation, and then all of the applicants would be brought forward and screened," Langkilde said.

"Having an NOC secretary general appointed and be a paid post, is not new within the IOC.

"This is how other NOCs operate, not only in the Pacific region but around the world.

"Some have their secretary general appointed and a few have theirs elected.

"So this was a recommendation from IOC and ONOC, who discussed with us that this may be something fruitful and productive, seeing that all of our officers are volunteers, putting a lot of time into the NOC, taking away from their full time jobs.

"And I'm pretty sure that in their full time jobs, their bosses are concerned with time taken away from work and this is something that needs to be addressed by ASNOC as an organisation, if it can be done, and it also puts less stress on the executive officers."

ASNOC members have been given 30 days to provide comments on the proposed charter.

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