KUALA LUMPUR: The Sports Commissioner Office's (SCO) star rating system is voluntary for national sports associations (NSAs).
Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh had said that star rating could be used by NSAs to attract corporate sponsorship to run their programmes.
The star rating is based on the overall achievements of national associations' athletes and officials as well as their performances from a managerial and financial standpoint.
The rating is also based on the timeliness of document submission, including documentation associated with the NSAs' annual general meeting, the minutes of other meetings and official activity reports.
Sports Commissioner Suhardi Alias said the rating is a recognition for the NSAs and it will help them to gain sponsorships or partnerships with corporate sectors.
"We have not made it compulsory, it's up to the NSAs to be graded, and there are NSAs who feel that they are not ready for it," he said.
"In advanced nations, the corporate sector is drawn to sports that have high ratings like four and five stars as it's indication of proper administration and good governance.
"We hope we can have a similar approach here and we believe the rating can help Malaysian sports."
Suhardi added that the rating evaluation is always enhanced with new criteria to make NSAs up to date with the demand of good governance.
"The ratings are based on evaluation on several criteria with emphasis on good governance. We are pushing for the inclusion of female participation in NSA administration as well as compliance to the Safe Sports Code in NSA programmes," he said.
"NSAs which implement the new evaluation criteria, will get extra points for their rating. We want the NSAs who go through the rating evaluation to have high standards of good governance."