Paralympics New Zealand (PNZ) is still owed almost $40,000 by the Rio Paralympics organisers, nearly four months after the event was held.
The money is owed for travel grants for athletes and team officials, which was part of the contractual agreement to host the Olympics and Paralympics.
The International Paralympic Committee is owed a total of $5 million, $38,000 of which was owed to Paralympics NZ.
Liam Malone was one of several New Zealand para-athletes to return with medals from Rio, but Paralympics NZ is still out of pocket for the event. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
PNZ chief executive Fiona Allan - who is currently in Japan inspecting facilities ahead of the Tokyo Games in 2020 - said the money accounted for 10 percent of their annual budget of $4 million.
Fiona Allan, chief executive of Paralympics New Zealand. Photo: Photosport
She conceded they might never see the money.
"That's one of the things we have considered, that the money may never be provided to us."
Allan said Games organisers had a "great responsibilty" to deliver on what they had promised.
"I guess it's a learning from Rio, and I am sure the (Tokyo) organising committee will not wanting to be in a similar position in four years time," she said.
The International Paralympic Committee said it had never faced a financial issue like this previously, and it was taking a toll on smaller national Paralympic committees in particular.
New Zealand finished the Paralympics with 21 medals in total, nine of them gold.
