$139m on sport unrealistic

Dec 24, 2009 Sports

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I am convinced that phantom spending is pervasive in Government, so much so that there are attempts to bamboozle media professionals, who spent enough time on the grounds to question the claims of expending $139 million on sport.
Another section of the local print media reported on Monday that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport disclosed at its annual year-end press conference that it spent $139m this year on the development of sport and programmes.
The report further indicated that $90m of the $139m was spent for “training personnel to become accredited coaches and also push for the improvement of sport at the community level”. Those revelations pleaded for criticisms.
The ministry must go one step further from that vague exegesis to inform the media, and by extension, the entire country, of specific areas in which this $139m was spent because clearly the evidence on the ground is unsupportive.
The Federation International Football Association (FIFA) and CONCACAF ensure that their training programmes for referees and coaches are funded through the local football federation without contribution from Government.
The most recent was a referees and referees assessors’ course held under the auspices of FIFA, which was the first of its kind globally. Football is not the only sport that privately attracts funding for training and other programmes.
The Guyana Amateur Power Lifting Federation hosted a referees’ seminar for officials as the regional power-lifting championships looms next year. The ministry, again, boycotted funding that important developmental clinic.
Guyana recently defended both its Caribbean Rugby Championship titles in Mexico but an overwhelming US$30,000 was needed prior to their departure that was ascertained with a few aggressive private marketing initiatives.
The Guyana Football Rugby Board received no known backing from Government, which forced Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony to blame the absence of a previously established protocol for the blunder.
Lugard Mohan and Aubrey Younge recently went to the United States on an International Basketball Federation (FIBA) referees’ accreditation course and succeeded. Sponsorships and other fund raising efforts got them their badges.
National Basketball Coach, Robert Cadogan went to Mexico on an International Olympic Committee Solidarity Scholarship that came through the Guyana Olympic Association in the latter part of this year minus Government input.
Lawn Tennis Coach Shelly Daly-Ramdyhan went to Italy on a training programme which the local association initiated. It is no secret too that cricket spends its own money for the development of the sport at various local levels.
The point here is that there is no public record to support Government’s spending of $139 million on the major sport disciplines. Logical deduction would suffice that if they do not spend on major disciplines, minor areas are irrelevant.
Those brief aspects of development listed earlier were a few of the things that cost money outside of Government’s input. A complete look at all the disciplines would not be proper in this season of constraint with newspaper space.
However, from what is known Government spent very little on programmes for the major sport disciplines, which brings me to my first question: can Government provide an entire breakdown of how a $139m was spent on sport in 2009?
There is this subtle estimation of the ‘Days of Interaction’ which was initially intended as a target programme for serious feedback of community needs to develop various areas of sport throughout Guyana, but sadly it is the opposite.
It is a forum that attracts disciplines such as dominoes etc. The Day of Interaction is not a serious approach to developing sport in communities. It is rather an excursion for leading ministry officials. It is nothing short of an immense farce.
The minister said at the press conference that on occasion the ministry is reluctant to give monies to athletes and associations because they cannot establish “who is an athlete from who is not an athlete”. That statement validates my point.
Anthony, in a subtle way, indicated that his ministry did not spend much on athletes and, by extension, associations. His reason was that they are often in a quandary to determine to separate the athletes from those scam artists.
Well that should not have been a difficult task for the Ministry of Sport, which has access to the daily newspapers and can easily screen athletes with an easy call to the associations responsible for the disciplines that make requests.
Minister Anthony and his ministry must host another press conference where the detailed breakdown as to how they spent $139m on sport surfaces. My second question is: can the ministry produce a list of those that benefited from $90m worth of training?

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