NSC shrouded in secrecy

Jun 16, 2013 Sports

By Edison Jefford
The National Sports Commission (NSC) has been in the public domain through programmes for eons, yet the internal operations of this constitutionally described public sport institution remains shrouded in immense secrecy despite its recent resurrection.
According to the NSC Act 1993, the Minister of Sport has the unilateral authority with approval from Parliament to order the formation of the Commission, which occurred recently, without the courtesy of public disclosure for sport associations and aficionados.

Frank Anthony

Kaieteur Sport was reliable informed that the members of the Commission have been meeting on a regular basis and will continue to meet to enact a National Sports Policy that has also been kept out of public domains.
The minister also has sole power to appoint NSC members, which must not be less than six nor more than eleven in numbers and shows knowledge and “experience of, and shown capacity in, matters relating to sports generally”.
Conrad Plummer was appointed NSC Chairman, which again, according to the NSC Act 1993, is a decision of the minister. It is not clear whether Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony acted in his constitutional capacity regarding the new Commission.
The other members of the most recent Commission are Vidushi Persaud, who is an Attorney-at-Law; Shawn Richmond (a senior Guyana Revenue Authority official); Hector Edwards (former Guyana Cycling Federation President); Dr. Pradeep Balram (Vice-President of the Guyana Table Tennis Federation); Steve Ninvalle (Assistant Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports); Peter Abdool (Guyana Boxing Board of Control President); Frank DeAbreu (Head of DeSinco Trading); Cheryl Thompson (Guyana Cycling Federation President); Alisha Fortune (former national sprinter) and Peter Greene (Rugby/Powerlifting head).
“The names of the members, including the Chairman as first constituted and every change in the membership thereof shall be published in the Gazette,” the NSC Act 1993 states. The Gazette is a public document that would have exposed the above names, which was not done apart from the anomaly of not formally introducing the members of the Commission to the media.
The members are appointed for no less than two years and may be reappointed at the discretion of the minister. The Commission after consultation with the Minister has the authority to appoint a Director of Sports to properly discharge its functions.
The Director of Sports then becomes the Chief Executive Officer of the Commission. However, without a properly constituted Commission between 2009-2013, the ministry has had a Director of Sports identified as Neil Kumar.
As described in the NSC Act 1993, the Director of Sports ought to be an officer the Commission employs at its discretion and not a political appointee. First among the four responsibilities of the Director of Sport, is managing the Secretariat of the Commission.
“Ideally, the Director of Sport should be a Public Servant and not a politician, which will allocate more time for him to deal with the development of sport and the execution of NSC functions and not all the politicking we see from the current Director,” a ministry source told this newspaper in a brief comment.
According to information received, the Director of Sport operates in contravention of the rules of the NSC and makes decisions that the minister should make according to the NSC Act of 1993; it was disclosed that the Director of Sport acts unilaterally of the Commission.
The constitution of the NSC is pellucid; the structure ideally should be the minister as head, who appoints the Commission with its Chairman and members. The Commission then in consultation with the minister appoints the Director of Sport. It is for Anthony to decide whether or not, what is constitutionally defined is being followed within his ministry.

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