Latest update November 8th, 2024 1:00 AM
Latest News
GOA’s spending reflects Guyana’s poor Olympic performances
By Edison Jefford
The expenditure of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) contained in its Financial
Juman Yassin
Statement for the year ending November 30, 2016 does not reflect direct spending on the development, and deliberate improvement, of athletes primarily in Guyana.
One of the fundamental functions of GOA is “to encourage the development of high performance sport as well as sport for all”. Because of that purpose, it is only reasonable to expect the funding that the association receives to deliberately impact athletes’ performance.
Two areas under the association’s expenditure for last year are relevant in this context: Coaching and Training Programmes and Games/Tournaments. The Financial Statement reported that GOA spent $21,757,621 on Coaching and Training last year.
The breakdown of how that sum was spent included: Scholarship Recipients $470,000; Coaching and Training Programmes $1,129,718; an Olympic Solidarity Training Programme $12,092,402; Pro Seminar $337,058; Women in Sport Seminar $1,960,443; Olympic/Pan American Training Expense $3,968,000 and Boxing Tournament $1,800,000.
The association spent $1.8 million on a boxing tournament, which it placed under its expenditure for Coaching and Training as opposed to Games/Tournaments. A discrepancy obviously exists in the placement of that sum under Coaching/Training Programmes.
The statement revealed that the sum spent for Games/Tournaments was $12,186,434, namely for two events: Olympic Games $10,517,723 and Olympic Day Jog/Events $1,668,711. Because of its role, Coaching/Training Programmes, and Games/Tournaments, should represent the principal percentage of the Olympic Association’s spending.
However, that is not the case. Through grants (that I will examine at a later date) GOA received a sum of $136,925,778 last year. If we add what should be the main focus of the association, in the development context of Guyana, Coaching/Training Programmes, and Games/Tournaments, total $33,944,055, which is about 25 percent of the $136,925,778 in grants GOA received.
That suggests that 25 percent of GOA income for last year, which was an Olympic year, with the Games held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was spent on its main purpose. The point is that there is no country that will win Olympic medals with a quarter of its annual budget being allocated to what ought to have been its primary goals: Coaching/Training/Games.
No wonder Guyana failed again in Rio. The approach was a pauperised one. Studies have shown in the past how much one Olympic medal cost. For Britain in 2016, each medal had an estimated cost of just under $4.1 million pounds sterling. In Guyana, the Olympic association spent around $134,000 pounds total and obviously hoped in vain for an Olympic medal.
Britain was second on the medals table in Rio last year for the first time in its history. It was no accident according to UK Sports Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Liz Nicholl; the total of £274m was doled out across all Olympic Sports during the four-year Rio cycle.
Additionally, Nicholl informed UK’s The Independent, that The British Olympic Association has already finalised a deal on a Tokyo Preparation Camp after three reconnaissance trips to Japan in 2016. Following that process, individual sport disciplines were asked to submit detailed plans for Tokyo to UK Sport by December last year.
The submission of those plans will determine for Britain, which is now an Olympic superpower, what investments are made for Japan. Back to the reality in Guyana; compare the GOA spending and vision with how Britain approached its performance at the Olympic Games.
In its Financial Statement under Expenditure, “Other” consumed the largest sum of $34,716,947, which was even more significant than the main functions of Coaching/Training/Games combined to the value of $33,944,055.
“Other” included: Conference Meetings $12,721,187; Official Visits and Entertainment $94,115; Rudolph Harper Long and Triple Jump $240,000; Caribbean Caucus Dues $200,000; Donations $19,585, 364; Appreciation Ceremony $1,291,759 and Hungary Course $584,522.
“Other” managed to secure around 26 percent of the total budget for 2016, which shows that it had more prominence than the main function. Ideally something is wrong with that arrangement in terms of priority and vision for investment in the development of athletes, which give rationale to Guyana’s continued underperformance at the Olympic Games.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
A lesson from the bread lines of America
…Peeping Tom Kaieteur News- If the American elections of 2024 delivered any one lesson to the rest of the world, it... more
Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – There is an alarming surge in gun-related violence, particularly among younger... more
Weekend Cartoon
