Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 22, 2010 Sports
Fundraising must be part of mandate
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony believes that it is necessary for national sport associations to ‘raise’ money for events as opposed to wholly depending on Government for the requisite funding when in need.
Anthony stopped one breath short of labelling administrators as lazy when he spoke at the Award Ceremony of the Athletics Association of Guyana recently. He said that coming to Government for financial support is a shortcut.
“A lot of people feel that you take the easy way out. That is, you come to Government for a bankroll of your activity. Things do not happen that way,” Anthony said as he doggedly attempted to address some of the topical criticisms.
The Ministry has been consistently criticised in this section of the media for not leading a more clear and visible effort on the developmental fronts of sport. Their support for some teams has been heavily chastised in recent reports.
The Guyana Rugby Football Union is the most outstanding case in the not so distant past. The Union had not received the support from the Government when they were attempting to raise funds for their Caribbean title defence in Mexico.
Even when the team returned successful, the Ministry was slow to act and did not send an admiration note until it was highlighted that they had not done so in this newspaper. What they followed with was to blame the error on protocol.
President of the Guyana Olympic Association, K A Juman Yassin joined in the call for an overwhelming support for national teams when he said that in his assessment of 2008 and 2009, Government did not do much for touring teams.
“The difficulties I have is that when you examine the years 2008 and 2009, the grants and monies that have been given to associations in terms of sending teams abroad have been minimal…”, Yassin had observed at the same forum.
However, Anthony is of the view that most associations undermine their chances of being able to cash in with poor organisational structures. He said few of them have budgets and a vision of what they want to accomplish each year.
“If I am going to be running an association, I will have my vision as this is what I want to accomplish in this time and I will set up a proposal of what I will be doing and I will cost it and then see where I will raise the money,” he said.
“You have to have a proper budget and maybe you will get some money. You will not get all of the money. You will get some but you have to demonstrate that you have a practical plan of what you are going to do,” Anthony continued.
According to the Minister, it would not be possible for the Government to bankroll all the national associations. He said they just do not have the money to do that, but yet it is first on the list of methods of fund-seeking for associations
“I have heard a lot of those associations, and the constant thing is that we have to come to the Government to get funding. When we sit at the Ministry it’s not like we don’t want to give any particular association money” he said.
Additionally, Anthony informed that his ministry looks at ways in which they will get the most from any investment. He indicated that it is only logical that monies are spent on the areas that Government is guaranteed “maximum returns”.
At a separate forum, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport revealed that it spent $139 million on the development of sport last year. Another section of the print media reported that $90m of that $139m was spent on training.
In addition to that $139m, which was spent out of a budgeted Current Expenditure for the fiscal year of 2009 amounting to $150, 945, 000, the National Sports Commission got the sum of $270m as Capital Expenditure for three areas.
Capital Expenditure is money set aside for special projects, and those that the $270m was expected to offset include “Construction of Swimming Pool, Upgrading of Sports Facility and the Purchase of Sports Gear and Equipment”.
The pool is still in its infancy in terms of construction while works on the facility located on Woolford Avenue has also commenced. Anthony said that those were priority areas in the last year and the evidence is for everyone to see.
In addition, Anthony informed that the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and Gymnasium were on the receiving end of rehabilitation works last year. He said that if criticisms are fair, he would like them to say that his ministry has been trying.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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