Something’s amiss at Cycling Federation

Aug 02, 2012 Sports

By Edison Jefford
Some aspects of the administration of the Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF) seem to be amiss according to a well-placed source, who spoke to Kaieteur Sport yesterday under the condition of anonymity because of the individual’s portfolio in the sport.
The insider raised the issue of the absence of the Federation’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) for this year, which was appropriated to the belief that there may be serious questions that will be asked about their management of funds from fees and fund-raisers.
“Every year, the Federation is supposed to hold an AGM based on the constitution; the meeting was supposed to have been in March, but that was postponed. They have published to host the meeting, but it is unlikely that it will happen because there are a lot of questions that they have to answer relative to the Federation’s finances,” the source indicated.
“Once they continue to postpone the AGM, according to the constitution, it will make the current Federation null and void. Next year is the elections, but once clubs and stakeholders are not up to date with the business of the association then it’s null and void; they know that clubs will call for certain information that they just don’t have,” the individual continued.
The inside source told this newspaper that the federation has been functioning without a treasurer for some time and has recalled William Howard to the post in an effort to “tidy up” the books. It was disclosed that Howard made some startling discoveries in this process.
The informant stated that Howard went to the Bank that holds the Federation’s account recently and was told there were no monies deposited into the account since the last administration was in office, despite the GCF retrieval of fund-raising profits and sanction fees.
“The Federation collects $2000 per race as sanction fees. Hassan (Mohamed) alone has 38 races in a year; they have now started to collect a $1000 from each rider that turns up to ride without a local team or club jersey. Where are these fees going?” the source asked.
“They had a fund-raising bar-b-que last August to send a senior team to Jamaica; the team went, but they still had to find most of their money. The man who was responsible for that fund-raiser cannot show us a statement from that event until now. If cyclists had to find most of their monies to compete in Jamaica, yet the bar-b-que made a profit, where did the money go if it is not in the Bank account,” the person again questioned.
The informant said financial issues threatens to embroil the Federation again this month when it holds a fund-raising raffle to send a nine-man team to Santo Domingo this month end. The team will require about $2.2M, according to our inside informant.
However, the raffle will raise just about $1M if all goes well, but the federation is still asking the cyclist to pay their own way. “Each cyclist will need about US$980 to make the tour. You cannot pick a team and then tell cyclists if they raise their own money they could go when you are still moving ahead with a fund-raiser,” the source added.
According to the individual, some things do not add up when it comes to the Federation financial management. The source said there seems not to be any clear paper trail and record of all monies that the Federation handles and this needs to be clarified immediately.
In addition, it is alleged that a high-ranking official of the GCF has been hiding correspondences if it has nothing to do with her son, who is a cyclist. The source informed that Robin Persaud and Alonzo Greaves were both invited to compete in Trinidad and Tobago recently.
Upon the receipt of this information, the GCF official enquired from Trinidad and Tobago why her son is not among the two riders named. The source said Trinidadian officials told the official that her son could compete but would have to fund his own participation.
That feedback did not sit well with the official, who allegedly purposely ducked the participation of Greaves and Persaud. The source said these matters need to be addressed immediately, noting the Federation’s unwillingness to host its AGM to deal with the issues.

Latest News

Something’s amiss at Cycling Federation

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 6th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

CWI Cricket West Indies suspends Alzarri Joseph for two matches

ExxonMobil Futsal Championship heats up in Linden

Harpy Eagles left frustrated by weather once...

Lennox Blackmore National Intermediate C/ship...

All-round Jaguars clinch 3-wicket win over...

GSLT20 ticket sales begin tomorrow at the local...

Features/Columnists

A lesson from the bread lines of America

Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all

Democrat, autocrat, despot

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Something’s amiss at Cycling Federation

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 6th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]