Spending on Sports

A total of $417 million is expected to be spent this year on young people and sports as least that is what the 2010 National Budget says. But is this money directly benefiting our thousands of young people?

Is there adequate funding for games, sports, recreational activities, sports clubs?
Here is the answer. We have dissected the $417 million and examine what this money will be spent on for the remaining of this year.

We found:
- No sporting programme will be funded
- No clubs are listed to be funded by government
- No new projects would be undertaken for sports and youth
- And, Government will not be funding any sporting groups’ participation in tournaments overseas.

It is all the in 2010 National Budget!

So what would the taxpayers money be spent on?:
- Out of the more than $400m, is given the PPP Lackey Neil Kumar managed National Sports Commission.
- This sum is expected to:
1. Complete the 2-year old National Swimming Pool,
2. Complete an athlete track (where was an athletic track being built, by whom and who tendered for it, what a strange allocation),
3. Rehabilitate and upgrade Colgrain Pool (same allocation was made in the 2009 National Budget, somebody is lying!)
4. Construct a fence for the National Sports Commission (but this Commission is housed in the Culture, Youth and Sports, do they mean that the Ministry needs a new fence? We are lost)
5. Construct a guard Hut in Compound of the National Gymnasium (well this is at least a $50 million contact!)
6. And finally, purchase sports gear and equipment (for whom really?)

To balance off the more than $400 million allocation-a pittance of $25 million would be spent on minor works on the Smythfield Drop in Centre, Construction of a trestle/bathroom at Madewini Youth Camp and ohhh purchase more equipment and sports gear.

As the government parades as one that championed the cause of Young people for more than 1 decade we would like to remind them of a few things that they have left out:
1. Durban Park is still a dream after millions of dollars from the Lotto Fund was spent to clear and sand fill it
2. Hundreds of play grounds and parks around the City have gone to waste
3. No cycling track yet
4. A synthetic track still to come for hockey etc
5. Tennis court and swimming pool are still under construction - more than two years for each
While
6. Mass migration of coaches and sports professionals continue and
7. Mass migration of athletes continue

Finally, lets all ask Lumumba to stop pretending to inject funds into Football Clubs and honestly do it. Save our youth.

TAP! TAP! Tap dancing the turn around plan!

Tap dancing seems more descriptive of GuySuCo TAP (turn around plan). Every year they come up with a new plan (blueprint, strategy, Business plan...you name it...like the movies..names and names), that is, 'till they realize they were dancing their way through a self-created maze. So they aptly named the last one, TAP.

Lets look at the art of dancing in the TAP.

While Guysuco is pretending that it is a worker oriented company that cares about the well being of the thousands of Sugar workers, these workers must remember a couple of things. Everyone knows about the low wages and salaries, harsh working conditions and refusal of the company to address several issues affecting workers.

But, workers must now remember PAGE 4 of the much talked-about Guysuco Turn Around Plan (2009-2013).

Int his plan, the Company proposes the transfer of community and health centres to the Government! Yes the government who already cannot pay its nurses and doctors much less care and run some of the community centers it has under its wings.

It is more than likely the heavily subsidized Sugar Company is trying to ease itself of some of the financial strains and at the same time accumulate some finances.

We know about the sales of lands to friends and family (oh NICIL!) and the disposal of Hermanston House and other so-called "non-performing assets"(one wonder if they had an opportunity to sell human beings too, what would happen)

But back to the ‘transfer’ of these centers to the Government. How is this exactly in the interest of the workers?

Let's point out a few things first, Nowhere in the Government's 2010 Budget (under the Culture Ministry) has sums been allocated for the operating and runs of ANY Community Centre, government or otherwise. A measly $25 million has been allocated for just a few youth oriented Training Centers and none of those are related to Guysuco.

We are sure that with this plan being presented in 2009, the government’s move to ‘help’ Guysuco out would have been calculated as catered for in the 2010 budget. (fishy)

There is no budgetary allocations for the take over or operations of new centers in the Budget under the Health Ministry either!

Now the never-in-tune Minister Bheri Ramsarran wanted to fool the country when said that the Government is ‘taking away’ the Health Centers from Guysuco.

GAWU was quick to tell public that it never had any discussion about the government ‘take over’ of the health centers and that Ramsarran’s statement was ‘factually incorrect, and misleading’ (GAWU SAID that).

GAWU put over perfectly what we want to ask the government in that statement, it said that it “wonders whether the pressure of work, the already challenging state of government health services or an outright intention to undermine the two unions (NAACIE and GAWU) credibility is responsible for this false figment of the Minister’s imagination”

We wonder when the dancing will stop and the turn around of Guyana will start.