GOVERNMENT has to ensure that all sports and federations in Guyana are governed under best practices, transparency and accountability, ex Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Gail Teixeira remarked yesterday.

Teixeira, now Presidential Advisor on Governance, was speaking in the context of the long-awaited Cricket Bill that is soon to be tabled in the National Assembly and was filling in for Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon at the usual post-Cabinet media briefing.

The introduction of this Bill is in keeping with an agreement made in February this year at the level of the Inter-Parliamentary Party Dialogue (IPPD). The three parties had agreed that there was need for a governance framework for the administration of cricket in Guyana.
The IMC held widespread consultations with the cricket boards in the three counties, and these discussions were taken into account in the drafting of this piece of legislation.
Teixeira dismissed a recent article which stated the West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB’s) rejection of this legislative intervention as a “storm in a teacup”.
She explained that it is not unusual where a body that was not covered by a legislative instrument is dissolved and recreated under an Act so that it has legitimacy.
With regards to the WICB’s contention as it relates to the Minister’s role as provided for in the proposed legislation, she said that it is necessary for all sporting bodies in Guyana to be governed by best practices so as to ensure transparency and accountability.
“They acquire funds from people, whether it is from the taxpayers, directly through the Ministry and/or from the private sector and fundraising, and therefore they must be accountable,” she said.
Making further reference to the WICB’s disregard for Guyana’s judicial rulings and their insistence to recognise the discredited Guyana Cricket Board (GCB),  Teixeira said: “They have left the door open for a new dispensation to develop, particularly the Cricket Bill and its schedule that includes a constitution for the GCB. In essence, we are thinking that the WICB wouldn’t conceivably be saying to Guyanese and the Administration … we are running cricket in Guyana the way we feel like.”
Speaking at Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown, Teixeira said: “We cannot be talking about these things (transparency and accountability) only in relation to government. It must also involve the non-governmental sectors of society, including the private sector, labour unions and the sports bodies.”
These sectors acquire funds from people and hence must be held accountable, she remarked.
“We also have a duty to protect the people operating in this sector. There must be somebody you can appeal to when something goes wrong in sports. And it’s about time that the WICB, also, have greater disclosure.”
According to her, Cabinet has insisted that ‘A Partnership for National Unity’ (APNU) and the Alliance for Change (AFC) receive copies of the bill prior to its tabling. Furthermore, she said the Culture Ministry and the Interim Management Committee (IMC), awaiting Clive Lloyd’s return, will be convening a meeting early in the coming week with the three parliamentary parties to examine it.