DOCUMENTS sourced by Guyana Chronicle and confirmed by the National Sports Commission (NSC) have debunked allegations levelled against Director of Sports, Christopher Jones.

The allegations surfaced against Jones in one section of the media earlier this week.

Headlined “National Sports Commission Director allegedly pays assistant $3M for doing nothing”, the article accused Jones of misappropriation of the NSC’s funds, through his Assistant, Brian Smith.

Documents obtained by Guyana Chronicle, however, indicate that receipts totalling the sum given to Smith, was given to the NSC, including that from Chung’s Global Enterprise, Caliber Construction Company and Impressions.

The eight commissioners attached to the NSC were the first to rubbish the allegations in a signed statement to the media on Thursday when they stated that “the incidents so described (with specific reference to the matters relating to the Inter Guiana Games 2016) are within the knowledge and part of the remit of the NSC. To be abundantly clear there was an Inter Guiana Games Committee established to manage and oversee these Games, which was headed by member of the NSC, Commissioner Ms. Lavern Fraser.”

The commissioners pointed out that they are “extremely disheartened that allegations of corruption are being raised when everything was done above board”.

Meanwhile, Jones, the article alleged, had discussed with one NSC commissioner the granting of a $600,000 loan to the Guyana Baseball League for assistance with air travel.

On the granting of the loan, Jones, the article said, verbally assured the accounts department that the money would have been repaid.

When the repayment was not forthcoming and Jones was asked to clarify, he presented a letter from the Baseball League, stating that they were unable to make the repayment.

But, documents revealed that Robin Singh, the President of the Guyana Baseball League (GBL) had signed a ‘Promissory Note’, dated August 1, 2016, acknowledging his indebtedness to the NSC to the sum of $600,000 and would have repaid the aforementioned sum by November 1, 2016.

Singh, however, on February 2, 2017, upon thanking the NSC for assisting with their team’s participation at the U-21 Women’s Invitational in Halifax, Canada, said the GBL was experiencing “financial difficulty” and was unable to honour their obligation of repayment.

In Singh’s letter, he asked that the NSC consider a “Loan Forgiveness”, which would have allowed the GBL to focus on their Grassroots Programme.

The news outlet also claimed that Jones has been using his personal vehicle to do the work of the commission despite that entity owing its own vehicle. Jones, the article had claimed, then requested expenses from the NSC for the servicing of his vehicle and when fuel was bought for his vehicle the commission repaid him.

However, at a statutory meeting chaired by Ivan Persaud on October 22, 2015, Jones told the commission that the NSC, with regard to transportation, has two 32-seater buses, with one fully functional and a four-runner which he said is shared with the entity to carry out daily administrative duties.

He told the commission, in the minutes of the meeting obtained by Guyana Chronicle, that there’s a request for two more vehicles which he hoped would have been purchased in 2017.

It was then Jones made the request for provisions be made for him to have fuel purchased by the NSC to allow him to carry out his duties in the absence of an available vehicle.

Persaud then noted, and which was agreed at the meeting with the commissioners, that the work of the commission must be carried out and encouraged Jones to provide receipts for purchases made and he will be refunded.

Jones has since denied any wrong-doing, and had stated that he would welcome any investigation into the allegations levelled against him.