… says board to be announced in not-too-distant future

AS Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson, presses on with his plans and vision to transform sports in Guyana, one particular area of importance – the National Sports Commission – will have to wait a little longer before Commissioners are installed and a Director of Sport is hired by the Commission.
The reason, according to Minister Ramson, is ensuring that the core leadership at the National Sports Commission (NSC) is satisfactory, while examining the work of the body of the last five years and ensuring that previous failures are not repeated so that sports can truly benefit.

Minister Ramson, asked by Chronicle Sport on the sidelines of his visit to the community of Agricola, yesterday, for an update on the NSC and the installation of the Commissioners, said, “If you have a board that hasn’t done anything, then you have got to get to the bottom as to why they have not done anything before hurried decisions are made.
The board hasn’t been functioning the way it should and it clearly requires leadership to make it function in the way that it is intended to.”
“A new leadership is necessary to make things function the way that it should,” Ramson said, while adding that he’s “not going to just aggressively appoint boards if they haven’t been working as they should.”

“I am the Minister responsible for the board, so I will have to account for their performance and their subvention that they will receive. So I have to be satisfied that the Commission will be functioning as it should and then be able to make the appropriate appointments as time goes by,” Ramson said.
The youthful minister was pleased to highlight that in the absence of the Commissioners and a Director of Sport, “sports now have the energy and the intensity and the passion being led by the ministry and we’re proud to know that we’re doing it this way. We’re going to be able to hand over to a Sports Commission in the not-too-distant future.”
In 1993, Samuel Hinds, in his capacity as acting President of Guyana at the time, assented to the National Sports Commission Act which was passed in the sitting of the Sixth Parliament on December 3 that year.

The Act was passed to make provisions for the establishment and functions of the National Sports Commission, which was identified to be responsible for, among other things, the promotion of sports and its organisation by all available methods including to make grants, provide for the establishment, erection and maintenance of sporting and other recreational facilities; to encourage, in cooperation with any sports organisation, the attainment of high standards in sports and to encourage the conduct of sporting activities in accordance with the national policy on sports.
Neil Kumar was the first to be named as Director of Sport and he served in that capacity from the establishment of the NSC, until the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) lost power in the 2015 Elections to the APNU+AFC coalition.

Christopher Jones was installed in the position in 2015. Howeverm following the March 2, 2020 elections, and the announcement of the return of the PPP/C Government on August 2, many have since been speculating as to who will be Guyana’s third Director of Sport in 27 years.
According to the National Sports Commission Act, Section 11 (1), “The Commission may, after consultation with the minister. employ upon such terms and conditions as it thinks fit a Director of Sport, and such other officers and employees as the Commission deems necessary for the proper carrying out of its functions.”

The Act outlines the Director of Sport as being the “Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, and subject to any general or specific directions of the Commission, be responsible to the Commission for ensuring that the functions of the Commission are properly discharged and objectives achieved.”
The Director of Sport shall be responsible for “managing the Secretariat of the Commission; managing the funds as directed by the Commission and preparing quarterly financial reports, accounts for presentation at meetings of the commission; causing minutes of meetings to be kept, and keeping members of the Commission informed, particularly by presenting an activity report at each meeting of the Commission.”