– newly elected GOA executives’ pay courtesy call on Sport Minister

By Clifton Ross
MINISTER of Culture, Youth & Sport, Charles Ramson Jr. has described the new Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) executive’s election as the “Dawn of a new era in sports”, with the potential to be the beginning of a Golden Age.

A courtesy call was paid in full during Thursday’s visit to the Ministry’s Main Street office.

Newly-elected GOA president, Godfrey Munroe, alongside his executive team, immediately sat down with Minister Ramson and National Sports Commission (NSC) Chairman, Kashif Muhammed, with an aim to mapping a way forward for the development of all sports in Guyana.

Potential to be golden era in sports
Ramson told the new executives that the move was decades in the making. He noted that with a strong, seasoned team which boasts individually and solid, transparent track-records as federation leaders, has the potential to kick-start this Golden Age of sports, where athletes can fly the Golden Arrowhead proudly and stand at podiums, being champions and ambassadors of Guyana.

“I’m very happy to meet with everyone (GOA executives). I can assure the committee of having a strong relationship with the Government of Guyana, one where we are all aligned. We are looking for our athletes to fly our flag high in best possible ways, because they are representing a nation of proud Guyanese People”.

“When we compete we don’t want to just attend, but we want our athletes to fly our flag and wear medals too”. “If you don’t have a strong collaborative relationship it will not work. Good relationships with the Government of Guyana, Ministry and NSC, is what is important,” Ramson outlined.

Transparency and accountability by Federations and Associations
On the topic of finances and the accountability which goes hand-in-hand, Minister Ramson was firm on the clarity needed going forward, not only to the government but to the Guyanese public, on how funds are used by these entities for the inevitable development of athletes and the sport sector, holistically.

He spoke on the importance of identifying plans and measures that the new GOA, with help from Government, will need to address going forward. He said identifying such plans are essential as he wants nothing more than the new team to successfully hit the ground running as soon as possible.

The minister further noted that the Government of Guyana is in a position to help all Guyanese and this includes its sport sector. Ramson outlined that the athletes will need the support of all stakeholders as it relates to them being fully-prepared and equipped when heading overseas as representatives.

The Sports Minister said he has never seen any financial records from the previous GOA body, but stressed that transparency is paramount and although it wasn’t a practice by Federations to make finances public things, that will soon change.

“Those financial statements required all form a part of a governance framework of accountability. It’s extremely important now that you have taken over the GOA that you hit the ground running. A lot of things align so it’s very important and they are opportunities for success.” said the Minister.

He went on to laud Munroe for his new role and wished him the best going forward. “You (Godfrey Munroe) deserve every bit of congratulations and I do so by extension of the Government of Guyana and the people. This comes with extremely important responsibility and there’s a lot of expectations now, having created a dawn of a new era”. The Minister stated.

Meanwhile, the NSC Chairman, Kashif Muhammed, had this to say, “Congratulations, the country has been looking forward to this for a long time. We have extremely competent people and we can take this to the next level and it’s your responsibility now. I think combining it with the government is great, this is the first time I’m seeing the government and GOA getting together along with NSC, and I think we can now help to unlock our athlete’s true potential.”

Wrapping up the courtesy call, Mr Munroe, on behalf of his new executive committee, thanked the Minister and the NSC Chairman for meeting with the new team while admitting that sports could truly be entering the dawn of a new era.