Commission: Football & Cricket Finances
[Updated with audio] Minister of Youth, Families and Sports Glenn Blakeney announced today [Sept.22] that there will be a Commission of Inquiry into how the millions of dollars in funding for football and cricket has been used.
The Government has made significant grant allocations to the Bermuda Football Association and the Bermuda Cricket Board, the respective governing bodies of Bermuda’s two national sports, over the last 6 to 7 years with the objective of improving the state of football and cricket in Bermuda.
3.5 minute audio of Minister Blakeney’s statement:
In recent years, the Bermuda Cricket Board has received special grant funding of over $10 million, while the Bermuda Football Association has received over $9 million in special grant funding, out of a total of the $15 million in special grant funding originally pledged.
The Commission, which compromises seven people including football legend Clyde Best, will conduct its review over an 8 week period from today through November 21st 2011, and will report to the Minister shortly thereafter.
29 minute audio of the Q&A with Minister Blakeney:
Minister Blakeney said, “Although the Inquiry is not a ‘public inquiry’, it is my intent to make the results of the Inquiry public, once I have received a report by the Commission.”
The Minister’s full statement follows below:
Good Afternoon,
Members of the public will be aware that the Government made significant grant allocations to the Bermuda Football Association and the Bermuda Cricket Board, the respective governing bodies of Bermuda’s two national sports, over the last 6 to 7 years with the objective of improving the state of football and cricket in Bermuda.
As the Minister responsible for Sports, I wish to announce today that I am establishing an independent Commission of Inquiry into Football and Cricket.
The main purpose of the Commission will be to conduct an independent inquiry to review the financial standing of the Bermuda Football Association and the Bermuda Cricket Board, with emphasis on an examination of how the special grant funding allocated to these two National Sport Governing Bodies over the last 6 to 7 years was used in respect of the continued development at all levels of the respective sports.
Although the Inquiry is not a ‘public inquiry’, it is my intent to make the results of the Inquiry public, once I have received a report by the Commission.
Government had originally pledged $15 million in special grant funding to the Bermuda Football Association over a five year period from 2007 to 2012. To date the BFA has received $9,250,000.00 in special grant funding, including $750,000 allocated for fiscal year 2011-2012.
Between 2005 and this current fiscal year, the Bermuda Cricket Board has received special grant funding of $10,100,000.00. This is in respect of a total pledge of $11 million over 5 years that Government originally made in 2005.
Whilst it is expected that these funds have been well spent based on annual reports received by the Department of Youth, Sport and Recreation, it is still important to have an independent Commission assess and review how the funds were spent and to report back to the Minister.
The Commission will be comprised of the following persons: Mr. William Madeiros (Chairperson); Mr. Donald Dane; Mr. Charlie Marshall; Mr. Sean Tucker; Mrs. Sheila Brown; Mr. Clyde Best; and Mr. Jeffrey Richardson.
The Commission shall also examine the extent to which the Bermuda Football Association and the Bermuda Cricket Board have used grant funding to address anti-social behaviours exhibited by athletes and spectators at sporting events sanctioned by each of these National Sport Governing Bodies.
The Commission shall conduct its review over an 8 week period from today through November 21st 2011, and will report to the Minister shortly thereafter.
I expect that the Commission will conduct its affairs promptly, and that their efforts will serve all stakeholders well, i.e. Government, the two National Sport Governing Bodies, and the whole of Bermuda.
Thank You.
The Terms of Reference for the Commission are below:
Preamble
The purpose of this document is to describe the terms of reference for a Commission of Inquiry into Football and Cricket, as established by the Minister of Youth, Families and Sports, Government of Bermuda in September 2011.
Establishment
- There shall be an independent body known as the Commission of Inquiry into Football and Cricket (“The Commission”), established by the Minister of Youth, Families and Sports, the Hon. Glenn A. Blakeney, JP MP.
- The Commission shall have effect from September 22nd 2011 to November 21st 2011.
- The Commission shall report directly to the Minister of Youth, Families and Sports and shall operate within the scope of these terms of reference.
- The Boardroom located on the 4th Floor of the Dame Lois Browne Evans Building situated at 58 Court Street shall be made available to the Commission from time to time upon request for the conduct of its meetings.
- The members of the Commission shall operate strictly on a volunteer basis, with no remuneration to be received for their work from Government or any other sources.
- The Ministry of Youth, Families and Sports will make available to the Commission appropriate secretarial services to facilitate its work.
Composition
- The Commission shall be comprised of a seven (7) member panel appointed by the Minister of Youth, Families and Sports.
- The Minister of Youth, Families and Sports appoints the following persons to the Commission: William Madeiros (Chairperson); Donald Dane; Charlie Marshall; Sean Tucker; Sheila Brown; Clyde Best; and Jeffrey Richardson.
- The Commission shall meet as often it deems necessary in order to complete the Inquiry.
- A quorum of four (4) members is required to hold a valid meeting.
- The Commission shall select a Deputy Chairperson by consensus at its first meeting.
Functions
- The Commission shall conduct an independent Inquiry to review the financial standing of the Bermuda Football Association and the Bermuda Cricket Board.
- In particular, the Commission shall examine how the special grant funding allocated to the Bermuda Football Association and the Bermuda Cricket Board during the period 2005/06 to 2011/12 was used in respect of the continued development at all levels of the respective sports, including but not limited to administration, youth development, infrastructure, coaching, equipment and security.
- The Commission shall examine the extent to which the Bermuda Football Association and the Bermuda Cricket Board have used grant funding to address anti-social behaviours exhibited by athletes and spectators at sporting events sanctioned by each of these National Sport Governing Bodies.
Access and Confidentiality
- The Commission shall request, and shall have access to pertinent reports and information held by the Department of Youth, Sport and Recreation, the Bermuda Football Association and the Bermuda Cricket Board in order to enable a full review of the disposition of Government grant funding during the period specified in 1.2 above.
- The Commission shall be afforded the opportunity to interview persons connected with the Bermuda Football Association and the Bermuda Cricket Board for the purposes of this Inquiry.
- The Commission shall maintain complete confidentiality with regard to the Inquiry, and shall not disclose to any person any information that it has been granted access to, either during or after the conduct of the Inquiry, without the express written consent of the Minister of Youth, Families and Sports.
It was used to buy votes. That’s all it ever was.
Like so many government efforts, they lobbed money over the wall but never really had a plan or tracked progress to goals. So the money was frittered away.
Bout time the PLP decided to get serious about all this crap. I don’t know how the hell you spend $10MM on cricket!!! When the rot is at the top, then we end up with this. Good luck to Minister Blakeney
Hmmm!!
See the quickly declining amounts given to football, post that specific election and you just might be inclined to agree with Sandy…
Ewart’s plan worked, election was won, lots of money was issued in the immediate aftermath and than, poof, money dries up / diverted to areas where the returns were, let’s just say, more personal..
notice its not a public inquery but he is going to make sure that we hear a crock of s^%t about how these guys spent it….a bunch of bs is all this is
Chart—I suggest that you make the effort to seek copies of the BFA’s strategic plan, business plans and audited annual reports. These plans where not only provided to the Minsiter, all member clubs, sponsors and to the gneneral public.The strategic/business plan was diretly tied to golals and objectives and allocated funding. Don’t be typial–do a little leg work and guess what–the answers are in writing.
Fine. The BFA should make them public.
Maybe we could put a little of that money towards golf.
any money towards golf would help….we at this moment have Nick Jones and Daniel Augustus in second place at the world cup qualifier and they are the youngest team…….and yet golf get no funding from government…….cricket and soccer receive ridiculous money and both sports are riddled with drugs and violence……what a good example by our government…how can you support leagues that allow players whom fail drug tests to represent our country but still allowed to play in the league?..
What about track and field….those athletes represent the island on a national level and bring home results. They don’t get millions.
agreed 11 million could have helped a lot of sports that would have gotten better results and the island would have been represented across the globe…track, triathalon,tennis,sailing, etc..they could have all done well with just a small piece of that 11 million
after seeing the quick decline in these 2 sports, perhaps its a good thing that Government is not involved with Golf.
It’s the Ministers intent to release the report! That just means that he will read it first and then decide if he wants to release it. Perhaps he could be more definative and say he WILL release the report. Its MY money and YOUR money that has been wasted, we deserve to know.
Duh! The Minister knows how football spent their money and the reasons why. Today and without having to ask any questions, he could release that information to the public, which begs the question, why doesn’t he?
More importantly, why doesn’t the govt tell us more about the problems associated with the Great Sea Wall at Dockyard or why the BIU were allowed to renege on the 5 million dollar bond or why Berkeley was built, not to mention the tens of millions wasted on that fiasco or the Emissions friends and family situ or why hundreds of thousands of dollars have been paid to Rolfe, Santucci and now former Minister Webbe for dubious reasons, to say the least or why hundreds of thousands of dollars were wasted, 700k to be exact on the tourism sanctioned Monitor led BATT report that is collecting dust or, or, or..
How I long for Patti.
Seems she’s not considered good enough for Bermuda though.
This should be…….FUN….
More consultants
More monies wasted
Will Ewart Brown be asked to attend
Previous Ministers
It’s all spin………
It’s election time……..
Don’t you guys get it?
All these things happening is a diversion of where the F..ng went…………………….
I would like to have an investigation opened into the affairs of Dr. Ewart Brown to consider how he spent the country’s money while he was in office. His name is linked to so many questionable issues that it’s almost ridiculous not to investigate.
BAWAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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Two scoops of Uighers and a package of (Marthas Vineyard) ‘Raisin’ brand………………………………………………………….
Bermuda does not have extradition with the US……………………………….BAWAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
How many more investigations would you like ? At this stage we’re having investigations of the investigations.
Well.. we have an overseas territories guy coming to Bermuda !!!Mr, Henry Bellingham….I and others are wondering if there is more to this visit that meets the eye ?
To Henry Bellingham, after you review the pathetic state of affairs in this country, please do not hesitate to invoke the powers, as the UK did in Turks and Caicos, to bring this country under UK rule until such time as an Ethical and Effective Government and a useful Opposition Party can be formed from the Bermudian people.
SOS
I agree with you Kim …but Paula allowed Brown to get away with these questionable issues…and I can not understand why she did this !!!!she will go down in the history of Bermuda as the worst Premier that Bda has ever had….and I agree with you she should be investigated…..we thought that it was bad with Brown as our leader !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I PRAY TO THE GOOD LORD THAT THIS LADY WILL RESIGN…. enough is enough……
They should have an enquiry into the ‘No-Accountable -General……………………
Now that would get the Smoking Gun extinguished…..
“In recent years, the Bermuda Cricket Board has received special grant funding of over $10 million, while the Bermuda Football Association has received over $9 million in special grant funding, out of a total of the $15 million in special grant funding originally pledged.”
SOOOO… Where did the other $4Million come from?
Football was granted 6.5 over 4 years -
Yr 1 – 3 million
Yr 2 – 1.5 m,illion
Yr 3 – 1 million
Yr 4 – 750K
Ps..the results from the inquiry will run something like this
“Althought some of the money spent was done so in a Questionable manner, nothing illegal was found. In the future we will be more careful and more accountable at distributing funds.” End of inquiry…
You forgot to mention the word “Transparency” to the process.
LOL
didn’t want them to over reach….lol
WOW!!
This Govt is fully aware what was planned, budgeted for and spent on football…They were issued a comprehensive strategic plan, that was also posted on the BFA website. This plan was discussed with Govt prior to implementation and was positively received. They were issued monthly statements that were prepared by a qualified accountant. These statements succinctly identified how the money was spent and against which approved objectives. Not unlike what is done in well run companies. They also received audited statements on an annual basis, therefore requesting this data, and in this very public & accusatory manner, is misleading, confusing and insulting.
Not sure what the end game is however this is nothing more than a poorly crafted witch hunt and massive deflection. The Minister & Premier / Finance Minister should be spending their time on more important matters to include determining how the West End Dolphins get to play Marco Polo in their 3 Million dollar lagoon…
Listen, there will always be questions and or concerns about a specific direction / course that those in charge of any organization want to chart and I fully appreciate that, however what is being done here is amateurish and distasteful.
What a bunch of nonsense. Speaking for football…
The ministry, the minister, the Accountant General and everyone else in between know exactly where the money was spent. They have numerous documents sitting in their departments.
1. The strategic plan submitted to get the initial grant
2. The revised strategic plan submitted in 2008
3. The quarterly reports that were required before payments are processed
4. The audited financial statements for each year that have been submitted.
Minister, you could start by reading those documents and telling the public where the money was spent or you could make the documents public. Stop with the games.
The funding solution is simple, allocate the same amount of funding per registered athlete. based on the funding allocated for football and cricket it would be approximaetly $1500 per athlete.
The inquiry is another waste of time or maybe just looking for votes.
For future money dished out..if we ever find any…..instead of giving out 11 million for teams/people to jet set across the globe, how about bring the athletes here to Bermuda…running/track races, golf tournaments(not showcases like the PGA Grand Slam), triathalons, etc…these sorting events bring in thousands of people. The 11 million would have brought in 20 to 50 thousand tourists….the 11 million in prize funds would have at least being circulated back into the economy with each athlete spending hundreds if not thousands to stay on the island…not to mention ticket sales etc….
Also with these sports venues in our back yard kids can witness first hand what it taks to be the best nd could be introducedto sports they may not normally have experienced..
True dat der larry!!!
They are barking up the wrong tree. 20+M is nothing compared to what you know who probably took. Another smokescreen. Where are you Freddy Wade!!
The Minister is well aware that the BFA paid for the installation of CCTV at selected grounds and at considerable cost…he is aware that significant monies are paid to cover the cost of security at BFA games …he knows full well that the FA financed Match Stewards and ensures that police officers are present at high profile matches…he would be aware that there is a close work relationship with the police as it relates to identifying areas of concern and addressing same…in fact he would know that a police officer sits on the FA’s security comm..he is fully aware that over the past 3 years incidents at football games have been reduced significantly while violence in Bermuda during the same period increased at an alarming rate…
This inquiry suggest that the PLP have real concerns about the upcoming election..why else would they resort to cheap theatrics when the answers they say they seek are located in their file cabinets…
hammer meet nail head
pure politics.
a move to give the minister a platform to grandstand from…and if he can make others look bad at the same time, well that’s a bonus…
A commission into how so few rats ate all that cheese .
Look here. Not there!
If its monies from the Public Purse then shouldn’t all inquires be made Public?
Of this commission is anyone actually a CA, or CPA? just wondering.
Hello .. The Govt. have received annual audited reports and the accounting is basic – In short,I the Govt give you the BFA X dollars and you the BFA spent X dollars against Y approved objectives.
Why do you need a CPA for that??????
Too little too late, why bother ? This is a grand waste of time and possibly more (scarce) funds. The horse has already bolted…..The next time the Sports Ministry are going to throw away funds please,please remember the other sporting bodies out there, awww well wishing thinking….
In both sports their plans were flawed – they needed to start with the youth not sending old guys to events that did not have a rat’s arse chance of winning.
Look at sailing and swimming both youth derived programmes and showing results.
Do not have much hope with some of the members of the commission as one of the m has mis-lead the NSC/Gumment on which pool design/build is best for Bermy??
You obviously havent seen the plans. Take the blinders off.
OMG – OMG!!! So you really haven’t read the BFA strategic plan, right?
I get and support the idea that other sports should have been granted additional funds, however to suggest that there isn’t significant long term thinking / planning associated with the BFA strategy is pure folly and in truth, opportunistic mischief making.
And no I don’t support the expenditure of 10 + millions of dollars on the new additions at the National Sports Complex and this was long before the melt down of our economy. Nor did I agree 9 and still don’t ) with the excessive amount of money allocated to cricket and football, when it was clearly an election ploy.