media_artricles :: 2015

NAAA Coaches want $1M

With the NGC/Sagicor Open Track and Field Championships due to start on Saturday, several of the nation’s coaches are upset over outstanding payments owed to them.

The coaches said monies have been due since 2012 and though some payments have been made, they have not received any of the sum due to them for 2015. The amount owed is close to $25,000 per coach and well over $1 million.

At a meeting during the National Junior Championships on June 6, at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo, the coaches explained that initially they were paid by the NAAA on a monthly basis, then quarterly.

However, payments were delayed to investigate claims that some coaches were not coaching and that some clubs were claiming for additional coaches.

Present at the meeting was NAAA secretary Allan Baboolal who said Sportt was paying via the NAAA but this changed. He said the coaches were asked to submit bank account numbers to the NAAA which were given to Sportt.

Baboolal said Sportt took the decision to pay the outstanding sums quarterly rather than monthly.

He added that if the NAAA were to pay coaches from its subvention, the association would be short of funds to send national teams to upcoming international Championships.

“The strange and awkward thing is that the payment made in 2013 was taken out of the 2015 subvention. So if we submit a request for tickets for the Pan Am Juniors, Pan Am Games, World Youth, World Championships and Commonwealth Youth Games and we have $3 million, then how can we take out money from that to pay the coaches?”

He said: “We can’t take out from the 2015 allocation to pay for 2013 because we have not had monies (from the Sportt) for 2015.”

Baboolal further explained that the Sportt’s funding is part of the NAAA’s budget. “We have to find monies elsewhere to fulfill the demands for the current fiscal year.”

Coaches have asked why payments could not be made from funds which the NAAA was receiving from Adidas and other sponsors. One coach commented that the NAAA said there was a $2 million profit at the annual general meeting in November.

The coaches said NAAA president Ephraim Serrette was invited to the meeting but he did not attend. When contacted, Serrette said he was not happy with the non-payment and added that the relevant documents were forwarded to the Sportt for payment. Serrette said initially the stipends were paid to the clubs but some clubs did not have a structure and hence the monies were paid directly to the coaches.

Contacted executive manager, Sports Development and Performance at Sportt, Anthony Creed said the company provided funding to the NAAA and other sporting bodies but did not stipulate how the subventions were spent.

“It is up to them (NAAA) to determine how to spend the money. They have to prioritise based on their budget.”

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