More but less for Ministry of Sport.
By: Juhel Browne (Express).
Less money has been allocated to the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs in the 2007 Budget than its estimated expenditure in the last financial year.
According to one of the Budget documents, Draft Estimates of Expenditure for the Financial Year 2007, the Sports Ministry has an estimated expenditure package of $427.4 million for the 2006/2007 financial year.
This is about $260.1 million less than its revised estimated expenditure of $687.5 million for the 2005/2006 financial year which covered part of the period that the national football team, officially dubbed the Soca Warriors, underwent their successful qualification campaign for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
The last financial year also covers the first round matches the Soca Warriors played at the World Cup.
The allocation for the 2006/2007 financial year, however, is about $22 million more than the estimated expenditure for the Sports Ministry in the 2005/2006 financial year.
In his 2007 Budget presentation in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Prime Minister Patrick Manning spoke of the Soca Warriors as he elaborated on his administration's plans for sporting activities during the next 12 months.
"Mr Speaker, the power of Sport to unite the country and build and transmit positive values and national pride are well established and undeniable. The achievements of our national football team-the Soca Warriors-over the last year attest to this," Manning said.
"Mr Speaker, the Government's policy in sport is consistent with engendering a basic philosophy which involves the participation of the entire population in some area of sporting activity. Traditionally excluded groups including, women, children, the elderly, and the differently-abled will now become active participants in all our sporting programmes."
He said the recently established Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago is spearheading this transformation and has mobilised its resources to develop, upgrade and rehabilitate a number of sporting facilities throughout the country.
"New facilities are being constructed in Diego Martin, Sangre Grande, Toco, Point Fortin, San Fernando, Arima and Santa Cruz. We will also construct a National Cycling Track, an Aquatic Centre and the National Tennis Centre," Manning said.
