General Secretary of the T&T Football Association (TTFA) Sheldon Phillips says he is awaiting the results of the findings of a police investigation into fraud at the TTFA. Police are probing how the Sport Ministry’s funds was spent as well as $.4 million which was unaccounted for.
The TTFA is probing how to recover the funds, which were unaccounted for from a June trip to Argentina after a TTFA staff member allegedly asked for the money from Nissi Tours and Travel when he had no authority to do so. That was disclosed by Tourism Minister Gerald Hadeed on Friday. Hadeed was replying to an Opposition question in Parliament.
He said the TTFA official, Darren Millien had allegedly requested the money from the travel agency which had been engaged to arrange for the promotion trip to Argentina for a friendly football match with that country. Hadeed said the expenditure associated with the trip was $2.6 million, with the Tourism Ministry staff’s per-diem allowances costing a total of $22,059. He said the revenue received was $1.9 million.
Phillips said he chose not to comment further on the matter until the police presents their findings. On August 19, 2014, Phillips sent a Memorandum to the TTFA’s President Raymond Tim Kee, which the Sunday Guardian obtained. It brought to Tim Kee’s attention a series of concerns based upon the attached report submitted by Nissi Travel in relation to their coordination of our Argentina tour.
Phillips also included the general secretary Argentina Tour Report that was submitted to the executive committee. The claimed expenditure of $400,000 was never an approved expense. “The TTFA does not have a licencing fee structure in place to justify an expenditure of $400,000. Furthermore, and more troubling is that the claim of the alleged payment was described as a cash expenditure.”
Copies of the alleged receipts of $200,000, a piece as shown on pages 15 and 16 of the Nissi Tours and Travel Report, display two distinctly different signatures and both signatures on the receipt are acutely different from the signature of the individual Nissi Tours claims to have given the $400,000 in cash.
“I would also like to point your attention to page 17 of the Nissi Report, the folio for the Plaza Hotel. There is a considerable discrepancy on the total amount provided on page 17 compared to the expenditure amount as identified on page 2, line 9. In addition, the dates shown on the Plaza Hotel folio reflect a hotel stay from May 28 to June 6. The date of the Argentina was June 1-5.
“Based upon my findings and discussions, it appears Nissi Tours and Travel cannot justify their spend on a large portion of the funds they received from Ministry of Tourism grant via the TTFA. As a result, I recommend the submission of presented documentation to the authorities for their review.”
A letter was sent by Phillips on June 2, 2014, to Cavelle Regis George of Nissi Tours in Marabella, regarding the TTFA’s appropriation of $2.1 million to Nissi Tours. Phillips requested an audited report clearly explaining how Nissi Tours spent the funds sourced from the State as well as the funds realised and recognized from the public sale of the Argentina charter packages.
Part of the letter read: “The TTFA as a third party provider of services using said funds, the need for an accurate accounting of how those funds are being appropriated is of utmost importance to our organisation.”
On Monday, the TTFA issued a release which stated: “The TTFA wishes to clarify that at an emergency executive committee meeting called by TTFA President Raymond Tim Kee on Sunday, (November 30) the committee agreed to accept Darren Millien’s offer to voluntarily withdraw his services until the issues surrounding the Argentina tour have been resolved.”