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Author Topic: Life Sport programme Thread.  (Read 35789 times)

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Offline Deeks

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Re: Life Sport programme Thread.
« Reply #120 on: October 25, 2016, 09:24:35 PM »
There is un-controverted evidence that the CAC promised an exit meeting,” Justice Dean-Armorer said, adding that by not meeting with Creed and the others before the report was submitted, the audit team breached the legitimate expectation of the subjects of the report and it was on this basis she ordered said report be quashed.


From Newsday. What a waste.

Offline Bourbon

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Re: Life Sport programme Thread.
« Reply #121 on: October 25, 2016, 09:37:07 PM »
So.

A procedural error on the part of the ex-PM Kamla Persad-Bisessar...caused this report and any possible case to be thrown out.
As soon as it thrown out....one of the main persons rouses from his slumber to bray....claiming vindication.


Yuh really eh feel some people rubbing shit in we mouth and telling we is butter?

The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today are Christians who acknowledge Jesus ;with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

Offline Flex

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Re: Life Sport programme Thread.
« Reply #122 on: October 26, 2016, 11:50:57 AM »
AG: LifeSport still alive
By SEAN DOUGLAS (Newsday)


THE multi-million dollar LifeSport programme is still being investigated.

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi disclosed yesterday in reaction to a ruling on Monday by a High Court judge which quashed an audit report of the programme, which was taken to Parliament by the People’s Partnership government under then Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar. Al-Rawi blamed Persad-Bissessar for Monday’s court outcome, citing her premature laying of the audit report in Parliament in July 2014.

Al Rawi said that a Senior Counsel ought to know that natural justice says an acccused person has the right to be heard.

Al-Rawi said the ruling upheld only five out of 14 grounds argued by the claimants. These were: that a breach of natural justice had occurred, that legitimate expectations had been breached, that the claimants had not been informed nor given the right to be heard, a grant of the order of certiorari (quashing the report), and the award of legal costs. Otherwise, he said, other investigations into Life Sport are still alive - including a probe by the police, even as he suggested reporters could ask the Integrity Commission about the probe it is conducting. Al-Rawi neither confirmed nor denied if Government will appeal Justice Mira Dean-Armorer’s ruling, a written version of which he is awaiting.

Al-Rawi recapped that under Life Sport, half-billion dollars was dubiously spent, amid allegations of murder, corruption, bid-rigging and fraud, some issues including several public officials. The Ministry of Finance’s Central Audit Committee (CAC) had probed all aspects of Life Sport, after which Persad-Bissessar, laid it in the Lower House in July 2014. Al-Rawi said that former Finance Minister, Larry Howai had been specifically told that the allegations must be presented to the alleged wrongdoers. Al-Rawi said Persad- Bissessar should have known that premature publication - without a chance of reply - would result in breaches of the law.

“She went on to give the claimants the very card that found itself face up,” the AG said. The AG said the rules of an internal audit mandate that parties must be told of the possibility of adverse findings and that an exit interview be done, the latter which had been promised to all witnesses for the suspects. The AG alleged that even when former Ministry of Sport Permanent Secretary (PS) Ashwin Creed, later sat as Head of the Public Service as PS in the Office of the Prime Minister under Persad-Bissessar, no action was taken to send the LifeSport report to the Public Service Commission (PSC), until the PNM took office.

Al-Rawi said that just because the High Court had quashed the official audit report into LifeSport, that does not stop other investigations from proceeding, as the subject matter that gave rise to the report still exists. He spoke later of over-billing and a doubling up of invoices. “There are other matter around Life Sport that are getting attention,” the Attorney General said. Al -Rawi warned that certain person(s) should not be so quick to think they can walk away from the LifeSport allegations. “I’d not be as comfortable as these with their newfound bravery,” he said.

(See Page 5) Attempts yesterday by Newsday to contact Persad-Bissessar, Howai and several Opposition-linked attorneys for comment on the AG’s claims, were unsuccessful.

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline Flex

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Re: Life Sport programme Thread.
« Reply #123 on: October 26, 2016, 11:51:30 AM »
AG: LifeSport still alive
By SEAN DOUGLAS (Newsday)


THE multi-million dollar LifeSport programme is still being investigated.

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi disclosed yesterday in reaction to a ruling on Monday by a High Court judge which quashed an audit report of the programme, which was taken to Parliament by the People’s Partnership government under then Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar. Al-Rawi blamed Persad-Bissessar for Monday’s court outcome, citing her premature laying of the audit report in Parliament in July 2014.

Al Rawi said that a Senior Counsel ought to know that natural justice says an acccused person has the right to be heard.

Al-Rawi said the ruling upheld only five out of 14 grounds argued by the claimants. These were: that a breach of natural justice had occurred, that legitimate expectations had been breached, that the claimants had not been informed nor given the right to be heard, a grant of the order of certiorari (quashing the report), and the award of legal costs. Otherwise, he said, other investigations into Life Sport are still alive - including a probe by the police, even as he suggested reporters could ask the Integrity Commission about the probe it is conducting. Al-Rawi neither confirmed nor denied if Government will appeal Justice Mira Dean-Armorer’s ruling, a written version of which he is awaiting.

Al-Rawi recapped that under Life Sport, half-billion dollars was dubiously spent, amid allegations of murder, corruption, bid-rigging and fraud, some issues including several public officials. The Ministry of Finance’s Central Audit Committee (CAC) had probed all aspects of Life Sport, after which Persad-Bissessar, laid it in the Lower House in July 2014. Al-Rawi said that former Finance Minister, Larry Howai had been specifically told that the allegations must be presented to the alleged wrongdoers. Al-Rawi said Persad- Bissessar should have known that premature publication - without a chance of reply - would result in breaches of the law.

“She went on to give the claimants the very card that found itself face up,” the AG said. The AG said the rules of an internal audit mandate that parties must be told of the possibility of adverse findings and that an exit interview be done, the latter which had been promised to all witnesses for the suspects. The AG alleged that even when former Ministry of Sport Permanent Secretary (PS) Ashwin Creed, later sat as Head of the Public Service as PS in the Office of the Prime Minister under Persad-Bissessar, no action was taken to send the LifeSport report to the Public Service Commission (PSC), until the PNM took office.

Al-Rawi said that just because the High Court had quashed the official audit report into LifeSport, that does not stop other investigations from proceeding, as the subject matter that gave rise to the report still exists. He spoke later of over-billing and a doubling up of invoices. “There are other matter around Life Sport that are getting attention,” the Attorney General said. Al -Rawi warned that certain person(s) should not be so quick to think they can walk away from the LifeSport allegations. “I’d not be as comfortable as these with their newfound bravery,” he said.

(See Page 5) Attempts yesterday by Newsday to contact Persad-Bissessar, Howai and several Opposition-linked attorneys for comment on the AG’s claims, were unsuccessful.

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline Deeks

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Re: Life Sport programme Thread.
« Reply #124 on: October 26, 2016, 12:59:50 PM »
No disrespect to our legal forumites, do these people have silk or crocus bag?

Offline maxg

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Re: Life Sport programme Thread.
« Reply #125 on: October 28, 2016, 08:45:05 AM »
so audit thrown out (on technicality), monies still misused and unaccounted for. Ah man ger exposed and then boast he get handed 10's of millions for nothing, and because somebody did talk bout it before it was supposed to be talked bout, that is that..and the administrators of the programme now get a chance to speak, so everything go be allrite now ? only in TT

Offline Deeks

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Re: Life Sport programme Thread.
« Reply #126 on: October 28, 2016, 01:15:04 PM »
PNM fault!

Offline Flex

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Re: Life Sport programme Thread.
« Reply #127 on: January 29, 2020, 07:22:57 AM »
SPoRTT writes off Life Sport $millions.
By Ryan Bachoo (Guardian).


The Sports Com­pa­ny of T&T has writ­ten off the $9.4m owed to it by the now de­funct Life Sport pro­gramme. This was re­vealed in a re­port in­to the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s fi­nan­cial per­for­mance by in­de­pen­dent au­di­tors Moore pub­lished in the press on Tues­day. The Life Sport debt goes back to the last gov­ern­ment, where it was found that the pro­gramme was rid­dled with cor­rup­tion and even­tu­al­ly shut down by for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar in Ju­ly 2014.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia Sports yes­ter­day, Chair­man of the Sports Com­pa­ny Dou­glas Ca­ma­cho said, “That would have been a re­ceiv­able that would have been in the books for a num­ber of years and un­der the ac­count­ing rules it is not like­ly that the re­ceiv­ables will be col­lect­ed so we made the de­ci­sion to write it off in this fi­nan­cial state­ment.”

But the re­port went fur­ther in show­ing that the Sports Com­pa­ny had paid out over $13.4m in a court set­tle­ment and ex­pens­es dur­ing 2019. When asked to clar­i­fy this ex­pen­di­ture, Ca­ma­cho told Guardian Me­dia Sports, “There are num­ber of old mat­ters be­fore lit­i­ga­tion, dis­putes over amounts and quan­tum.” He went fur­ther in ex­plain­ing that a large chunk of that fig­ure went to one con­trac­tor who was su­ing the or­ga­ni­za­tion for more than dou­ble than that of which was set­tled.

“The ma­jor part of that was a set­tle­ment for some work done where the con­trac­tor was claim­ing $25m and Sportt Com­pa­ny was say­ing that fig­ure was way too high and we were able to set­tle for a lot less so we were able to get a set­tle­ment and re­solve the mat­ter in a fair way,” Ca­ma­cho fur­ther stat­ed.

While that law­suit may have been set­tled, the re­port shows that the Sports Com­pa­ny owes cred­i­tors mil­lions of dol­lars. Its cur­rent as­sets to­tal $92m while non-cur­rent as­sets amount to $339m. Al­so, its cur­rent li­a­bil­i­ties to­talled $209m while its non-cur­rent li­a­bil­i­ties was shown to be $335m. Cur­rent li­a­bil­i­ties are those that need to be paid off with­in a three-year pe­ri­od while non-cur­rent are not dat­ed.

Ca­ma­cho said the Sports Com­pa­ny is at a dis­ad­van­tage be­cause it doesn’t gen­er­ate in­come. He stat­ed, “The strug­gle is that Sports Com­pa­ny, as a le­gal en­ti­ty, does not have the right to col­lect rev­enue on its own be­half. All of the funds that the Sports Com­pa­ny re­ceives are, in fact, grants from the gov­ern­ment of T&T so that al­though we may have Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um un­der our re­mit, when we rent it out for a con­cert and we col­lect rev­enue we don’t re­tain the mon­ey. We don’t have the right to re­tain. It all goes to the con­sol­i­dat­ed fund.”

Ca­ma­cho said his or­gan­i­sa­tion may have re­quest­ed the funds and are not yet in re­ceipt of it which would ex­plain the fig­ures.

RELATED NEWS

SPoRTT records $114m deficit, writes off $9m LifeSport balance.
By Jelani Beckles (Newsday).


STATE company SPoRTT recorded a $114 million deficit for 2019, $36 million more than 2018. Included in that total, published on Wednesday, was $60.7 million for infrastructure development, $40.5 million for equipment and storage rental, $11 million for salaries and staff benefits and $9 million to write off the LifeSport balance.

This effectively puts an end the $400 million LifeSport scandal, nearly five and half years after former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar ended the programme because of fraud, theft, and allegations that the programme, which was supposed to empower at-risk youths away from crime through sport, was linked to people involved in criminal activity.

In his report, chairman Douglas Camacho said, "SPoRTT has experienced a difficult and challenging period, but since being appointed chairman on July 4, 2018, the board has continued to focus on rebuilding discipline and good corporate governance to redefine how we operate and do business. We have met with each of the National Governing Bodies under our purview, ensuring that there is a clear understanding on requirements to be met so that requests for funding can be processed. Our present target for achievement has been made very clear – Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games."

In a brief interview with Newsday, Camacho added, "It (Life Sport debt) has been around a long time and the write off is because the probability of collecting on the debt is remote at best...that is written off, that is no longer a debt, that is gone."

SPoRTT received most of its money through a $127.9 million government grant, $11 million less than the subvention in 2018. Its other income was $375,362, for a total income of $128.2 million. Its total expenditure was $164.3 million and its deficit for the year was $36 million. The accumulated deficit brought forward from 2018 was $77.7 million, bringing its total deficit to $113.8 million.

Camacho said despite the debt the Government has been making a priority in assisting athletes as the games approach.

"Is two dimensions to look at there. One is the preparation and the process of qualification. The Government of T&T had indicated since 2018 the focus of this Government would be to assist national athletes and teams aspiring to get to the Olympic Games as a priority and to be honest, as a matter of fact, they have honoured that commitment for the last year and a half."

Funds don't come to SPoRTT, he noted. Instead, when a party, for example, Machel Monday, rents the Hasely Crawford Stadium, that money goes to the State's Consolidated Fund. "From that perspective, there is very little directly that we could do to advent that debt."

Camacho suggested a couple of options to help reduce the debt, including capital injections to help eliminate the debt.




Douglas Camacho - Chairman of SPoRTT

« Last Edit: January 30, 2020, 06:32:49 AM by Flex »
The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline maxg

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Re: Life Sport programme Thread.
« Reply #128 on: June 15, 2020, 03:36:20 PM »
« Last Edit: June 15, 2020, 03:38:53 PM by maxg »

Offline ABTrini

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Re: Life Sport programme Thread.
« Reply #129 on: June 15, 2020, 11:27:09 PM »
AG: LifeSport still alive
By SEAN DOUGLAS (Newsday)


THE multi-million dollar LifeSport programme is still being investigated.

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi disclosed yesterday in reaction to a ruling on Monday by a High Court judge which quashed an audit report of the programme, which was taken to Parliament by the People’s Partnership government under then Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar. Al-Rawi blamed Persad-Bissessar for Monday’s court outcome, citing her premature laying of the audit report in Parliament in July 2014.

Al Rawi said that a Senior Counsel ought to know that natural justice says an acccused person has the right to be heard.

Al-Rawi said the ruling upheld only five out of 14 grounds argued by the claimants. These were: that a breach of natural justice had occurred, that legitimate expectations had been breached, that the claimants had not been informed nor given the right to be heard, a grant of the order of certiorari (quashing the report), and the award of legal costs. Otherwise, he said, other investigations into Life Sport are still alive - including a probe by the police, even as he suggested reporters could ask the Integrity Commission about the probe it is conducting. Al-Rawi neither confirmed nor denied if Government will appeal Justice Mira Dean-Armorer’s ruling, a written version of which he is awaiting.

Al-Rawi recapped that under Life Sport, half-billion dollars was dubiously spent, amid allegations of murder, corruption, bid-rigging and fraud, some issues including several public officials. The Ministry of Finance’s Central Audit Committee (CAC) had probed all aspects of Life Sport, after which Persad-Bissessar, laid it in the Lower House in July 2014. Al-Rawi said that former Finance Minister, Larry Howai had been specifically told that the allegations must be presented to the alleged wrongdoers. Al-Rawi said Persad- Bissessar should have known that premature publication - without a chance of reply - would result in breaches of the law.

“She went on to give the claimants the very card that found itself face up,” the AG said. The AG said the rules of an internal audit mandate that parties must be told of the possibility of adverse findings and that an exit interview be done, the latter which had been promised to all witnesses for the suspects. The AG alleged that even when former Ministry of Sport Permanent Secretary (PS) Ashwin Creed, later sat as Head of the Public Service as PS in the Office of the Prime Minister under Persad-Bissessar, no action was taken to send the LifeSport report to the Public Service Commission (PSC), until the PNM took office.

Al-Rawi said that just because the High Court had quashed the official audit report into LifeSport, that does not stop other investigations from proceeding, as the subject matter that gave rise to the report still exists. He spoke later of over-billing and a doubling up of invoices. “There are other matter around Life Sport that are getting attention,” the Attorney General said. Al -Rawi warned that certain person(s) should not be so quick to think they can walk away from the LifeSport allegations. “I’d not be as comfortable as these with their newfound bravery,” he said.

(See Page 5) Attempts yesterday by Newsday to contact Persad-Bissessar, Howai and several Opposition-linked attorneys for comment on the AG’s claims, were unsuccessful.

And just imagine this program initiative unde a certain government  benefitted more non sports individuals than players - the sports minister had to flee the country but all the rakes cool down - all allegations  forgotten nothing resolved and now yuh ent see how. People want to bring this leadership back?
Joking  - dis place real " jokey   
" like we use to say

 

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