Lightning strikes QPCC twice?

THE EDITOR: It is certainly always refreshing to see financial support provided to sporting clubs and sporting bodies. The recent contribution of the Sport and Culture Fund (managed under the Office of the Prime Minister) to the Queen’s Park Cricket Club (QPCC), towards the refurbishment of the indoor training facility, I am sure would be graciously welcomed by the club’s membership.

As many would acknowledge, the QPCC is by far the most financially endowed of all sporting clubs in TT, cricket or otherwise. This is an organisation that has a membership in excess of 10,000, with annual dues of approximately $7,000. Now you do the math.

Important to note as we examine evidence of its affluence are the many corporate boxes that adorn the facade of the perimeter buildings, each one costing in excess of $2.5 million, renewable in many cases every five years. Continue to use those calculators. What about those historic murals/paintings on the perimeter wall; well another $85,000 minimum rental fee annually for each of those signs. It almost doubles for the larger paintings. Do you need a bigger calculator?

My immediate question is: what is the criteria that is used by the Sport and Culture Fund to determine who is eligible for assistance? It is reasonable to say that need is certainly not one of them or the QPCC would have been ineligible.

My second question is: how many other cricket clubs has the fund played benefactor to? I can call at least five much smaller clubs that operate on an annual budget that is less than one per cent of that of the QPCC. It would be nice to hear that they have also benefitted from taxpayers’ resources that are channelled through the fund. Hardly likely, or it may have been plastered over the news.

Please be aware that this fund is disbursed under the auspices of the Office of the Prime Minister, and one can only infer that he fully endorses these contributions. If not, the Prime Minister needs to keep a closer eye on things that fall under his purview.

I recall in 2017 having a discussion with the father of a young cricketer from the QPCC who was a member of a youth touring QPCC team that travelled to the US. He conveyed (but this is alleged and unconfirmed) at that time that the QPCC had received over $150,000 from the same fund. This can easily be confirmed or denied, I am sure, by a simple audit exercise.

What a lucky club – so lightning can strike the same place twice. I can’t for the life of me identify why has the QPCC been so fortunate to have received two substantial grants within four years for its cricket programme. As they say in TT, there must be more in the mortar than the pestle.

In the interest of transparency and equity, it would be prudent for the relevant authorities to look into the operations of the distribution of money from the fund. While I am not one who subscribes to speculation, I do adhere to the old adage that where there is smoke there is usually fire.

Officers or chairmen/women of state boards, especially those boards that exist only to provide funding to external groups or individuals (like the Sport and Culture Fund), must remember that these monies are derived from our tax dollars and should be spent wisely and without favour.

This second tranche of funding given to the QPCC by the fund seems quite peculiar at best, and should raise some red flags, especially by the PM and Minister of Finance. Please give some attention to this situation. Good governance can't exist without absolute integrity in office. That's all that we ask for.

RUPERT JORDAN

Cunupia