A Comment...
B-ball trip to St. Lucia - More questions than answers
Stabroek News
November 27, 2003
The recent trip to St. Lucia by a group of Guyanese basketballers from October 24-29 has brought in its wake controversy, shocking revelations and allegations of financial impropriety.
Part of the unfolding drama is the expulsion from the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) of former secretary Perry Woolford and treasurer Eon Andrews. Their expulsions were announced at a press conference held by the GABA at its headquarters on New Market Street several days ago.
At that briefing it was also announced that Duane Fowler and Rayad Boyce would be the new secretary and treasurer respectively of the GABA.
President of the GABA Raffel Douglas told the media that an associate of his, Didus Fedee, had been induced to sign a promissory note at the Harbour Light Inn in Castries St. Lucia to the tune of EC$4,049.20.
A faxed copy of this `note' was seen by Sportscope on which the signatures of both Woolford and Fedee appear. In addition, Sportscope also has in its possession a faxed message to the Inn by Woolford acknowledging owing the debt incurred.
The secretary in an article in the Guyana Chronicle also acknowledged that debt to the Inn.
The drama of what was supposed to be an exciting tour took on another dimension when Sonia Williams, an employee of the Inn, sent information to the GABA president outlining the team's stay there.
She claimed that former secretary Woolford had told her that he had a cheque and as soon as he could get it changed he would pay the monies owed.
But Woolford did not or was unable to change that cheque in St. Lucia. It appears that he then asked Fedee to sign a promissory note honouring the debt to the Inn, and reportedly promised to change the cheque upon his return to Guyana and then send the monies back to clear off the debt incurred.
We at Sportscope are of the view that Fedee erred in a big way since he should have called the GABA president to double-check whether or not Woolford was authorized by him for any transaction whatsoever.
Sportscope is reliably informed that since Woolford and entourage returned to these shores on October 29, almost one month later he is yet to honour his promises to Fedee or the Inn.
In addition, it has come to the attention of Sportscope that a local airline is owed in excess of $150,000 for tickets issued for that trip. Sources also told Sportscope that the airline may have to seek legal redress in order to recover the amount owed.
On October 13 last, Stabroek Sport carried an article headlined "Fifteen 'stars' for U-19 tour of St.Lucia", with a strapline - "GABA appeals to the public for help and support".
The very first paragraph informed readers that "a squad of 15 exuberant and excited under-19 basketball `stars' have been selected by the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) to tour St Lucia to participate in that island's school's basketball tournament."
However, at a press conference last week at the YWCA, former secretary Woolford told the media that the team went on a `goodwill' tour and secondly that the tour was not sanctioned by the GABA but the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF).
But neither the secretary nor the treasurer informed the media then that the tour was being sanctioned by the GABF. How can such a claim be made now? According to that article the parents of the players praised the efforts of the GABA to revitalize the sport. Again no mention of the GABF!
Did the two former officials seek the blessings of the GABF unknowing to the president? And when did these two officials seek the blessings of the federation - was it before or after the tour?
Then again could these gentlemen say why in the build-up for the tour no mention was made of this `fact'? Up to and including days prior to the team's departure for St Lucia the media were invited to several public events, the most memorable being a press conference at the Critchlow Labour College (CLC). At that briefing president of the GABA was invited to give his blessings and he did, in fact going as far as publicly thanking the former secretary Perry Woolford for the good job that he was doing.
The fact of the matter is the GABF is yet to issue a statement on the St. Lucia tour and its input.
It has also been noted recently that the Federation has been defunct for quite a while and just who are its members is anybody's guess.
At the press briefing last week Woolford also categorically denied that the tour was under the auspices of he GABA. In addition, he also alleged that the president of the GABA was ineligible for the post and his personal `image' had caused sponsors not to come on board the U-19 tour.
When asked if the tour was in jeopardy because of the withdrawals of the sponsors, Woolford retorted that they (himself and Andrews) had alternative plans in place for such an eventuality. He was also asked by the media to give an account of how much money was collected prior to the tour and how it was spent during and after but he declined saying that he was not prepared to divulge such information since his lawyers were looking into the matter.
Sportscope is of the view that the former secretary and treasurer are procrastinating, probably hoping that this issue would settle in the dust which it kicked up. However, Sportscope is keeping on the ball on this issue since the matter could likely be the subject of further investigation.
What is evident at this point is that there are more questions than answers.