The T&T Football Association is probing how to recover $400,000 which was 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, Tourism Minister Gerald Hadeed said yesterday.
Replying to an Opposition question in Parliament, Minister Hadeed said the TTFA official— one 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 request was not supposed to have been made and the TTFA’s information was that Millien had no authority to ask for the money.
Tourism Ministry officials who went on the trip included permanent secretary Juliana Johan-Boodram, Hadeed said, since owing to unforeseen circumstances, he was unable to lead the delegation, so Boodram did so.
Hadeed said the expenditure asssociated 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.
Sport Minister Rupert Griffith said the Sport Ministry assisted 759 non-profit institutions with funding from 2010 to the 2015 financial year.
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.
Millien stressed that his decision in no way reflects an admission or acceptance of guilt in this matter but, allows for due process to take place.
Tim Kee said “Mr Millien met with me on Friday November 28, when we had a frank and open discussion, during which he voluntarily offered to withdraw his services until the matter has been satisfactorily resolved.”
The TTFA wishes to reaffirm its commitment to due process in the resolution of the matter.
It was also decided that general secretary Sheldon Phillips would no longer lead government relations and team management functions. William Wallace was appointed to take up those duties.
In addition, the TTFA has also appointed former president of the West Indies Players Association Dinanath Ramnarine as a consultant to lead efforts to assist the TTFA with its governance and management reform and to review and restructure its operations.
In the release, Tim Kee offered no reasons for the removal of Millien or the downsizing of Phillips’ portfolio, but instead said, “the TTFA is pleased to have someone of Mr Ramnarine’s caliber as part of its reformation effort. Dinanath is a hard-working individual who brings to the table a wealth of experience in sports administration and governance.”
Ramnarine, who has been a member of the TTFA’s independent review commission, also involved in the mediation of the settlement of outstanding payments to the 2006 World Cup players.
RELATED NEWS
Football $ still missing
By Andre Bagoo (Newsday).
A TOTAL of $2.6 million was spent by the Ministry of Tourism to fund a delegation to Argentina on June 4 for the friendly football match there, but of this amount $400,000 is unaccounted for after it was disbursed to an unauthorised official of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA), Minister of Tourism Gerald Hadeed told Parliament yesterday.
During Parliament Question Time, Hadeed confirmed previous reports on the matter but stopped short of saying whether the theft is under police probe and did not shed light on whether the money had been recouped.
Hadeed listed several officials who were a part of the delegation and said $716,613 in revenue had been made from the trip through the packages offered to the paying public. Therefore, he said, the total outspend was $1.9 million.
Diego Martin Central MP Dr Amery Browne queried whether there is $400,000 unaccounted for with respect to expenditure on the tour.
“Yes, there is,” Hadeed responded. “When the money was paid to Nissi Tours, for the trip what took place was that a person who was working for the TTFA at the time requested $400,000 from Nissi Tours which was not supposed to be done, and according to information I have from the TTFA he had no authority whatsoever to ask for the money. The money was given to him and the TTFA is investigating that at the present time.”
Browne further queried, “With respect to those same public funds, can you indicate whether those matters have been referred to the Police Service and whether there is an investigation occurring at this time.”
Hadeed replied, “I will not be able at present to answer that, but if you do file a question I will get all the information.”
Laventille West MP NiLeung Hypolite asked whether the spending of the $2.6 million contributed to the development of tourism. Hadeed replied, by saying the actual cost was $1.9 million.
“Sport is international and to expose Trinidad and Tobago to a couple of hundred million people with the football certainly is an opportunity that one should seek when it generates that amount of passion,” the Minister said.
Hadeed said the Ministry partnered with the TTFA to support the hosting of the friendly match. The TTFA engaged a consultant to provide travel arrangements. Nissi Tours and Travel Ltd was engaged. The charter flight of June 5 carried 150 persons.
Total expenditure ($2.6 million) broke down into: TTFA (sponsorship of tickets for ground transfers and match ticket) —$300,000; TTFA (sponsorship of administrative fees and overheads) — $200,000; TTFA (national senior team airfares) — $900,000; TTFA (accomodation) — $700,000; FV Holdings (promotion of Trinidad and Tobago in Argentina) — $253,862.50; FV Holdings (advertising in Argentina) — $206,910.88; Cultural Contingent (per diem) — $49,595; Nissi Tours (departure tax) — $12,255; Ministry of Tourism staff (per diem) — $22,059.
The delegation included: Juliana Johan-Boodram, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism; Satie Jamraj-Marimuthu, Director, Research and Planning; Anand Maraj, Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator; Ria Elie, Head Communications, and Myroon Ramdass, Executive Assistant. The Minister did not attend.
Also on the delegation was Umesh Rampersad, the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC) Chairman; Naidu Powdhar, TDC director; Carol Ann Birchwood-James, TDC director; and Samuel Sankar, sports tourism coordinator.