The A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government came into office in May 2015, 19 months on the government has rolled out three budgets to date, the latest, a whopping 0 Billion presented for the year 2017 by Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan.
But while the budget was being presented on November 28 in Parliament, little was mentioned of the allocation to sports, however, it was later learnt that in excess of $536 Million was allocated for sports and during the fourth day of Debates, (Thursday), Minister within the Ministry of Education with responsibility for Sport, Nicolette Henry revealed that the administration intends to distribute some $210 million towards laying out of five synthetic tracks.
Minister Henry stressed that “Synthetic Tracks will be laid in Administrative Regions two (Pomeroon-Supernaam), four (Demerara-Mahaica), Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) to which 210 million is allocated.”
The Minister broadened the aspect of training and development by saying that the athletes will benefit from the provision of the five tracks as “there is also a provision to improve sporting infrastructure, our community ground enhancement program is gone to another level where it is expected another 10 million dollars will be used to enhance and upgrade identified facilities in every region. “
Minister Henry in her speech indicated the common idiom that “sport is highly regarded as the tool for human development and sport is a great way to bring diverse communities together,” Communicating that it is the aim of “the Ministry of Education, through the National Sports Commission [NSC] to move to strengthen sports related services, guided by a policy to be adopted in 2017.”
The Member of Parliament related the historical accomplishment of the administration, taking credit for the establishment of the first ever National Athlete’s Database which was established in 2016.
She stated that “this tool will aid the department [NSC] in its work, as we know sports play an important role in nurturing national athletes and pride and we [administration] will work acidulously and the 2020 Olympics should see Guyanese not just participating but rather they will be given the requisite tools to compete.”
Guyana currently has only one Synthetic Track, the National Track and Field Facility located in Leonora which was officially opened under the People’s Progressive Party Civic’s regime back in April 2015.
