Home Sports Hunt for a Director of Sport… The man for the job just...
By Jemima Holmes
The appointment of a new Director of Sport is on the cards and will probably be witnessed soon. This is according to Culture, Youth and Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr, who shared that the Cabinet has their eye on an individual.
Following the sacking of former Director of Sport and now Opposition parliamentarian Christopher Jones, questions loom about the next person to take up the mantle.
When he engaged sport media operatives some weeks ago, Minister Ramson shared that they were looking to fill the vacant position within the coming weeks. Now, the Minister further shared that they were still going through the process.
However, the catch is that while there is one person being eyed for the job, the appointment needs Cabinet approval.
“Really, there is only one option on the table at the moment. It isn’t anything other than that. I think it’s his to refuse really; however, what’s really for us at the moment, and what’s really important for me, is getting the Cabinet satisfied with the National Sports Commission (NSC),” Ramson Jr revealed while speaking exclusively with Guyana Times Sports.
Also preceding the appointment of the Director of Sport should be the appointment of the Board of the NSC.
On this note, Ramson Jr explained that while a list of persons has been prepared for consideration, there have been criticisms and various opinions on the direction the NSC should take and in the interest of upholding a democratic process, a conclusion has not been made as yet.
“The reestablishment of the National Sports Commission, which is governed by the National Sports Commission Act, is the precondition of being able to appoint a Director of Sport. A submission was already made to the Cabinet with a number of names. A number of members had views about either the individuals or the direction or the shape that it should take,” Ramson Jr disclosed.
He went on to state, “Now decisions when made, it’s not unilateral decisions. Even though you have a minister that’s leading the sector, the idea of being able to work in a democracy is being able to field as many ideas as possible.”
While admitting that the process has been delayed for quite some time, Ramson Jr said in his defence that the Ministry and furthermore the Government have been able to do a lot since the time of their swearing-in and other pressing issues were on the front burner.
“I’d say it’s a little bit delayed, but it was expired since August 2019, we’ve been in office for one month and there’s a lot of things that we’ve done already in a very short space of time. In fact, most of the sport associations said to me that we’ve done more than the two Sport Ministers they had under the APNU/AFC,” Ramson Jr noted.
Former Director Jones, whose contract reportedly expired and was renewed in March after the elections, was relieved of his duties in August 10 days after the Minister was sworn in.
