It is good for a change to see a public figure openly acknowledging his limitations, but in the same vein, Minister Roberts' admission that his budget allocation for sport of $700 million is "all that they can handle" is in itself an indictment on him and his ministry's competency or lack thereof, to administrate the sporting affairs of T&T. His declaration to the public, in essence, implies that both he, and by extension his ministry are unable, or more importantly, prefer not to manage a budget in excess of what was provided; even though a much large quantum may have been required to adequately deliver the needs to the sporting fraternity.
In addition, Minister Roberts went on to further damage the credibility of his own ministry by stating that a bigger allocation "may have been wasted or been fizzled away, and the government would not have gotten value for their money." Minister, if this is the way that you feel about the ability of yourself and your ministry to handle the nation's sporting affairs, then do the honourable thing and resign and allow someone else to take on the challenge of effectively and efficiently managing a more realistic allocation that may well have exceeded $700 million.Clearly the minister is willing to accept being short changed, even at the expense of depriving various sporting organisations and inevitably handicapping their operations. If this is not a demonstration of "throwing in the towel," then what is?
Minister Roberts has probably fought publicly with more sporting bodies than any previous Minister of Sports.Maybe he believes that having less money available to sport would make it easier for him to simply say that his ministry doesn't have the money. I guess we just have to wait and see what unfolds.
Arnold Corneal