Ac­cord­ing to the fig­ures pro­vid­ed by the T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB) dur­ing its press brief­ing on Wednes­day and by the Sport Com­pa­ny of T&T (SporTT)to Guardian Me­dia on Sat­ur­day, there is $1.37 mil­lion in crick­et fund­ing un­ac­count­ed for be­tween the pe­ri­od 2018 and 2024.

Ac­cord­ing to the TTCB’s fig­ures, it re­ceived $13.6 mil­lion from SporTT be­tween Oc­to­ber 2013 and March 2025.

SporTT con­firmed the fig­ure as ‘ac­cu­rate’ to Guardian Me­dia in a re­sponse from the com­mu­ni­ca­tions de­part­ment on Sat­ur­day.

Be­tween fis­cal 2018 and fis­cal 2024, the crick­et board, ac­cord­ing to its fig­ures, re­ceived $6.987 mil­lion in fund­ing from SporTT.

Mean­while, SporTT, be­tween fis­cal 2018 and 2024, ac­cord­ing to its au­dit­ed fi­nan­cial state­ments, pro­vid­ed ap­prox­i­mate­ly $26.8 mil­lion in fund­ing to the ‘na­tion­al crick­et or­gan­i­sa­tions.’

“All spend­ing re­lat­ed to in­di­vid­ual sports is clas­si­fied with­in the re­spec­tive NGB (na­tion­al gov­ern­ing bod­ies) line ex­pen­di­ture. There­fore, in ad­di­tion to TTCB dis­burse­ments, the over­all ex­pen­di­ture fig­ure re­flects fund­ing for oth­er crick­et-re­lat­ed events, which is re­ceived di­rect­ly and man­aged by SporTT.

“In 2022-2023, these events in­clud­ed the 2022 ICC Un­der-19 Crick­et World Cup, the Caribbean Pre­mier League (2022 and 2023) men’s and women’s tour­na­ments and re­gion­al bi­lat­er­al se­ries, in­clud­ing West In­dies vs In­dia (2022 and 2023)...A to­tal of $21,266,200 was spent on the events list­ed in Q.4,” SporTT in­formed Guardian Me­dia.

How­ev­er, when Guardian Me­dia tab­u­lat­ed the mon­ey dis­bursed to the TTCB be­tween fis­cal 2018 and 2024 (ac­cord­ing to TTCB’s fig­ures) and the fund­ing pro­vid­ed by SporTT to crick­et tour­na­ments in 2022 and 2023, the fig­ure came up to $28.253 mil­lion ($21.26 mil­lion for tour­na­ments plus $6.987 mil­lion)

That fig­ure does not cor­re­spond with the amount SporTT pre­sent­ed in its fi­nan­cial au­dit­ed state­ments be­tween fis­cal 2018 and 2024 - $26.877 mil­lion.

There was a dif­fer­ence of $1.376 mil­lion, sug­gest­ing that mon­ey is un­ac­count­ed for.

SporTT re­sponds

1) Can SporTT con­firm whether the fig­ure of $13.6 mil­lion in fund­ing quot­ed by TTCB dur­ing the said time pe­ri­od is cor­rect?

The to­tal dis­burse­ment to the TTCB over the pe­ri­od 2013-2025 is 13,626,387.77.

2) What are the oth­er na­tion­al crick­et or­gan­i­sa­tions that SporTT pro­vides fund­ing to?

No fund­ing is pro­vid­ed di­rect­ly to sport­ing or­gan­i­sa­tions; all re­quests for fund­ing must be made via the recog­nised na­tion­al gov­ern­ing body (NGB) for the sport. Fund­ing is pro­vid­ed via the NGB, sub­ject to a rig­or­ous ap­proval process and the avail­abil­i­ty of funds.

3) How much in fund­ing was pro­vid­ed to each of these oth­er na­tion­al crick­et or­gan­i­sa­tions be­tween 2019 and 2023?

As ex­plained in Q.2, fund­ing is not pro­vid­ed di­rect­ly to oth­er sport­ing or­gan­i­sa­tions.

4) Does SporTT clas­si­fy crick­et fund­ing for any oth­er ven­ture out­side of fund­ing pro­vid­ed to na­tion­al crick­et or­gan­i­sa­tions?

All spend­ing re­lat­ed to in­di­vid­ual sports is clas­si­fied with­in the re­spec­tive NGB line ex­pen­di­ture. There­fore, in ad­di­tion to TTCB dis­burse­ments, the over­all ex­pen­di­ture fig­ure re­flects fund­ing for oth­er crick­et-re­lat­ed events, which is re­ceived di­rect­ly and man­aged by SporTT. In 2022-2023, these events in­clud­ed the 2022 ICC Un­der-19 Crick­et World Cup, the Caribbean Pre­mier League (2022 and 2023) men’s and women’s tour­na­ments and re­gion­al bi­lat­er­al se­ries, in­clud­ing West In­dies vs In­dia (2022 and 2023). The ta­ble out­lin­ing ex­pen­di­ture from 2019-2023 was pre­pared for in­ter­nal pur­pos­es on­ly, as a means of com­par­ing SporTT’s in­ter­nal bud­get to its ex­pen­di­ture for crick­et over that pe­ri­od.

5) If so, can SporTT state, out­side of or­gan­i­sa­tions, what fund­ing it has pro­vid­ed to crick­et be­tween 2019 and 2023?

A to­tal of $21,266,200 was spent on the events list­ed in Q.4.

6) Is a SporTT in­ter­nal au­dit in­ves­ti­ga­tion, that was sent to SporTT CEO Ja­son Williams on March 13 2025, a le­git­i­mate doc­u­ment? Are its find­ings ac­cu­rate? And if not, has the in­ter­nal au­dit com­mit­tee faced any dis­ci­pli­nary ac­tion for in­cor­rect find­ings?

The in­ter­nal au­dit re­port is le­git­i­mate and ac­cu­rate. It re­flects the over­all spend­ing on crick­et and does not make a dis­tinc­tion be­tween TTCB fund­ing and di­rect ex­pen­di­ture on ad­di­tion­al crick­et ac­tiv­i­ties/events, which was man­aged by SporTT. The re­port was con­duct­ed for in­ter­nal pur­pos­es on­ly, to iden­ti­fy gaps and en­hance in­ter­nal process­es.

7) Why did the SporTT board seek an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to TTCB fund­ing?

In 2023, the TTCB in­formed SporTT of an is­sue in­volv­ing po­ten­tial mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion of fund­ing. In ac­cor­dance with SporTT’s strong in­ter­nal con­trols, the then SporTT board re­quest­ed an au­dit to en­sure all monies dis­bursed could be ac­count­ed for and that there were no gaps in SporTT’s fund­ing process.

8) How much fund­ing has the TTCB sought, or ap­plied for, from SporTT be­tween 2019 and 2023?

For the pe­ri­od 2019-2023, TTCB made 30 re­quests for a to­tal of $14,530,830.48 in fund­ing. Of that to­tal, SporTT ap­proved $9,147,690.39, sub­ject to the avail­abil­i­ty and re­lease of fund­ing. The to­tal dis­bursed to TTCB was $4,875,983.55.

9) How much of the fund­ing was not grant­ed? And what were the rea­sons for not grant­i­ng the re­quest­ed funds?

In some cas­es, fund­ing may not have been ap­proved or dis­bursed if re­quests were in­con­sis­tent with SporTT’s fund­ing cat­e­gories or due to the un­avail­abil­i­ty of fund­ing. Oth­er re­quests were re­ferred to the OPM’s Sport and Cul­ture Fund.

96% de­cline in SporTT crick­et fund­ing to TTCB in 3 years

In ex­am­in­ing the TTCB’s doc­u­ments pro­vid­ed to the me­dia on Wednes­day, Guardian Me­dia al­so dis­cov­ered that the TTCB’s share of crick­et fund­ing from SporTT de­clined by 96 per­cent in 2022 com­pared to the pre­vi­ous three years (2021, 2020, and 2019).

Based on the TTCB’s fig­ures, be­tween 2018 and 2021, the TTCB re­ceived an av­er­age of 101 per­cent of all crick­et fund­ing from SporTT.

Yes, you read that right.

That’s be­cause in 2020, SporTT’s au­dit re­port­ed pro­vid­ing $90,000 to all crick­et sport­ing or­gan­i­sa­tions. The TTCB’s doc­u­ment said it re­ceived $100,000 from SporTT - more than the to­tal sup­pos­ed­ly pro­vid­ed to all crick­et or­gan­i­sa­tions.

In 2022 and 2023, ac­cord­ing to the board’s fig­ures, its share of crick­et fund­ing from SporTT de­clined sharply to an av­er­age of 10 per­cent.

For 2022, the same year that there was sup­pos­ed­ly a 96 per­cent de­cline in the share of crick­et fund­ing to the TTCB, an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to SporTT’s TTCB ex­pen­di­ture (be­tween 2019 and 2022) found al­leged dis­crep­an­cies in the fi­nan­cial doc­u­ments it ex­am­ined.

The in­ter­nal au­dit found that the rec­on­cil­i­a­tion process by the Sport De­vel­op­ment & Per­for­mance Unit need­ed im­prov­ing, as a for­mat for prepar­ing rec­on­cil­i­a­tion did not ex­ist, while there were no rec­on­cil­i­a­tions pre­pared for 2019 and 2020.

It al­so found that there was no way to de­ter­mine if the TTCB owed SporTT re­im­burse­ments for fund­ing.

“In some in­stances, the rec­on­cil­i­a­tions sub­mit­ted by TTCB were just ver­i­fied by the Sport De­vel­op­ment & Per­for­mance Unit and signed off. In 2022, there were dif­fer­ences be­tween in­voic­es vouched by IA and the amounts stat­ed on the rec­on­cil­i­a­tion. The Head SDU is re­quired to show ev­i­dence of sign-off rec­on­cil­i­a­tions pre­pared and re­viewed,” the in­ter­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion stat­ed.

In 2023, ac­cord­ing to SporTT, the TTCB in­formed it of an is­sue in­volv­ing po­ten­tial mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion of fund­ing (the Chaitoo whistle­blow­er mat­ter)

“In ac­cor­dance with SporTT’s strong in­ter­nal con­trols, the then SporTT board re­quest­ed an au­dit to en­sure all monies dis­bursed could be ac­count­ed for and that there were no gaps in SporTT’s fund­ing process,” the body said.

The same in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to SporTT’s TTCB Ex­pen­di­ture be­tween 2019 and 2022 found al­leged dis­crep­an­cies in fi­nan­cial doc­u­ments ex­am­ined for fis­cal 2022 - the year there was a ‘96 per­cent de­cline’ in the share of crick­et fund­ing to the TTCB.

The in­ter­nal au­dit, com­mis­sioned by the board, found that the rec­on­cil­i­a­tion process used by the Sport De­vel­op­ment & Per­for­mance Unit need­ed im­prove­ment, as a for­mat for prepar­ing rec­on­cil­i­a­tions did not ex­ist. It al­so dis­cov­ered that no rec­on­cil­i­a­tions were pre­pared for 2019 and 2020.

Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion is the process of ver­i­fy­ing that two sets of records are in agree­ment. It in­volves com­par­ing in­ter­nal fi­nan­cial records with ex­ter­nal sources like bank state­ments or in­voic­es to iden­ti­fy dis­crep­an­cies and en­sure ac­cu­ra­cy.

The in­ves­ti­ga­tion al­so re­port­ed that there was no way to de­ter­mine if the TTCB owed SporTT re­im­burse­ments.

“In some in­stances, the rec­on­cil­i­a­tions sub­mit­ted by TTCB were just ver­i­fied by the Sport De­vel­op­ment & Per­for­mance Unit and signed off. In 2022, there were dif­fer­ences be­tween in­voic­es vouched by IA and the amounts stat­ed on the rec­on­cil­i­a­tion. The Head SDU is re­quired to show ev­i­dence of sign-off rec­on­cil­i­a­tions pre­pared and re­viewed,” the in­ter­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion stat­ed.

On Sat­ur­day, SporTT con­firmed the in­ter­nal au­dit re­port is le­git­i­mate.

“The in­ter­nal au­dit re­port is le­git­i­mate and ac­cu­rate. It re­flects the over­all spend­ing on crick­et and does not make a dis­tinc­tion be­tween TTCB fund­ing and di­rect ex­pen­di­ture on ad­di­tion­al crick­et ac­tiv­i­ties/events, which was man­aged by SporTT. The re­port was con­duct­ed for in­ter­nal pur­pos­es on­ly, to iden­ti­fy gaps and en­hance in­ter­nal process­es,” it said.

Fund­ing pro­vid­ed to na­tion­al crick­et or­gan­i­sa­tions based on SporTT au­dits & an­nu­al SporTT fund­ing pro­vid­ed to TTCB (ac­cord­ing to TTCB)

2018 (SporTT Au­dit) - $210,000 to all Na­tion­al Crick­et Or­gan­i­sa­tions

2018 (TTCB Doc­u­ment) - $200,000 to TTCB alone (95 per­cent of all crick­et fund­ing)

2019 (SporTT Au­dit) $90,000 to all Na­tion­al Crick­et Or­gan­i­sa­tions

2019 (TTCB Doc­u­ment) - $100,000 to TTCB alone (111 per­cent of all crick­et fund­ing)

*SporTT in­ter­nal au­dit had an orig­i­nal al­lo­ca­tion and bud­get to TTCB of $5.08 mil­lion and an ac­tu­al TTCB ex­pen­di­ture of $4.49 mil­lion.

2020 (SporTT Au­dit) - $1,783,500 to all Na­tion­al Crick­et Or­gan­i­sa­tions

2020 (TTCB Doc­u­ment) - $1,783,500 to TTCB alone (100 per­cent of all crick­et fund­ing)

*SporTT in­ter­nal au­dit had an orig­i­nal al­lo­ca­tion and bud­get of $500,000 and an ac­tu­al TTCB ex­pen­di­ture of $477,198.

2021 (SporTT Au­dit) - $570,040.00 to all Na­tion­al Crick­et Or­gan­i­sa­tions

2021 (TTCB Doc­u­ment) - $570,039 to TTCB alone (100 per­cent of all crick­et fund­ing)

*SporTT in­ter­nal au­dit had an orig­i­nal al­lo­ca­tion and bud­get of $705,882 and an ac­tu­al ex­pen­di­ture of ze­ro.

2022 (SporTT Au­dit) - $9.3 mil­lion to all Na­tion­al Crick­et­ing Or­gan­i­sa­tions

2022 (TTCB Doc­u­ment) - $449,153 to TTCB alone (4.8 per­cent of all crick­et fund­ing)

*SporTT in­ter­nal au­dit had an orig­i­nal al­lo­ca­tion and bud­get to TTCB of $4.8 mil­lion and an ac­tu­al ex­pen­di­ture by TTCB of $11.52 mil­lion.

2023 (SporTT Au­dit) - $14.9 mil­lion to all Na­tion­al Crick­et Or­gan­i­sa­tions

2023 (TTCB Doc­u­ment) - $2,382,828 to TTCB alone (16 per­cent of all crick­et fund­ing)

*SporTT in­ter­nal au­dit had an orig­i­nal al­lo­ca­tion and bud­get to TTCB of $2.33 mil­lion and an ac­tu­al ex­pen­di­ture by TTCB of $11.67 mil­lion.

The TTCB’s fund­ing fig­ures, which it said it ob­tained from SporTT, were con­tra­dic­to­ry to the fig­ures pro­vid­ed to SporTT chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Ja­son Williams in SporTT’s in­ter­nal in­ves­tiga­tive au­dit re­port.