Sports may soon be placed as its own line item in territory’s budget
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley said sports may soon be placed as a line item in the territory’s annual national budget.
While at the celebration ceremony for the CARIFTA Games athletes last Thursday, Dr Wheatley said he thinks now is a great time to do so. And for this reason, he said the Sports Council Act was passed, and the idea is to feed grants to the different sports in the territory through the sports council.
“We perhaps could give the sports council a lump sum of money and of course we have the money that we put into the Recreation Trust — youth affairs and sports — but that lumpsum that we are going to put into the sports council will go a long way and of course, we now have a sports calendar, and we have a lump sum that we will be able to have a proper budget for sports year-round. Most likely it will be seen as a grant to the sports council,” Premier Wheatley said.
Dr Wheatley was also asked whether the territory might see a standalone Sports Minister in the Virgin Islands Cabinet or whether a Junior Minister would be in place to focus on sports.
However, the Premier noted the junior ministers are tied to the Premier’s Office for economic activity and that amendment was made in the United Kingdom parliament. He also noted that an increase in the number of ministers in the House of Assembly (HoA) would require an increase in the number of HoA members.
“Something like that will only be changed through the constitution. Of course, the amendment was made to allow those ministers to support the Premier. If we want to increase the number of ministers, you must increase the number of persons in the House of Assembly. If you want another minister, you’ll need at least another two backbenchers,” the Premier said.
“So, I don’t think there is an appetite for persons to increase the members of the House of Assembly. But of course, I have a lot of confidence in Honourable Sharie De Castro, the new minister for sports, and I am going to support her to my fullest and we will continue to develop sports until we decide to add more members to the House or not,” Dr Wheatley said.
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We really don’t need to have any more Ministers on the payroll. We have too many being paid right now (and wanting their big pensions later).
Pure talk because we dont think he will be re-elected
The Governor has more important items on the BVI’s agenda than sports right now. Maybe by 2030!
This is the problem, there is no thought or plan behind it just an idea to give a “lump sum of money”. This just encourages corruption.
I fully agree that sports should receive a form of government funding but it all needs to be put in place properly to ensure funding is in the right place.
People who do not understand how Government business works should not comment on these matters. Money can be assigned in the budget for any purpose, it doesn’t mean that the cash is readily available nor the cash handed over to the Dept/Ministry to be spent willy nilly
It doesn’t negate the fact that a proper plan will still be needed to avoid mismanagement of funds allocated.
I think the BVI has had enough of poor planning.
Thank you. Too much emotional voices of dissent here.
And what about the arts?