Athletics officials demand answers

DISGRUNTLED clubs affiliated to the National Amateur Athletics Association (NAAA) have come together in an effort to oust the present administration at the organisation’s annual general meeting constitutionally due next month. Representatives of 26 of the 38 clubs belonging to the track and field organisation recently met at an undisclosed location to discuss their grievances and plan their strategy in anticipation of the upcoming election of officers. The NAAA is currently headed by president Ken Doldron, a retired Brigadier of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force who has been criticised in recent times for his style of leadership. Sources told Newsday yesterday that at last weekend’s meeting, among the participants were several members of the NAAA executive who openly voiced their disapproval of the direction the organisation has been taking. They said that a change of administration under a new leader — one has already been identified and is being approached to throw his hat into the ring — will put back the NAAA on an even keel.

First signs indicating a crack in the executive of the organisation should be evident on Saturday when the General Council, dubbed the “Government of the NAAA” meets to set a date for the annual general meeting. At this meeting, the source disclosed several matters that have infuriated the club representatives will be brought up and answers will be demanded. Topping the agenda of the irate representatives is a report that an executive member of the NAAA used his private credit card to pay for tickets for a national team to travel to Europe on a pre-Olympic tour earlier this year. The source indicated yesterday that the question will be asked about who authorised the transaction and whether it was correct that frequent flier miles were credited to the executive member because of the payment. “We understand that three free tickets were handed over because of the transaction. We want to know whether this is correct and if so who were the tickets given to go to the Olympic Games in Athens,” said a club representative who attended the meeting.

The vexed athletics officials also charged the current administration with flouting the constitution of the NAAA by their refusal to circulate minutes of their executive meetings in a timely manner to members of the general Council. “The way the constitution has been set up, the executive meet and then a month after the General Council meet to discuss what transpired at the executive meeting and to approve or reject whatever has transpired there,” he said. “However without the minutes we hardly ever know what they are doing. They are a law unto themselves making the legal document that is the constitution a joke,” said the source. It was also pointed out that no financial statements have been presented to the General Council for several years and efforts to have the documents recorded and circulated to the club representatives  have come up against a blank wall.

“We want the organisation to conduct itself in a transparent manner but for all the public relations gimmicks the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing in the NAAA,” said the upset NAAA executive member. He also mentioned the record of resignations of the organisation’s secretary and assistant secretary which number 10 in over ten years pointing to the frustration and financial demands of the office that have contributed to the high turnover. At Saturday, General Council meeting club representatives are expected to bring their concerns out in the open and demand answers from Doldron, under fire from critics who have described him as “dictatorial”. When asked to comment on moves to dump the present administration, Clyde Forde, a fierce critic of the NAAA and fomer secretary and assistant secretary refused to comment on the latest development. He said he also looked forward to Saturday’s General Council meeting at the NAAA’s office at the Eric Williams Medical Complex at Mount Hope.