Grange: Streamlining won't pose problem
Published:Thursday | November 15, 2018 | 12:00 AMAkino Ming/Staff Reporter
An announcement that the Ministry of Sport will be streamlining public entities in sports such as the Institute of Sports (INSPORT), Independence Park Limited (IPL) and Sports Development Foundation (SDF) has not gone down well with some stakeholders.
Some players in the sporting fraternity believe this could pose a problem if the streamlining is not done properly.
A high-profile figure in one of the entities who asked for anonymity said the merger could defeat the reason why IPL was formed back in 2001, when INSPORT was in charge of managing sporting infrastructure in Jamaica.
"After the stadium was refurbished for the World Junior Championships in 2002, they formed IPL to manage the facility because they realised that it would be too much of a burden for INSPORT to focus on its mandate and manage the facility," the source said. "They wanted an entity to focus solely on managing the facility and they have to be careful not to allow it to go back to where one entity is in charge of everything and important elements start to be neglected."
CAREFULLY DONE
But Minister of Sport Olivia Grange, in responding to that concern, said she is confident there will be no problem as the streamlining will be carefully done.
"We are going to ensure that the proper structures are put in place to ensure that no area is left behind. We are going to unearth talent while we provide the infrastructure where the talent can be expressed," Grange said.
Grange said all three entities will still carry out their separate functions under one overarching body.
"The objective is to prevent the overlapping. The Institute of Sports has a mandate to unearth talent and develop the talent; they are not into infrastructure development. IPL has a mandate, they are about infrastructure and the Sport Development Foundation is about funding and we will have things streamlined in a way that we don't have an overlap," Grange said. "We will have an over arching body .... The SDF will maintain its status because it is a charitable entity."