Bennett: KSAFA set to review its constitution
Published:Tuesday | December 31, 2024 | 12:09 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
President of the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association Mark Bennett said they are looking to make some constitutional reforms this year, and these changes, he hopes, will reduce the possibility of corruption, especially in elections.
Bennett said his aim is to create a system of governance where transparency and integrity define the organisation.
He is also looking at adapting some of the policies of the local governing body, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), to strengthen the internal structure of the association.
“One of the things that is big on our agenda for next year (2025) is the review of our constitution. There are some things we want to do much better and tighten, in terms of the governance of the association.
“I do not want to sit in a system that, when comes to election time, you have paper groups and paper clubs. That is something that we are big on, to ensure that those things never happen.
“We do not want to see something like that in our association, where any administration that is in power can manipulate the system. We want to have a constitution to ensure that only existing clubs can vote in elections,” he said.
Bennett pointed that there are some aspects of the JFF’s internal structure that could be very useful to their own, and so they plan to put some of these things in place.
“There are some things in the JFF constitution that we want to become a part of our constitution. For example, the independent committees, such as the audit and compliance, competitions committee, appeals committee. We want to have a body, with the people nominated by us and appointed by the members.
“We also want to have a nomination committee that accepts nominations for prospective members,” he said.
He said that they will undergo due process and then take it to the congress for the board’s approval.
“So those are the things that I am looking at, to ensure that no one can engineer an election to their benefit,” he added.
Bennett was a member of the Raymond Anderson-led slate that contested the last JFF election against Michael Ricketts’ team.
He came to office in November 2022, after the previous president, Wayne Shaw, resigned. He has two years remaining in his term.