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toubab1020
12312 Posts |
 Posted - 15 Jun 2011 : 15:53:15
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Oh dear this appears to be another case of the person in charge not taking responsibility and blaming someone else.It is very worrying to see that an OFFICIAL Gambian team who won were not paid on time despite they were out of the country away from their families.I am not surprised that there was anger in the camp.
Alieu K. Jammeh, should accept responsibility if things go wrong and not present himself as not being to blame,disorganisation at the very least appears to be evident within the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/youth-and-sports-ministry-reacts-to-scorpions-match-allowance-saga
Youth and Sports Ministry reacts to Scorpions match allowance saga
africa » gambia
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
The Ministry of Youth and Sports yesterday held a press briefing at its office in Banjul to react to the mounting saga neighbouring the notorious non-payment of match allowances of players of the Gambia senior national team - the Scorpions.
Furious players of the Scorpions, who returned to Banjul at the weekend on the back of a heroic 1-nil win over Gabon much to the delight of the Gambian soccer fans, on Friday afternoon met at the Seaview Hotel to voice out their anger and frustration at the country’s youth and sports ministry for what they said was a total disappointment over the non-payment of their match allowances, in contrast to the promise made by representatives of the ministry who attended the last week conference at the Seaview Hotel.
The players and officials of the team were engaged in a strong negotiation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports representatives led by the permanent secretary, Alieu K. Jammeh, who they said made a promise that their allowances would be sent to them in Gabon, three days before the team is scheduled to take part in an international friendly match that took place in Libreville, Gabon, last Tuesday.
Scorpions’ team administrator Bakary Terema Dahaba, Coach Paul Put together with three senior players including stand-in-captain Mustapha Jarju blasted the ministry for its failure in its responsibilities of paying their match allowances.
The men also accused the ministry of lying to them much to the sadness of the permanent secretary, Alieu Jammeh, who took advantage of the press conference to react to the story of the match allowances, whose matter, as well as allegation of the ministry’s authorities being liars, continues to dominate recent media reports.
Jammeh, who expressed concern for the nonappearance GFA officials and Scorpions representatives, including Coach Paul Put, used the platform to explain why the much talked about Scorpions’ match allowances could not reach them in Gabon as promised.
He said the cheque for the allowances was finally signed since last Wednesday but before that the process took three working days as a result of "the unavailability" of the guy that supposed to sign the cheque.
"The cheque was signed since last Wednesday but the fact that the guy responsible for signing was not available it had to take us three working days before we could get hold of it," he explained. "And that was what warranted the players and their officials to insult and castigate the Ministry and its staff?" asked PS Jammeh, who also expressed dissatisfaction with The Point newspaper’s editorial of Monday captioned: "Don’t try to silence the voice of the people!".
"It pained us when we heard the news that the players that play for our own country and officials who work for the government used the media to insult us in a manner that is unwarranted," says Jammeh, who also questioned the role of the Gambia Football Association (GFA) in funding football.
"What is the role of the GFA in funding football because I learnt that all the FAs receive 250,000 US dollars from Fifa and what are they doing with those funds," the PS says, adding that the Fifa goal project, which is at its fifth face, is being "mismanaged", which if properly managed could be used to camp the national teams.
"If we get focused on football only at the expense of other disciplines, what time will be left for us to spend on other areas," he queried.
The role of Gambia for Gold, a fundraising committee tasked with the responsibility of raising the needed funds for the national teams’ participation at international championships, came under intense attack in recent times but its chairman, Tombong Saidy, was on the defensive side of the committee.
He told journalists at a press conference that the role of Gambia for Gold is very clear to everyone, saying: "It was established by all stakeholders and its main objective is to raise funds for football for the next four years and we have surpassed the half of the estimated target of raising 32 million dalasis for a four year period."
Bakary Jammeh, a member of Gambia for Gold, who talked on various issues, said "this blame game cannot take us any where" and called on all and sundry to put their individual grievances aside to work towards ensuring that Gambian football is taken to the highest standard.
Author: Lamin Drammeh
Source: Picture: PS Alieu Jammeh
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"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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toubab1020
12312 Posts |
Posted - 23 Jun 2011 : 15:37:08
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One Permanent Secretary is not pleased  to have his department's incompetence exposed ,I have just seen this :
http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/dont-try-to-silence-the-voice-of-the-people
Don't try to silence the voice of the people!
africa » gambia
Monday, June 13, 2011
It is disturbing that a senior journalist from The Point has been called by a senior government official, in fact a Permanent Secretary, and told that his organisation should not carry out the function for which it was established.
We refer to the fact that our Lamin Drammeh, Deputy Sports Editor, was told that the paper should hold on to a story, published in today's issue, regarding the grievances of the senior national team players over unpaid allowances, after taking part in a friendly game against Gabon last Tuesday.
Furious players of the senior national team, who returned to Banjul at the weekend on the back of a 1-nil win over Gabon, held a press conference at the Seaview Hotel on Friday afternoon to voice out their anger and frustration to the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
They expressed their total disappointment with regard to the non-payment of their match allowances, which they said the Sports ministry promised to do when they arrive in Gabon.
We are all living witnesses to the negotiations between the players, officials of the team and the ministry over match bonuses, in which the players were convinced to go and promised that their match bonuses will be paid to them in Gabon.
This was just few days ago, when the team left Banjul for Gabon.
Now that the team is back home victorious, their match bonuses are yet to be paid, and we are being told not to carry that story.
The Point is a newspaper, and it has the responsibility to its readers and the general public to report not only what is said in a public forum, but also to report on issues of national interest without bias or fear.
In this case, the forum was a press conference called by the players themselves to express their grievances.
Though playing for the national team is a national issue, which requires the players to be prepared to make sacrifices sometimes, it is our humble view that the Sports ministry in Banjul should have been straight and open with the players over why the delay in paying their match allowances.
It is the right of the players to raise their concerns in the way they did, and it is the duty of The Point to publish those concerns.
We all know that people in this nation struggle every day, and work hard to feed themselves and their families.
It is our view that players too cannot also leave this country and their families behind, to go on national duties without leaving any money with their families back home, most of whom rely on them for their daily subsistence.
Another part to this issue is that the general public relies on the media to report what is happening in this country, and we believe that everything said at that press conference is a matter for the public record.
The Gambian public must have access to it, because it concerns their national team.
To deny the media the right to report what has been said in a public forum is an attempt to hinder or restrict free speech, and freedom of the press.
We as journalists have a duty to report what has been said, and nothing and nobody should interfere with this.
What is published in The Point is the fact and nothing else, even if the truth appears not to go down well with the Permanent Secretary concerned.
In our view, the paper and the journalist in question did their job well in reflecting accurately the grievances of members of the country's senior national team, who were on national duty.
They should not be criticized for doing this; instead, they should be praised and thanked.
"The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves."
William Hazlitt
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"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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Edited by - toubab1020 on 23 Jun 2011 15:37:53 |
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