AAG left cash strapped and in debt

-new association rejects unaudited financial report

Newly elected president of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) Aubrey Hutson remains upbeat in the face of an injunction filed by former president Colin Boyce against the AAG and after discovering that the national track and field body over which he now presides is in a financial debacle of momentous proportions.

“Right now we are operating as though we have no money from the AAG because the state that the AAG is in financially is terrible,” Hutson said.

Hutson succeeded Boyce who was booted from the helm of the AAG last month at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and general elections after serving just one term.

 Colin Boyce
Colin Boyce
Aubrey Hutson
Aubrey Hutson

Boyce has subsequently filed an injunction attempting to declare the results of last month’s elections invalid.
In an invited comment with Stabroek Sport, Hutson said that the AAG is indebted to several organisations and the financial report submitted by the last administration was not only unaudited but was filled with discrepancies.

“The financial report that was submitted is riddled with inaccuracies so we had to throw that out,” Hutson said.
According the Hutson, the AAG’s financial reports have not been audited for quite some time.

Guyana Olympic Assoc-iation (GOA) vice president, Hector Edwards, who previously audited for the AAG, told Stabroek Sport a few days ago that he was unsure if he still was the fraternity’s auditor as he had not been approached to perform that task in more than two years.
As it relates to the debts, Hutson said that so far he has been made aware that the AAG owes the GOA G$454,000 and similar sums to travel agents for unpaid airline tickets.

“I already had to spend G$50,000 trying to establish a coaching structure because the IAAF has been deducting some of the money that they would send to the AAG for all those years since they did not have a coaching structure,” Hutson said.

Questioned further Hutson revealed that the G$50,000 spent to implement the coaching structure came out of his pocket which was also the case for last Sunday’s Cross Country Championships. Hutson disclosed that several members of the newly constituted AAG expended personal funds to ensure that the event was staged after recognising the financial debacle that the AAG currently faces.

Additionally, the AAG is expected to face sanctions from the IAAF for failing to compete in the South American Youth Champion-ships last October. Junior sprint sensation Tevin Garraway had achieved the qualifying standard for that event but was told by the AAG that they could not afford to send him to the event in Argentina.

Hutson said that he is aware of the fact that the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) may also deduct money from grants to punish the AAG for failing to participate in that mandatory meet.

Question marks also surround the staging of the President’s/Jefford’s Classic track and field meet an initiative of Boyce which received lucrative sponsorship from a number of companies.

Hutson yesterday told Stabroek Sport that the President’s Jefford Track and Field meet was a personal tournament for Mr. Boyce and Mr. Jefford.

Hutson said that this year on the AAG calendar of events which was done by the previous administration, the name  of the event has been changed to the Colin Boyce/Edison Jefford Classic.

In the past, Hutson said no money from that meet went to the association. The only the AAG stood to benefit from was the sanctioning fee. He could not say how much that fee was but Stabroek Sport was reliably informed that the sanctioning fee is around $30,000.

Stabroek Sports attempted to contact Boyce and former treasurer Faye Naughton but neither could be reached. AAG’s former General Secretary Claude Blackmore stated that he had no involvement in the financial affairs of the 2008-2012 AAG administration.

Hutson said that under his guidance the new AAG will have a more structured and transparent approach to the administration of the sport. One of his main areas of focus will be to have an effective financial committee that will aggressively pursue the interest in the sport of corporate Guyana rather than approaching companies two weeks before an oversees competition that they need money to attend.