T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC) president Brian Lewis is promising a Good Sport Governance code will soon become reality for this country.
The TTOC, the body holding exclusive authority for the Olympic Games and sports recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is also responsible for the Commonwealth Games and sports recognised by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) under the T&T Commonwealth Games Association (TTCGA).
And in the TTOC’s ongoing efforts to raise governance standards in the national sport organisations (NSOs) across the country, the TTOC is in discussions with international and local good governance experts as part of the national Olympic committee’s commitment to establish a Good Sport Governance code and guidelines.
“Good governance of national sports organisations and national governing bodies is essential to ensuring the development of sport is in accordance with the ethics and values of sport,” Lewis said.
“Given the role of sport within society to inspire and influence, the transparency, democracy and integrity of national sport organisations and governing bodies, clubs and sport based organisations needs to be assured.”
Lewis also said that national sporting bodies needed to govern their affairs in an “efficient, accountable, transparent and democratic manner”.
Transparency International (TI) defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.
It is a situation Lewis and his TTOC executive want to rid the NSOs of.
“Be it by choice, inability or inadvertence, poor governance leads to corruption and the misuse of resources with the consequent negative impact on the athletes in particular.”
Lewis, who has been involved in sport administration for three decades, said there was no one size fits all panacea and good corporate and organisational governance norms can’t be adopted blindly in sport.
“It’s a complex situation that requires consideration of the specificity of sport. Hence the intention of the TTOC/TTCGA to work with a cross section of experts to ensure that the TTOC proposed Good Sport Governance code is credible and realistic.”
Lewis concluded by saying the implementation and compliance action plan must be responsive to the need for co-operation across the T&T sport sector.