Grange: Urgent Transformation of Insports in Progress

The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange has given the following statement on the transformation of the Institute of Sports.

Minister’s statement follows:

The Special Audit of the Institute of Sports by the Auditor General, which was tabled in Parliament last week, presents the true state of affairs of the entity that we inherited on our return to government in 2016.

The findings show an organisation that was continually breaking the law, badly managed and in need of urgent transformation.

I received a draft of the Auditor General’s Special Audit upon my return to government and immediately gave instructions for a Corrective Action Plan to be developed to deal with the breaches.

I made it clear to the Board of Management which we appointed in July 2016 that the first priority was the transformation of Insports into a well-run, accountable organisation that gives value to the people of Jamaica.

In the few months since its appointment, the Board has moved to address several of the breaches:
-Insports now has approved Corporate and Operational Plans with specific, measurable and achievable targets;
-the entity is now producing monthly and quarterly reports;
-the Board meets regularly — it has had nine meetings since July;
-the Board has a charter and requisite terms of reference for its various sub-committees.

As it moves to deal with weaknesses in its internal control, the Board has given instructions for the development of manuals, standard operating procedures and systems to govern the management of resources.

Although much more work needs to be done, the transformation of Insports has begun. I commend members of the relatively new Board for the achievements to date and I look forward to them intensifying the implementation of the Corrective Action Plan for this critical entity.

Finally, I have instructed the Board to scale-down all programmes until the corrective measures are fully implemented.