The Tribune

SEVEN Bahamas Olympic Committee (BOC) members, including five vice presidents, the treasurer and assistant treasurer, have issued a joint press release voicing their displeasure with the manner in which BOC president Wellington Miller wants to conduct their upcoming elections.

The officers issuing the press release are treasurer Larry Wilson, assistant treasurer Dianne Miller and vice presidents David Morley, Anton Sealey, Algernon Cargill, Mike Sands and Don Cornish.

The elections are scheduled for this month but Miller has yet to announce the date.

“This press release seeks to clarify some of the mis-information we have read and seen in the press over the past few days. It is regrettable that these issues have evolved to this point where it is necessary to air them in the public domain, this was never our intention but we find it necessary at this point.

“These matters could have and should have been addressed in house at an executive meeting of the BOC, however the president and secretary general appear to be intent on not calling a meeting of the executives in spite of numerous calls from the majority of the executives and in spite of the constitutional mandate to do so.

“There has been two executive meetings since the Olympic Games, there has been numerous calls for meetings and a call for a full day conclave of the executives to try to resolve this and other matters which require attention, however since the president and secretary general are of the view that they do not have the support of seven of the 11 executives they are not prepared to meet.

“In spite of our differences, we have a duty as elected members of the BOC and are mandated to meet at a minimum on a monthly basis. In light of the upcoming elections, the need to amend the constitution and the many other issues to be addressed, one would think these meetings would be more frequent rather than cease all together.

“Firstly on the matter of the IOC’s involvement and advice, it has been reported that the IOC has mandated that the executives of the BOC do not vote and if they choose to do so, the BOC could face sanctions and risk reduced financial support from the IOC. To our knowledge this is untrue, all correspondence we have had with the IOC, they have recommended that the executives do not vote but have not mandated this, similarly to the last elections four years ago when they recommended same but advised the final decision was up to the General Assembly. “Additionally, no where in these correspondences did the IOC mention any such condition regarding sanctions or funding. We would like to call on anyone who has valid correspondence to either of these points to please produce for consideration.

“Secondly on the point of executives voting, in principle we have no issue with this, as reported we are the ones who fought and went to court against the previous executive board on this very point. What we do have a great difficulty with is the president’s motives at this time. As mentioned for four years we have been pushing very aggressively to have the constitution amended to include this very point, the president himself was the main objector going as far as to say “you guys are trying to take away my God given right” at which point we had to remind him that this was not a national general election.

“We acknowledge that the IOC held up the process for a period, however we still had lots of time to get the constitution amended and ratified. The president himself blocked every attempt to have this happen, it wasn’t until he realised that elections were nearing and he did not have the support of seven of his 11 executives that he now wants to rush a constitution through, in attempt to eliminate those seven votes against him. We take great exception to this and the manipulation of the process.

“We also note how the president has conveniently left out the many other points we would like included for the membership consideration, which both he and the secretary general seem not to want to put to the membership.

“Term limits – we are proposing that no person can serve as an executive on the BOC for more than four terms (16 years) total, whether consecutive or non consecutive. And that no person can serve as president, secretary general (SG), assistant secretary, treasurer or assistant treasurer for more than two terms (eight years) total, whether consecutive or non consecutive. They seem not to want to put this to the membership, one must wonder why.

“The SG is to be an elected position, they are proposing the SG be a paid appointed position, we rather would like to see an executive director (ED) as an appointed paid position with no voting rights. We feel this will minimise one person being in a position of such authority as SG and effectively acting as ED and the opportunity for manipulation.

That the sitting President, SG nor ED can simultaneously be a sitting executive member of a federation. This will minimise the likelihood of these key positions to manipulate issues in favour of their federations.

“These are only a few of the proposed amendments we are making, attached is a copy of our proposed constitution for your perusal, with our changes highlighted in yellow. We are confident that you will find that this document only serves to strengthen and protect the organisation and would cause one to wonder why anyone would oppose such proposals.

“During these past four years the BOC, the federations and the athletes have probably enjoyed the best relationship in recent history if not ever. We can appreciate that the federations and athletes primarily only see the president and SG as they are the ones in the office and conducting the press conferences, however we would like to assure them that this relationship and the benefits derived from it has been a collective effort by the entire executive board.”

On behalf of:

Larry Wilson – Treasurer

Dianne Miller – Asst. Treasurer

David Morley – VP

Anton Sealey – VP

Algernon Cargill – VP

Mike Sands – VP

Don Cornish - VP