The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The National Sports Authority (NSA) has become the latest government board to be hit with allegations of infighting and "dysfunction", with the new general manager unable to take office.

Multiple Tribune Business sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Quintin Brennan, a 20-year Atlantis veteran, had been selected to fill a post left vacant for seven months after the previous incumbent, Jeffrey Beckles, stepped down in early 2018.

However, Mr Brennan, a former senior director of convention services at The Bahamas' largest private sector employer, has been unable to fully assume his duties because his appointment was never brought to cabinet for its approval.

"He can't take office because they never got approval to hire him," one source said. "The only way they can employ him is if he acts as a consultant. They were talking to him for three months, and he signed a contract." Mr Brennan is understood to have been at the NSA since Monday this week, but cannot properly function.

His predicament is part of wider board battle that has forced Lanisha Rolle, newly-appointed as minister of youth, sports and culture, to intervene and effectively "freeze" activities at the NSA until it is resolved, Tribune Business understands.

Numerous contacts confirmed there was a division between one NSA director, radio show host Lester Cox, and other Board members that had emerged in the wake of Mr Beckles' departure and the vacant general manager position.

Tribune Business understands that the Board, chaired by Vaughn Roberts, asked Mr Cox to perform as "a liaision" between directors and management until a full-time replacement was found. Some directors, though, came to believe that Mr Cox had effectively appointed himself as general manager and gone beyond what was asked of him, leading to an NSA Boardroom split.

Mr Cox did not respond to a Tribune Business e-mail seeking comment last night, but one source said: "Right now, everything's frozen at the NSA. This is what the fighting is all about. If you have a Board that doesn't function, what do you think is going to happen to a new general manager?"

They added that maintenance of the Thomas A Robinson Stadium, and other facilities at the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre, was suffering amid the Board divide and exposing Bahamian taxpayers to potential loss/additional expense.

One source said a $3m investment in new grass at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium, former stadium and rugby and football fields, which was required for the Bahamas Bowl and recent Commonwealth Youth Games, was now in danger of being squandered through lack of maintenance.

"In two years some $3m of hard-earned taxpayers' money was put into the national stadium, the old Thomas A Robinson stadium and the fields; brand new everything and irrigation, and in less than two years it's gone," they added. "It's completely deteriorated. It's really disgraceful."