Time to act!
Andrew Lue, the man seeking to be the next president of the Jamaica Table Tennis Association (JTTA), has reiterated his call for top-level intervention in the organisation.
Lue, a former national player, has questioned the legitimacy of the Godfrey Lothian-led team, which he branded as “rogue” and one that continues to “unconstitutionally” perform the governing functions of the embattled association.
A Supreme Court ruling last year had made null and void the elections of last February, which the long-serving Lothian won.
In addition, all constitutional amendments and critical decisions made prior were effectively quashed by the court’s ruling, which included a name change from the JTTA to Table Tennis Jamaica (TTJ).
But Lothian, who was first elected in 2013, is claiming that the power of the office of president remains with him until elections are held. Constitutionally, elections are due every two years.
Both Lothian and Lue have been in election party mode, with the hope that some resolution will come and elections can be held to bring closure to the highly controversial power of the current office and the divide the public spat has created.
There was hope, as required by the constitution, that an audited financial statement would have been served with notice to the membership and formally presented at a congress at the end of February, but the parties don’t appear closer to a resolution and a path forward.
Lue told a press conference over a week ago and renewed his claim to the Jamaica Observer on Thursday that he had sought the intervention of the Ministry of Sports and the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA), but he is yet to get a satisfactory response from either.
“I am bitterly disappointed with the non-action of the [sports ministry] and the JOA. The sport currently needs the authorities to step in and help us to have fair elections.
“I have written a letter to the minister [Olivia Grange] and copied it to the JOA requesting their intervention. I have described the current situation in the letter [and] I have also sent an email to the minister requesting a meeting to discuss the contents of the letter. I subsequently received an e-mail confirming receipt of the letter and my meeting request, but nothing else,” Lue said.
The JTTA presidential candidate has called on the media to “stop addressing Lothian as the president of the JTTA, because he is not”.
“Lothian’s latest term of service [two years] expired last year (January 2019), which is why an election was held at the annual general meeting (AGM). At that point, the JTTA managing council was dissolved to hold an election.
“We see where subsequent to the court ruling there is no duly elected JTTA managing council [and] the court’s instruction was for mediation to take place and new elections held,” said Lue.
The 51-year-old believes that Lothian should not be able to hold the post of president as his administration, since taking office in 2013, has not presented audited financials to the membership.
“Lothian and his team have never provided any audited statements from 2013, [and] this is a constitutional requirement. Failure to provide audited statements for his entire tenure should disqualify him from having any post in the JTTA council going forward,” noted Lue.
Lothian had said in an interview with the Observer recently that while annual staetements have been presented over the course of his tenure, he admitted that audited financials were not done.
“When we came in, honestly, we were operating and presenting financial reports every year, but not audited reports and it wasn’t a problem then…the constitution says we should present one every year.
“What we have done now is to send all the documents for 2018 and 2019 to the auditors and those years are being worked on to carry to the AGM [annual general meeting]. We believe that our accounts should be audited and we believe in transparency and we will be adhering to the constitution,” Lothian had said last month.
In his address at the press conference at the offices of the Sports Development Foundation, Lue presented fundamental points of concerns he hopes can be tackled as quickly as possible.
“My points of concern are to dissolve the management council, [of the] ‘rogue’ JTTA; [get rid] of bogus affiliates. I am also concerned that there are no audited financial statements since 2013; non-existent record keeping; no equipment registry; the questionable distribution of equipment; lack of JTTA-run leagues and tournaments; lack of actively competing clubs; youth leaving the sport at their peak years; stagnation of certification and coaches unemployment; disunity, promotion of reversed classism and lack of sponsorship,” Lue stated.
In his electronic correspondent to the Ministry of Sports, which was copied to the JOA, Lue also outlined other critical areas of concerns.
“We need a forensic audit of the JTTA accounts and donated equipment [tables, bats, rubbers, balls, etc] for the years 2013-2019; verification and cleaning up of the current list of registered affiliates of the JTTA and a fair election of officers to constitute the executive council of the JTTA,” he noted.
As Lue and those like-minded await mediation, a contingency plan is also being crafted to respond to what is claimed a “crisis” in local table tennis.
“The Supreme Court has already ruled and sent us to mediation and new elections [and] we will do whatever is necessary to have clean elections.
“We will write letters and seek audience with the local authorities again. If that fails, we will write to LATTU (Latin America Table Tennis Union), the ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) and the IOC (International Olympic Committee).
“If necessary, we will have public displays of our discontent, and since we have as much right to the JTTA assets and office, we just might consider taking action to have them safeguarded and removed,” Lue said.
With no clear timeline in sight to the next election of officers, Lue thinks the sport, meantime, is steadily declining.
“Table tennis in Jamaica is at an all-time low. The ITTF statistics show this. In 2017 we had dropped from being top of the region in previous times to sixth (ITTF rank 97) in the region. As of February 2020, we are now eighth in the region (ITTF rank 129). If you look at the ITTF ranking, it’s not that these teams that were below us are rising, it’s because we are slipping so rapidly. The gap between us and the top regional team is increasing rapidly.
“Last year we had one tournament, the National Championships, where players from the diaspora sponsored the trophies and prize money because there were no sponsors for these. Also, for 2019, there was one ‘Premier League’ played (still not completed) and the prize money is sponsored by a player through his business.
“This ‘Premier League’ has novices and all other players lumped together competing because we cannot have separate leagues with different divisions due to lack of participating clubs and lack of finances. Sponsors are not touching JTTA-related competitions because of the current disunity and lack of transparency,” Lue ended.