00:00You know we don't have to speculate because we have an example which was the life sport program which sort
00:05of, well not sort of, very clearly indicated some governance failures in terms of the coordinators, so not just participants
00:13but the coordinators themselves being involved in criminal activity.
00:17It was that comment from opposition senator and JSC member Robert Turajman which greatly troubled member David Nakhid who felt
00:25it necessary to provide a more comprehensive assessment of the sporting program which has been under investigation.
00:32This positing of life sport as a model for a lack of governance shocked here. I object to that. That
00:44is a program that had several dimensions as Dr. Ganpat would have suggested.
00:48It was multifaceted and there was a societal aspect, there was a developmental aspect and there was a sporting aspect.
00:59Now it was a massive, it ended up being a massive program that was indeed resource intensive and that is
01:07also always difficult to monitor and evaluate at all times.
01:11It was at this point that JSC Chair Independent Senator Dr. Desiree Murray interrupted.
01:17Senator Nakhid, we will be coming to monitor and evaluation next.
01:20I would like to finish, I would like to finish, I think this is important, this is important for the
01:24education, you brought it up and I think it's important that it's not just left alone.
01:29Yeah, Senator Nakhid, Senator Nakhid, I just want to say something.
01:33I would like to finish.
01:34Yeah, I'll let you finish.
01:35Can I finish my contribution?
01:37I will let you.
01:38I do not like the idea that life sport is being used as an example.
01:42You want to mute my mic?
01:43Yes.
01:43This is not a PNM convention here.
01:47I'm working on behalf of Kamna Pasad Bissassar.
01:49You cannot mute my mic.
01:52I would like to finish my contribution.
01:54If you mute my mic, I will come out of this committee.
01:57You cannot mute my mic.
01:59His colleague, Member Khadija Amin, came to his aid.
02:03I think in all fairness, you could just let the Member finish his question.
02:07Sure, as long as he, I'm very happy for him to finish his question, but I don't believe he's asking
02:13a question.
02:14I am asking a question.
02:15What I was going to say is that we have a reference of the final report of the Central Audit
02:21Committee on the Comprehensive Audit of the Payment System of the Life Sport Programme.
02:26And that's the reference that we have.
02:29So we were referring to a specific reference.
02:31It's there.
02:32It was a report laid in Parliament on the 25th of July 2014.
02:37So I just want him to know that it wasn't a personal statement from Senator Roberts Rajman.
02:42And I wanted to put that in context before allowing him to finish his point, which he can now do.
02:48I'm giving some substance to that statement.
02:50Senator Narkid was allowed to finish his contribution in defense of the life sport program, which remains mired in allegations
02:58of a multi-million dollar web of corruption and fraud.
03:02Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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