The Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SPORTT), an agency of the Ministry of Sport and Community Development, has successfully obtained a judgment against eBeam Interact Limited in relation to the Life Sport Programme, in the amount of $30 million, plus interest and costs.
The ruling comes ten years after then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar scrapped the programme.
This now means that SPORTT can r ecover monies paid under the previous contract, related to the Life Sport Programme.
In July 2014, Persad-Bissessar said the programme was fraught with irregularities including lack of adhering to proper procurement practices, overpaying for good and services and possible fraud. The report also said “there may be criminal elements in positions of supervision and coordination within the programme.”
Life Sport was conceptualised by former sports minister Anil Roberts and was supposed to target at-risk youths teaching them various trade skills, sports and an educational element.
Adolphus Daniel, then owner of eBeam Interact Ltd, defiantly declared that he would not return a cent of the $34 million paid by the Sport Company for work undelivered under the controversial programme.
Daniel, a former St Mary’s College teacher and head of Daniel Educational Institute, died on March 21, 2021.