Small fires twenty-one parting shots at SVGFF’s operations

Lloyd Small, who on Tuesday tendered his resignation as first vice president of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF), plans to drop more bombshells of alleged wrongdoings of the organization.{{more}}

Small made this known to SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday.

He says he plans to do so on Saturday, at the SVGFF’s long overdue Annual General Meeting.

Small said that he returned to serve the SVGFF in September 2011, under the presidency of Venold Coombs, because he thought he still had enough to contribute to the sport nationally and regionally.

Small, who was second in command to Coombs, took up the post with special responsibility for technical matters.

However, Small revealed that Coombs took over that task, which virtually sidelined him on the executive.

“…You will hear more from me, more on Saturday, but what I can say is that football is in a bad state”, he told SEARCHLIGHT.

Small, in his letter of resignation, addressed to the federation’s general ssecretary Trevor Huggins, listed a number of reasons for his decision.

Rather than offer a twenty-one gun salute to the operations of the SVGFF, he instead fired off the same number of shots with the intent to expose its internal organs.

Among Small’s concerns were what he deemed “the persistent disregard for the governance structure and mechanism, as outlined in the constitution of the SVGFF”; “the establishment of a savings (cash) account at the St Vincent Co-operative Bank Limited, without a resolution taken by the Executive Committee, and without prior knowledge and approval of the majority of its members” and “the lack of documentation supporting disbursements, totalling in the sum of $92,905.00, from the SVGFF’s account at the above mentioned bank”.

Small also cited: “The arrogant and blatant disregard, for several months now, by a member of our Executive Committee, to provide the Auditors with the relevant documentations as part of their audit procedures, as defined by International Standards on Auditing, ISA 705”.

Other reasons for Small’s resignation, include charges of nepotism, the purchase of a laptop computer for an executive member and travel expenses funded for non-football reasons.

Meanwhile, president of the SVGFF Venold Coombs, who clothed himself in riot gear, told SEARCHLIGHT that his Executive was due to discuss the resignation yesterday at its weekly meeting.

“What he (Small) did was to preempt what the Executive had planned to do, ….The Executive was going to ask him certain questions on certain matters,” Coombs revealed.

Despite the fracture in the Executive, Coombs noted: “We are making tremendous progress and there are a lot of persons who are willing to serve … There are persons who are emerging …. It speaks volumes for the development of football …. We are on the right path.”

Small’s letter was also copied to the general secretaries of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) – Damien Hughes; CONCACAF – Enrique Sanz; and FIFA – Jerome Valcke, as well as the secretariat of the National Olympic Committee of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Small is the second person to leave the Executive since it took office. Former committee member Guy Lowe was dismissed by Coombs in August, 2012.