In a recent press release, CTL said these delays have also been impacting the company's ability to market Caymanas Park, promote the Jamaican racing product and attract and retain corporate racing sponsorship, all of which would contribute to the development of Jamaica's racing industry and allow CTL to further increase racing purses.
In response to comments and queries from various racing stakeholders groups, the CTL board is providing stakeholders and the public with the facts surrounding delays with implementing many projects and operational improvements as a result of the lengthy, cumbersome project approval process.
CTL's board and management, stated the press release, have suffered through a very frustrating period, based on the requirement that all projects that exceed $500,000 in value must be approved by the Ministry of Finance or the National Contacts Committee.
This requirement has also been placed on work and improvement projects that CTL needs to carry out in its normal course of business, and has been made worse by the unwarranted interference of the contractor general, which has served to further set back the approval process.
When the new CTL board took office 12 months ago, it set a number of priorities to address the needs of racing stakeholders and improve CTL operations.
In line with these priorities, goals were set, professionals were engaged and project plans were quickly developed and prepared to seek formal approval.
Included in these priorities were projects started by the previous board which had still not been approved, rapid improvements to the Caymanas Park physical plant, and getting the racing product up on television to expand the audience for horse racing.
Pending issues
To date, the only final approval received has been for the tote graphic system, and this took six months.
Some of the matters pending include installation of fire hydrants across Caymanas Park, standby generator which was originally refused by the NCC on second request in January, but has since being purchased and now been installed.
This is only the tip of the iceberg, as other major projects like the installion of an elevator for the club stand, new seats for the stands, tenders for live television and marketing services, receipt of signal for English racing, among other projects. are either delayed by the slow process or not approved.
Unfortunately, the release continued, when one approval is delayed it often results in other projects being set back, as in the case with the installation of new seats in the stands, which cannot be started until the beams and columns in the stands are completely cleaned and painted.
MOVE FORWARD
The new and recently increased limit of $10 million for projects what will be exempt from the lengthy, cumbersome project approval process will allow CTL to move forward with some of the projects that were stalled since the tender process for these projects will now be controlled by CTL.
Looking back at the recent Superstakes Day, CTL lost its potential major sponsor and the sponsorship dollars that would have impacted purses because the sponsorship was dependent on CTL providing live television racing broadcasts.