Bri­an Lewis

Storm clouds, dark and omi­nous have en­veloped the eco­nom­ic land­scape. The price of oil is falling and with it op­ti­mism and high hopes.

Fi­nance and Econ­o­my Min­is­ter Lar­ry Howai last week in a state­ment to the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives an­nounced that min­istries will be or­dered to re­view spend­ing in light of an oil price be­neath that bud­get­ed.

"Min­istries will there­fore be re­quired to re­view their bud­gets to de­ter­mine ar­eas where ex­pen­di­ture can be sup­pressed," Howai said.

"The min­istry will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor what is hap­pen­ing in the glob­al en­vi­ron­ment and to re­fine our re­me­di­al fis­cal mea­sures to en­sure that the coun­try can re­spond ap­pro­pri­ate­ly to changes in the mar­ket for oil and gas."

Na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions in T&T are im­pact­ed by the econ­o­my. Any re­duc­tion in rev­enue must be of con­cern to na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions.

The Fi­nance Min­is­ter in­di­cat­ed that all min­istries must im­me­di­ate­ly re­duce their ex­pense by 45 mil­lion dol­lars each. He al­so in­di­cat­ed that fur­ther ad­just­ments may be nec­es­sary as the sit­u­a­tion con­tin­ues.

Na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions must have con­ver­sa­tions with their mem­ber­ship to pre­pare for the volatil­i­ty that can be ex­pect­ed in light of the eco­nom­ic re­al­i­ties.

From a strate­gic man­age­ment per­spec­tive, not many na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions would have made al­lowances for the threat posed by falling oil prices.

In fact most na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions have in­di­cat­ed that they were al­ready faced with sig­nif­i­cant cuts based on what they had bud­get­ed and sub­mit­ted.

Sport ad­min­is­tra­tors have sug­gest­ed that they will have to take dras­tic mea­sures in re­spect of their plans and pro­grammes.

The next 12 months are crit­i­cal in the con­text of Rio 2016 Olympics.

Any dras­tic cur­tail­ing of pro­grammes and plans to prop­er­ly pre­pare this coun­try's elite and high per­for­mance ath­letes and na­tion­al teams will prove detri­men­tal and may well put an end to any re­al­is­tic chances of qual­i­fy­ing for Rio 2016 and for those who do qual­i­fy, ham­per hopes of win­ning a cov­et­ed medal.

Un­cer­tain­ty for na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions and ath­letes can prove dis­tract­ing but it need not de­rail ef­forts to achieve podi­um tar­gets.

Over­com­ing the fi­nan­cial chal­lenges will not be easy but re­main­ing pos­i­tive and de­ter­mined is the per­fect an­ti­dote.

Falling oil prices high­light the down­side of the de­pen­den­cy on oil and gas as the main pil­lar of the econ­o­my.

Sport presents a num­ber of op­por­tu­ni­ties and re­gard­less of the price of oil, life will go on.

Na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions that are able to forge the ap­pro­pri­ate strate­gic re­sponse will cope with the tur­bu­lence.

The main con­cern will be for our ath­letes. It will be the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the sport ad­min­is­tra­tors to negate the pit­falls.

The im­por­tance of a well-struc­tured re­source al­lo­ca­tion process be­comes a crit­i­cal suc­cess fac­tor. How will na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions in­vest re­sources? How will na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions eval­u­ate if its re­source al­lo­ca­tion is ef­fec­tive?

Falling oil prices and aus­ter­i­ty mea­sures need not be detri­men­tal to na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions and ath­letes. In fact it may well turn out to be a pos­i­tive turn­ing point for re­source al­lo­ca­tion with­in the T&T sport ecosys­tem.

In a very re­al sense falling oil prices and the ad­verse im­pact on the econ­o­my while trou­bling, presents the op­por­tu­ni­ty for na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions to be­come more strate­gic.

�2 Bri­an Lewis is pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee. The views ex­pressed are not nec­es­sar­i­ly those of the Olympic Com­mit­tee.