Shadow Sports Minister Donte Hunt has accused Government of “falling asleep at the wheel” for its apparent failure to keep tabs with the millions they pumped into football and cricket in recent years.Earlier this week a Commission of Inquiry concluded that neither Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB) nor Bermuda Football Association (BFA) had any case to answer over their use of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ hard-earned cash.However, in response to the Comission’s findings, Hunt went as far as to accuse Government of being reckless with the public’s purse, branded the inquiry as redundant and questioned whether or not the the funding benefited Bermuda, BCB and BFA affiliates and the athletes as a whole.“I do not, and I’m speaking personally, think the Government has been prudent in the way they have managed the public’s purse with regards to the amount they pledged to both sports,” he said.“I do believe that both sports need the support of Government and the community financially and otherwise. But just like any dissemination of massive amounts of funds there needs to be checks and balances that ensure these monies are used in an adequate and effective manner.“It just seems redundant that we’ve had to have this inquiry when in fact these draw downs and the process that I understand they had to go through should in fact have been many and periodic inquiries.“In a sense each drawdown was an inquiry within itself. Each drawdown of the money that was available was in fact an inquiry of itself; something that was hard coated in the process and it seems redundant that we have to do this. It seems as if somebody was sleeping at the wheel; money was given when the whole process was not fully realised.“The other scenario is that the drawdown process was not substainal enough, meaning we would give you money and you just have to give us a substandard amount of information and we are happy.”Added Hunt: “It just seems very odd and the questions also begs to ask did the money that was presented to these two entities do what it was supposed to do? Was anti-social behaviours reduced within both entities? Are we having players that are more keen on their sport and producing less anti-social behaviour? Are we having individuals in both sports getting more scholarships overseas?“These are very measurable and quantifiable things we need to look at and just to have the minister (Glenn Blakeney) indicate that ‘hey, the money was spent correctly and everything is okay’ . . . that may be okay from an audit perspective but what about the performance of these two groups?“The OBA is not saying that each entity did not use the money correctly. But the question still begs why did the Government feel that they needed to do an inquiry of such magnitude when the checks and balances were hard coated in the process.“Do we regret giving the amount of money to cricket and football . . . it’s hard to say we regret doing that. But what I think where the regret is in terms of Government’s control of what was going on and what has happened to the money.”Hunt said he doesn’t believe the athletes or Bermuda as a whole received bang for their buck for the millions invested in the two national sports.“I don’t think we got bang for our buck for the amount of money spent for the simple fact we have had to have an inquiry of such nature in place which tells me that we did not get the best bang for our buck, and I think the ones that lost the most are the athletes,” he added.“Secondly, and a close second, is the people of Bermuda because they had to foot the bill. But our athletes lost the most because I don’t feel as though they were given the support that they could’ve gotten for the amount of money that was produced.“For the amount of money spent where are we today in sports? Can we say that we have an acceptable amount of young people who have grown as an individual as a result and that’s the point of all of this.“The point is not just to say that Bermuda is the best cricket team in the world, that’s not the point of this. The point of this is to provide guidance to young people who have a talent in sports and that guidance is holistic; its not just about taking that bat and hitting the ball. It’s utilising the fundamental elements which is hard work, focus and applying that, not only to sports, but to their lives in general, and that’s where we look at the value of the money that was spent.“The proof is in the pudding and I don’t blame the BFA or BCB. I put the blame on Government who did not have the foresight and ability to craft the usage of the funds in a such a manner that benefited Bermuda and the athletes as a whole.”Hunt also took issue with the Comission of Inquiry’s harsh criticism of BFA and BCB affiliated clubs .“The question first of all is has that money produced any benefit to your club, meaning the infrastructure because we know there are a lot of clubs out there that are begging for funds to improve their infrastructure,” he said. “Has it produced that and I would say most of them, if not all of them, will say no.“So the question still begs to be asked was the money used correctly and what is the definition of the correct use of the money?”