According to reports, elite Bahamian athletes have three more weeks to enjoy their present cash assistance from The Bahamas' Government as a 10 percent cut across the board will be enforced at the beginning of October.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Charles Maynard described the decrease as a "slight cut" which was necessary.

He confirmed that all athletes were made aware of the changes and were notified through official letters.

The Bahamas Olympic Committee (BOC) and the various federations were also updated, said Maynard.

He went on to explain that all matters were being"ironed out."

However, this is the first cut since the program, which was designed to assist the country's elite athletes, started in 1995.

Maynard said: "We are working with the federations and The Bahamas Olympic Committee, dealing with certain matters as far as the subvention programs are concerned.

"We did have to make some slight cuts across the board, this is for everybody. Every athlete that is on the subvention list, they will suffer a 10 percent cut starting in October. Yes they were notified of that through letters.

"We had to do it in order to accommodate everybody. It has to do with the limited resources that we have and the amount of athletes who qualified for subventions, that is the main thing.

"Athletes qualified based on performance level and I guess their status as elite or developmental athletes. As far as I know, it (the subvention program) has never been cut across the board in order to accommodate people, but I know that from time to time that athletes will either get an increase or a decrease depending on their performance.

"This (the cuts) was not a performance-based thing, it was done so that we would be able to accommodate everyone who is on the list."

Minister Maynard was unable to confirm how many athletes are currently receiving subventions.

However, the 2008/09 Subventions Review list had 62 Bahamians named. No listing was released by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture last year and none to date this year.

The subvention program is in place to assist Olympians or developmental athletes in their training and preparation for major meets.

Just last year, athletes enjoyed an increase of $270,815 which brought the budget to $1.2 million.

The former Minister of Sports Desmond Bannister spoke about last year's budget, saying that it was the" biggest ever for the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture."

Even though some increases were seen last year, the annual National Endowment for Sports was decreased by half a million dollars.

Maynard acknowledged that the sports budget was" "chopped" but added that it was nothing sports could not handle.

"One of the things is, we have more and more developmental athletes being included or recommended by their federations especially now that we are headed into an Olympic year," said Maynard.

"It is important to help as many athletes as possible because some of them have the potential to make teams and do well. We only have a limited amount of budgeted sums for the subvention program and therefore we have to make those kind of decisions that will allow for as many athletes as possible to be serviced. What I can say, is that the Bahamas Olympic Committee and their federations have brought forth a policy for whose names should be submitted, outside of the Sports Policy. They want to use the Sports Policy as a guide because you have athletes who are on subvention who refuse to be a part of national teams for certain events. This is why I am saying that the matters are under review."

Athletes currently receiving subventions are from the sporting disciplines of swimming, track and field, tennis, boxing and bodybuilding.