Geisha Kow­lessar

Com­pa­nies vy­ing for the right to broad­cast Car­ni­val 2014 via the In­ter­net are ques­tion­ing the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion's (NCC) three-month de­lay in nam­ing who has been award­ed a bid.Writer, pro­duc­er and di­rec­tor Danielle Di­ef­fen­thaller, in an in­ter­view with the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day, said it was dis­re­spect­ful "to say the least" that the NCC has at least not ex­plained what was the de­lay.

She said bids closed on No­vem­ber 6 last year and when the ten­der box was pub­licly opened there were three com­pa­nies who ten­dered. It is un­der­stood the com­pa­nies were Ad­vance Dy­nam­ics, Cedar House and Vis­trac Ltd.The T&T Guardian was, how­ev­er, told that an­oth­er com­pa­ny which did not bid was award­ed the con­tract.Di­ef­fen­thaller said she met an eval­u­a­tion com­mit­tee some two Wednes­days ago and was asked to sup­ply ad­di­tion­al in­for­ma­tion, in­clud­ing the num­ber of crew mem­bers.

"Cedar House is ours and when we met with the com­mit­tee they asked us to sub­mit some stuff," she said."I was then told an an­swer would be giv­en the Fri­day night of that week. Fri­day came and gone and I got no an­swer and up to now no one from the NCC can give an an­swer."When­ev­er we try to get an an­swer from the NCC they are very curt and dis­cour­te­ous at best."Say­ing pro­duc­tion was not a cut and paste process, Di­ef­fen­thaller said the de­lay was al­so un­fair to her team.

Di­rec­tor of Car­ni­val TV Paul Charles, who spoke on be­half of Ad­vance Dy­nam­ics, said they al­so sub­mit­ted a bid."Two weeks ago we were in­vit­ed by the NCC for an in­ter­view and to date we have heard noth­ing. Even be­fore that we were told that be­fore Christ­mas a de­ci­sion was ex­pect­ed to be tak­en," Charles said. "I can­not un­der­stand how it is tak­ing so long to eval­u­ate three bids. At the end of the day Car­ni­val will suf­fer."

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, NCC chair Al­li­son De­mas said no de­ci­sion had yet been tak­en on the award of a con­tract. She said she al­so could not say when that would be an­nounced.Pressed fur­ther on whether a com­pa­ny which did not bid was award­ed a con­tract, De­mas said, "What con­tract? I am not in a po­si­tion to make a com­ment. As soon as a de­ci­sion is made it will be known."