JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Saturday, February 22, 2025

THA Tourism Secretary blasted for failing to disclose festival's private promoter

by

28 days ago
20250124
Secretary for Tourism, Culture, Antiquities & Transportation, Councillor Tashia Burris responding to questions about the Tobago Rhythm & Soul Festival during the Sitting Tobago House of Assembly on Thursday 23 January 2025. [Image courtesy Assembly Legislature, Tobago House of Assembly via Facebook]

Secretary for Tourism, Culture, Antiquities & Transportation, Councillor Tashia Burris responding to questions about the Tobago Rhythm & Soul Festival during the Sitting Tobago House of Assembly on Thursday 23 January 2025. [Image courtesy Assembly Legislature, Tobago House of Assembly via Facebook]

 

The Mi­nor­i­ty Coun­cil in the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) has crit­i­cized the Sec­re­tary for Tourism, Cul­ture, An­tiq­ui­ties & Trans­porta­tion, Coun­cil­lor Tashia Bur­ris, for fail­ing to dis­close the pri­vate in­vestor set to ben­e­fit from some $9.3 mil­lion in fund­ing al­lo­cat­ed to the To­ba­go Rhythm & Soul Fes­ti­val.

Dur­ing Thurs­day’s sit­ting of the As­sem­bly Leg­is­la­ture, Sec­re­tary Bur­ris re­vealed that the Fes­ti­val is a pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ship in­volv­ing the To­ba­go Fes­ti­vals Com­mis­sion and a pri­vate pro­mot­er, in re­sponse to a ques­tion posed by the mi­nor­i­ty coun­cil.

The Tourism Sec­re­tary al­so re­port­ed that fund­ing for the Fes­ti­val is be­ing sourced through gate re­ceipts, spon­sor­ships, and ad­di­tion­al al­ter­na­tive fi­nanc­ing mech­a­nisms.

How­ev­er, when pressed by the Mi­nor­i­ty Coun­cil to name the pri­vate part­ner, Sec­re­tary Bur­ris ad­mit­ted she did not have the in­for­ma­tion at hand, at which point Mi­nor­i­ty Coun­cil­lor Petal Daniel-Benoit took the Sec­re­tary to task.

“It is ap­palling that the Di­vi­sion and the To­ba­go Fes­ti­vals Com­mis­sion is putting out $9.3 mil­lion and the Sec­re­tary is un­aware and can­not tell the House this in­for­ma­tion,” the Mi­nor­i­ty Coun­cil­lor said.  “How soon will this in­fo come to the Mi­nor­i­ty and the peo­ple of To­ba­go for their hard earned $9.3 mil­lion.”

The Tourism Sec­re­tary de­fend­ed her po­si­tion, stat­ing that she was pre­pared to ad­dress the ques­tions list­ed in the Or­der Pa­per.

She al­so ar­gued that the Fes­ti­val is a new ini­tia­tive aimed at boost­ing To­ba­go’s events tourism in­dus­try and is not in­tend­ed to make a prof­it.

The To­ba­go Rhythm & Soul Fes­ti­val is sched­uled for April 2025, and the head­line act is reg­gae su­per­star Bu­ju Ban­ton.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored