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.

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

How is Carnival money spent?

by

Guardian Media Limited
1248 days ago
20220206

Pre­dictably, the grum­bling has start­ed from the three Car­ni­val in­ter­est groups about the mon­ey al­lo­cat­ed for Taste of Car­ni­val, the scaled-down ver­sion of the an­nu­al fes­ti­val that gets go­ing to­wards the end of this week.

Al­most in uni­son, Pan Trin­ba­go, the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans' Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) and the T&T Car­ni­val Band­lead­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTC­BA) have start­ed sig­nal­ing that $15 mil­lion will not cov­er the cost of host­ing their shows and com­pe­ti­tions.

As usu­al, they are re­liant on state fund­ing and are en­ter­ing in­to the sea­son emp­ty-hand­ed, un­able to show any rev­enue they have gen­er­at­ed on their own.

This is not an un­fa­mil­iar sit­u­a­tion for them. While the pan­dem­ic has been dif­fi­cult for the cul­tur­al and en­ter­tain­ment sec­tors, the Car­ni­val in­ter­est groups were in this woe­ful fi­nan­cial state for years be­fore COVID-19.

And it is not on­ly for Car­ni­val ac­tiv­i­ties that they look for draw­downs from the Trea­sury. They al­so de­pend on these an­nu­al al­lo­ca­tions to fund their day-to-day op­er­a­tions, swal­low­ing up mil­lions of dol­lars for which they fail to prop­er­ly ac­count to the na­tion.

Along with the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC), the statu­to­ry body re­spon­si­ble for Car­ni­val ac­tiv­i­ties across the coun­try, the in­ter­est groups were in­cor­po­rat­ed by Acts of Par­lia­ment and are re­quired to sub­mit au­dit­ed fi­nan­cial state­ments, along with oth­er doc­u­men­ta­tion for mon­i­tor­ing and con­trol of their op­er­a­tions.

How­ev­er, au­dits done be­tween Oc­to­ber 2013 and Sep­tem­ber 2016 by Ernst and Young Ser­vices Lim­it­ed at the re­quest of the Cul­ture Min­istry re­vealed a dis­turb­ing lack of ac­count­abil­i­ty, trans­paren­cy and val­ue for the mon­ey in­vest­ed in the in­ter­est groups.

Ac­cord­ing to the Ernst and Young re­port, ac­counts, and re­ceipts of rev­enue from ma­jor Car­ni­val-re­lat­ed events were not prop­er­ly checked and ac­count­ed for, ad­e­quate records were not kept of re­ceipts and pay­ment of sup­pli­ers’ in­voic­es and there was no ev­i­dence of ten­der­ing process­es be­ing used to pro­cure goods and ser­vices.

The au­di­tors al­so ex­pressed con­cern about con­flicts of in­ter­est where ex­ec­u­tives were award­ed con­tracts to pro­vide goods and ser­vices. In ad­di­tion, bank ac­counts, re­ceiv­ables ac­counts and payables were not pe­ri­od­i­cal­ly checked and rec­on­ciled, and bud­gets were not for­mal­ly ap­proved by the ex­ec­u­tives of the in­ter­est groups.

Based on what was un­earthed by these au­dits, it is no won­der that Car­ni­val is in­creas­ing­ly be­com­ing a loss-mak­ing ven­ture and a bur­den to tax­pay­ers.

It does not have to be that way. While ca­lyp­so tents fail to draw crowds and the gate re­ceipts from most pan and mas com­pe­ti­tions are dis­ap­point­ing, the op­po­site seems to be the case with the Car­ni­val events host­ed by the pri­vate op­er­a­tors in the in­dus­try who don’t get state fund­ing.

There is mon­ey to be made in Car­ni­val, but the sums in­vest­ed an­nu­al­ly by the State are not yield­ing mea­sur­able re­turns.

The na­tion needs to hear from the in­ter­est groups about their op­er­a­tions and how they gen­er­ate rev­enue. A re­view of their op­er­a­tions is long over­due and should be done right af­ter the 2022 sea­son ends.

Leg­isla­tive and pol­i­cy changes must be made so that the State gets more val­ue for the huge sums in­vest­ed an­nu­al­ly in Car­ni­val.

Editorial


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

Jaggasar returns as National Parang president

Yesterday
Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Jamaican Maroons celebrate, question land rights

Yesterday
Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford’s holistic mission

to transform the lives of girls

Yesterday
Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Nicole Drayton’s breast cancer journey–Fear, faith, and fighting back

Yesterday