SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

The Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) breach­ing its act by fail­ing to pro­vide au­dit­ed fi­nan­cial state­ments for more than two decades did not draw as much of the pub­lic’s ire as its chair­man com­pet­ing in events host­ed by the or­gan­i­sa­tion for Car­ni­val.

How­ev­er, as it stands, there are no of­fi­cial com­plaints lodged with the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) about NCC chair­man Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters’ par­tic­i­pa­tion in events, one of which he won.

TU­CO’s PRO Ron­dell Don­awa said they have not re­ceived any pe­ti­tion or let­ters from their 600 mem­bers ob­ject­ing to Pe­ters or the sug­ges­tion that he be de­barred from fu­ture com­pe­ti­tions host­ed by the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

How­ev­er, Don­awa, an at­tor­ney, said if the mem­bers take a vote to have Pe­ters ex­clud­ed from up­com­ing com­pe­ti­tions, it can re­sult in an in­fringe­ment of his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights and the mat­ter could end up in court.

Don­awa was re­spond­ing to com­plaints by some sec­tors of so­ci­ety that be­lieved it was a con­flict of in­ter­est for Pe­ters, as chair of NCC, to par­tic­i­pate in com­pe­ti­tions dur­ing the 2024 Car­ni­val.

Pe­ters, 71, won this year’s Ex­tem­po Monarch ti­tle walk­ing away with the $200,000 first prize. He al­so placed tenth in the fi­nals of the 2024 Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion which earned him $45,000.

Dur­ing his sev­en-year tenure as chair­man, Pe­ters was a fi­nal­ist in the Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion three times–2019, 2020 and 2024.

He re­ceived $40,000 af­ter plac­ing sixth in 2019.

It is un­clear how much Pe­ters net­ted in 2020 af­ter plac­ing sev­enth.

As chair­man, Pe­ters al­so cap­tured the sec­ond po­si­tion in the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Ex­tem­po com­pe­ti­tions, each time pock­et­ing $100,000.

He was al­so a fi­nal­ist in 2019 which would have earned him a pay­ment.

Un­der Pe­ters’ tenure as chair­man, the NCC re­ceived $738 mil­lion in Gov­ern­ment sub­ven­tions for Car­ni­val.

A break­down of the fig­ures showed:

• 2018—$108,964,491

• 2019—$139,839,790

• 2020—$165,000,000

• ↓2021—No Car­ni­val due to COVID-19.

• ↓2022—$36,000,000. A taste of Car­ni­val.

• 2023—$147,000,000

• 2024—$141,000,000

Last week, the Sun­day Guardian re­port­ed that the NCC was in breach of its act, that since its for­ma­tion in 1991, the or­gan­i­sa­tion has on­ly sub­mit­ted eight au­dit­ed fi­nan­cial state­ments which is a clear vi­o­la­tion of the NCC Act of 1991.

Even for the years that were au­dit­ed, 1998 to 2003, 2008 and 2009, the NCC still failed to have prop­er doc­u­men­ta­tion of the monies it col­lect­ed and spent.

Ac­cord­ing to the NCC Act, the com­mis­sion was sup­posed to have es­tab­lished a pen­sion scheme and the NC Fund.

Based on the most re­cent au­dit, which was done in 2009, nei­ther was done.

Un­der Pe­ters’ tenure, there have been no au­dit­ed fi­nan­cial state­ments.

Re­spond­ing to com­plaints about his par­tic­i­pa­tion in com­pe­ti­tions ear­li­er this month, Pe­ters de­fend­ed his po­si­tion say­ing: “I am a ca­lyp­son­ian. That is who I am. That is what I am.”

Be­fore his 2018 ap­point­ment, Pe­ters said, he had par­tic­i­pat­ed in com­pe­ti­tions for over 38 years and would con­tin­ue to do so once he is alive.

The 1997 monarch said he was not over­ly wor­ried about those who are com­plain­ing.

Noth­ing in TU­CO’s

con­sti­tu­tion de­bar­ring him

On Thurs­day, the Sun­day Guardian ques­tioned Don­awa re­gard­ing the on­go­ing de­bate on whether Gyp­sy should com­pete in com­pe­ti­tions host­ed by TU­CO while serv­ing as NCC chair­man.

“I know that cit­i­zens may have raised the is­sue of ethics which is some­thing sep­a­rate. TU­CO has not had any po­si­tion in that par­tic­u­lar sit­u­a­tion. Gyp­sy has al­ways in­di­cat­ed that he is a ca­lyp­son­ian first. Noth­ing is de­bar­ring him from en­ter­ing a com­pe­ti­tion host­ed by TU­CO.”

He said there was noth­ing in TU­CO’s con­sti­tu­tion and rules book stat­ing oth­er­wise. Don­awa said Pe­ters was free to en­ter any com­pe­ti­tion or­gan­ised by them since he is a mem­ber.

Asked if TU­CO can amend its con­sti­tu­tion to pre­vent Gyp­sy from com­pet­ing, Don­awa said its gen­er­al coun­cil can­not do that on its own.

This would have to be rat­i­fied by TU­CO’s mem­bers.

“They would have to raise it. A meet­ing would have to be con­vened. But the mem­ber­ship would have to make an in­put as to whether or not there should be an amend­ment to the con­sti­tu­tion. And whether it is by virtue of the per­son or of­fice be­cause de­bar­ring the per­son from en­ter­ing, I be­lieve, if he goes through the court, that could in­fringe on his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights.

“We can­not ar­bi­trar­i­ly tell him he can’t en­ter. On what ba­sis? So the ex­ec­u­tive on its own can­not make that de­ci­sion. It has to go through the mem­ber­ship if we have to make any amend­ments.”

He said a le­gal chal­lenge can al­so be mount­ed.

“So in terms of what is the next step, I be­lieve some­thing like that we (TU­CO) would have to get a le­gal opin­ion on.”

As of now, Don­awa said, this mat­ter has not come up for dis­cus­sion with the ex­ec­u­tive.

“I don’t know if it is an agen­da item. I don’t think that is an agen­da item. And it boils down to the mem­ber­ship of the or­gan­i­sa­tion and there are pro­vi­sions in the con­sti­tu­tion if mem­bers want to raise spe­cial res­o­lu­tions. If they move a mo­tion, it would be de­bat­ed, vot­ed and car­ried.”

At least two-thirds of TU­CO’s 400 fi­nan­cial mem­bers must vote on the is­sue.

He said even if TU­CO puts for­ward a po­si­tion and it goes be­fore the court, “the court ob­vi­ous­ly would have to make a fi­nal po­si­tion on that. In any event, If he (Pe­ters) feels ag­griev­ed he has all rights to take it to court which more than like­ly will hap­pen. And the court would have to ad­ju­di­cate on that.”

Don­awa said in ju­rispru­dence, there is law and moral­i­ty.

“So what may be law­ful may not nec­es­sar­i­ly be moral.”

Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell did not re­spond to the Sun­day Guardian’s query on whether he viewed Pe­ters’ par­tic­i­pa­tion as a con­flict of in­ter­est and whether he was pleased with his per­for­mance.

Bruce: It’s a con­flict of in­ter­est

The is­sue of Pe­ters serv­ing as head of a state board and tak­ing part in com­pe­ti­tions host­ed by that or­gan­i­sa­tion has not been sit­ting well with some mem­bers of the ca­lyp­so fra­ter­ni­ty.

While 2018 Na­tion­al Ex­tem­po Monarch My­ron Bruce, pop­u­lar­ly known as My­ron B, de­scribed Pe­ters as an ex­cel­lent ca­lyp­son­ian and en­ter­tain­er, she said: “The na­ture of the of­fice that he holds, I think, re­quires a dif­fer­ent con­sid­er­a­tion on how he par­tic­i­pates in cul­ture.”

He viewed Pe­ters com­pet­ing for prizes in an or­gan­i­sa­tion he ad­min­is­trates as “a con­flict of in­ter­est.”

Bruce felt he did not have the pow­er to put for­ward a case as no one from NCC, TU­CO, Gov­ern­ment, the Min­istry of Cul­ture or pa­trons had spo­ken against Pe­ters’ par­tic­i­pa­tion in com­pe­ti­tions.

“The peo­ple who are sup­posed to com­plain are not com­plain­ing at every lev­el. That has em­bold­ened the chair­man to ex­press him­self. I have no prob­lem with Pe­ters com­pet­ing, but there is a mat­ter of ethics when it comes to the chair­man com­ing to com­pete for ho­n­ours that his ex­ec­u­tive po­si­tion is over­see­ing. So for me, it is no dif­fer­ent from Colm Im­bert go­ing to bid for con­tracts to build sta­di­ums in Trinidad as Fi­nance Min­is­ter.”

In a nut­shell, Bruce said: “They like it so.”

Some singers, he said, have spo­ken on the mat­ter on and off the stage.

“If he (Pe­ters) is not get­ting a rap from his peers or su­pe­ri­ors then it means he has been giv­en the all clear.”

Bruce said this was a unique sit­u­a­tion as no one who served as NCC chair­man be­fore was a ca­lyp­son­ian.

“It boils down square­ly to the eth­ic of the in­di­vid­ual. And if he sees no prob­lem with it, that is where it starts and that is where it stops. It’s a for­tu­nate and un­for­tu­nate sit­u­a­tion. As Black Sage said in the ex­tem­po fi­nals when he was giv­en this as a top­ic (to sing), it could be per­ceived as some­body who has al­ready had a very suc­cess­ful ca­reer now sit­ting in that seat of lead­er­ship and men­tor­ship com­ing down to take food from some­body else’s mouth.”

Bruce said it was all up to Pe­ters’ con­science.

“If his con­science does not see a prob­lem with it and from min­is­ter straight down to the per­son in the au­di­ence buy­ing a tick­et does not see a prob­lem with it, I have no opin­ion on that mat­ter.”

Seale: It is a moral is­sue

De­von Seale, the 2016 Ca­lyp­so Monarch, be­lieves the is­sue is a moral one.

“There aren’t any rules that de­bar Gyp­sy from par­tic­i­pa­tion.”

As TU­CO’s mar­ket­ing man­ag­er, Seale said there have al­ways been mixed feel­ings on this top­ic.

If Seale was in Pe­ters’ po­si­tion, he said, he would have tak­en a moral po­si­tion and re­cused him­self from com­pet­ing.

Since as­sum­ing the post as NCC chair­man, he said this was the first time Pe­ters won the ex­tem­po ti­tle.

“So if some­thing was off he should have been win­ning all the time. At the end of the day, it is he who has to make the de­ci­sion. I heard one or two per­sons say this should be raised with the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion. Some peo­ple say ‘it’s him­self un­to him­self.’”

He said Pe­ters has main­tained there “isn’t any con­flict of in­ter­est and he does not see any breach of in­tegri­ty. Then so be it.”

Seale said Pe­ters’ par­tic­i­pa­tion in the fi­nals of the 2024 Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion had gen­er­at­ed a lot of com­ments on Face­book.

“And then he was there (on stage) al­so to give out the first prize to Machel Mon­tano as NCC’s chair­man. A lot of peo­ple were on so­cial me­dia ... they find that just did not look right.”

Sug­ar Aloes: This mat­ter should have been dealt with be­fore his ap­point­ment

Two-time Ca­lyp­so Monarch Michael “Sug­ar Aloes” Os­ouna said the Gov­ern­ment should have dealt with this mat­ter be­fore Pe­ters’ ap­point­ment.

“Is Row­ley and them give him the work. And if that was Gyp­sy’s stance af­ter he got the work, then they were the ones to rec­ti­fy that. It does not have a good re­flec­tion, but that is how it is.”

The long and short of it, Aloes said, you can­not pre­vent Pe­ters from par­tic­i­pat­ing as a ca­lyp­son­ian, and the Gov­ern­ment should have known bet­ter to put him there.

He said this should serve as a les­son not to put a ca­lyp­son­ian to run the NCC.

“Once Gyp­sy is alive he will con­tin­ue to vie for a ti­tle.”

Chalk­dust: Gyp­sy as a ca­lyp­son­ian will con­tin­ue to stick to his guns

Vet­er­an bard Dr Hol­lis “Chalk­dust” Liv­er­pool agreed with Pe­ters’ point of view that he is a ca­lyp­son­ian.

The eight-time Ca­lyp­so Monarch said the Eu­ro­peans have “as­sert­ed the po­si­tion that once you are be­ing paid for a po­si­tion that is spon­sor­ing an event you must re­cuse your­self. Many na­tions do not sub­scribe to that.”

Pe­ters, he said, would con­tin­ue to stick to his guns.

Liv­er­pool said the love of mon­ey has been de­stroy­ing our coun­try.

“Cap­i­tal­ism has tak­en over us. Mon­ey is de­stroy­ing the so­ci­ety.”