Questions have been raised about how the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) is spending the $17.5 million budgeted for next week’s inaugural Tobago Carnival.
“This is the biggest division in Tobago’s history to host a carnival,” THA Minority Councilor Petal Daniel-Benoit noted on Tuesday.
“There are no competitions, no juniors involved, so you don’t have junior band parades, junior king and queen of bands, you don’t have junior extravaganzas, you don’t have kings and queens, you don’t have pageants,” she added.
Daniel-Benoit was speaking during the Minority Council’s Minority Report, broadcast live on the Tobago Updates Facebook page on Tuesday night.
“Where is the money going?” noted government senator Laurence Hislop.
Hislop, a Tobagonian, wondered if Tobago would benefit from spending $17.5 million.
“And the next question we have to ask is what is the procurement process for this $17.5 million. I have searched on social media and platforms. I know that in the past for carnivals you would see posts out there asking for requests for service providers. Carnival is scheduled for next week and I haven’t seen it yet. And there is a budget that came out (on Monday), after asking for how many months, of 17.5 million dollars,” Daniel-Benoit intervened.
Yesterday Express tried to contact the Secretary of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transport of ATSH, Tashia Burris for a breakdown of expenses, but she did not respond to calls or messages.
At a news conference Monday, Burris said THA hoped to spend less than the $17.5 million budgeted for the inaugural carnival Oct. 28-30, as it had several sponsors on board.
“So our spending is really targeted towards marketing…,” she said.
She said THA will support several Carnival stakeholder events, including Pan Trinbago’s Pan on D’ Waterfront event this Saturday and the Pan and Powder Activation on Carnival Friday night (October 28).
“We have TUCO (Trinbago Unified Calypsonian Organisation) doing all-Tobago limes. TUCO has also participated in managing, along with the Tobago Festivals Commission, our Tobago Calypso Monarch competition,” Burris said.
She said THA is also helping cultural groups and groups financially.
No strategic planning
The THA Carnival budget also did not sit well with THA Minority Leader Kelvon Morris.
In a Facebook video on Monday night, he said the marketing of the event had been “poor, atrocious and a total failure”.
“It has been everywhere. No kind of strategic planning in terms of marketing our Carnival. This carnival has a natural demand because you have Trinidadian…we are near Trinidad and they will come. So the carnival will be successful,” said Morris.
“But this administration has made an absolute mess of this carnival. We could have done a lot more if we had people who understood what was required,” he added.
“There are people now who don’t even know that Tobago is having a carnival. Since there was the CPL (Caribbean Premier League), I told them they could have gone down to Trinidad and they could have advertised the Carnival and partnered with the CPL and it would have been broadcast all over the world. But for some reason they want nothing to do with Trinidad,” Morris said.
He said he was able to witness the Miami Carnival and for the week-long festivities, THA “did not have a representative in Miami,” however Burris on Monday said there were direct flights from Miami to the Tobago Carnival.
“There was no one to promote the Tobago Carnival. Not a jersey, not a kit, nothing. No word on the Tobago Carnival,” he said.
He said that if the inaugural carnival did not live up to the expectations of the people advocating for it, “then crapaud smoke we tube”.
“Because the 17.5 million dollars will go up in flames for nothing,” said Morris.
