Chutney Soca Monarch fans and competitors will have to wait until today to know if the event’s promoter will host this year’s competition after a last-minute change to State-sponsorship.
Less than eight hours after promoter George Singh Jr announced the cancellation of the show due to a major cut in funding from its title sponsor— the National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB)—, Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced that Singh’s company, Southex Events Management, had been mistakenly offered less than one third of what it should have received.
Contacted by Guardian Media immediately after Imbert’s announcement, Singh said his organisation would mull over the feasibility of the hosting the competition with the increase in sponsorship from $300,000 to $1 million.
“I just heard this. We have to go over figures. We will try to work with the figures and will make a statement in the morning,” he said.
Explaining the reason for the error, Imbert claimed that his Ministry had been mistakenly informed that the company had received $500,000 in sponsorship from the NLCB last year and decided to cut it to $300,000 due to the Government’s financial constraints.
“We have since discovered that in fact, last year, the Chutney Soca Monarch competition was given $1.5 million by NLCB,” Imbert said at a hastily-called press conference at his Ministry.
He said that his Ministry had agreed to donate two-thirds of last year’s figure to the competition.
Imbert also noted that the same formula would be applied to all Government sponsorship of Carnival-related events and competitions including the International Soca Monarch competition.
He said that while the NLCB’s board has the expressed power to donate a portion of its profits to cultural and charitable causes, the ministry became involved late last year after the board was temporarily dissolved.
“Any donation from the NLCB at this time, until a new board is put in place, which would be very soon, is limited to $50,000,” Imbert said.
He said NLCB’s executive director Michael Jogie had to obtain clearance from the ministry’s permanent secretary for donations in excess of the figure.
Imbert noted that the request from Jogie to sponsor the CSM came on Wednesday evening, even though he admitted that the NLCB’s previous board were in negotiations with Singh’s company over the past month.
Asked how the mistake occurred, Imbert said that his ministry did not have NLCB records of dispensations and depending on it (NLCB) to determine the sponsorship in Singh’s case.
“It is just bad information...That is simply the information we received,” Imbert said.
He also said Government would consider reviewing whether the incoming NLCB board should be allowed to sponsor private events such as the competition in the future.
“That is something we would be discussing with the new board as to the policy and direction that they should go in. My personal view is it really should be more towards charitable causes and community events,” Imbert said.
Questioned on Government’s $147 million budget for Carnival accross T&T, Imbert noted that expenditure had ballooned from $8 million in 1992 to $250 million before he returned to office in 2015.
“I am not certain that all of this is justified but in the current economic situation everyone would have to adjust and would have to accept less. We simply can not spend the kind of money we use to,” Imbert said.