Port of Spain Mayor to meet Finance Minister over Carnival $ mix-up

MAYOR of Port of Spain Joel Martinez announced at the statutory meeting of the city corporation that he will be meeting with the Finance Minister to discuss they way forward on the confusion between the corporation and the National Carnival Commission (NCC).

Martinez said the meeting would take place on Tuesday.

“If it could bring relief to the masqueraders who would have performed their craft on Carnival Monday, in the Downtown Parade, once we could bring a speedy resolution to that, it would be my wish.”

Martinez explained that the city and the NCC usually have an arrangement where the commission would be “gifted” the use of the streets of Port of Spain and the parks in the area to host Carnival events, and in return, the commission would assist in cleaning up after Carnival, and, before Carnival, assist in building the Mayor’s Booth and the Downtown Stand.

The city is also usually approached by several private businesses for permission to hang advertisements and banners in the city for a fee, the proceeds of which is usually spent on hosting the Carnival parade on Monday and Tuesday.

But when it was announced in September last year that there would be no Carnival, the NCC sought its own sponsors.

“It gave its commitment to sponsors, but when it did that, it didn’t speak with the Port of Spain Corporation.”

He said the corporation only recognised the misunderstanding when it was contacted by T&TEC to have advertising erected.

“It was between NCC and T&TEC, and Port of Spain was left out of it. I refused to sign the document. I couldn’t understand how an arrangement was made outside the purview of the mayor.”

He said afterwards, in a meeting with the NCC he said the city had its own commitments and was not prepared to change its position, since the NCC wanted to engage in a partnership without any details as to what was being earned.

“So I said, you could keep your money, and I would keep my money for what the city needs to do. But what they took it to mean was that included the subvention (which is used to pay masqueraders).”

“I was very surprised when we never received a subvention cheque. Having written them on a few occasions and asked about it, they indicated that they were waiting on subvention, and when it arrived and they got, there was none for Port of Spain. I was waiting to get the subvention to pay the masqueraders, but not being able to do so because I didn’t get the cheque, I got a letter from the head of the Carnival Bands Association.”

Martinez said while he realises the situation was a “misunderstanding” he would not be bullied out of the subvention.