The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I was inspired to write on the Junkanoo Carnival after reading your article in the newspaper of Monday, February 29, 2015, under the caption “Strategic approach to Carnival Marketing plan”.

Last year, the Government of The Bahamas allocated nine million dollars for the first annual Junkanoo Carnival.

The Chairman indicated that they spent over twelve million on the Junkanoo Carnival, and in some quarters, some people are indicating the cost was more than announced.

Most interesting about this event is that we (the people) cannot get a financial report on this initial carnival after ten months.

We heard that a report was presented to the Government of The Bahamas, but to date, the report has not been made public.

There was alleged fraud involved but to date no one was brought before the courts.

In the article in The Tribune, the CEO indicated that they have developed a new marketing strategy for the carnival, but he does not know what the budget will be for the marketing of this carnival.

What CEO would brag about the strategy of marketing and does not have an indication of the cost to implement the plan.

Any sensible person would realise when a person produces a plan, they would know what the cost will be to implement this plan.  

I am convinced that this Government is of the view that they are playing with monopoly money, and the cost does not matter to them. They spend money as if it has no end. 

The fact that we are in a deficit budget is totally irrelevant to these politicians in the Government.

There is even move afoot to carry this Junkanoo carnival to Andros. This will be interesting as the population of Andros is spread out technically over three islands. North and South Andros and Mangrove Cay are all divided by water. This will be interesting to see how this benefits which part of the islands.

The fact of the matter is that the budget for last year was overrun by one-third (according to the chairman) and these persons are still in place to handle the budget again.  

What type of country are we running? Obviously there is little concern for the tax burden the public has to bear.

I also understand that there was a full contingent that was sent to Trinidad (again) to try and understand the Carnival.  

This is all to introduce a product that is foreign to us.

We have “Junkanoo”, “Rake and Scrape”, “Regattas”, “Arts and Craft”, as our cultures and the various organisational groups have to hustle funding from our government and the amounts they get can just barely cover cost of producing the event, and a lot of times the various bodies have to also get funding from private persons to carry on the event.

It is pathetic that our Government is shortsighted, and would not utilise our tax dollars to assist more with our culture, and rather spend more to introduce foreign culture.

Indications are the most of these funds that we spend to promote this event, leaves the country to pay for the artist brought in and marketing of the Carnival.

Maybe one day we will get the respect we deserve from our Government.

Maybe they will realise that they should give accountability to the people for monies spent.

On the other hand, they will not account, until we demand that they are accountable.

GEOFFREY B STUART

Nassau,

March 2, 2016.