The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

AFTER complaints over the New Year’s Day virtual Junkanoo presentation, Youth, Sports, and Culture Minister Mario Bowleg said errors are being corrected and a rebroadcast is planned.

Many viewers voiced their disappointment over the production’s quality. In response, the ministry posted a statement about the Virtual Junkanoo Experience on its Facebook page explaining it engaged a private contractor to record and produce the event.

“The company was chosen by bid on the government’s e-procurement portal and unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, the footage was not able to be seen before the public airing,” the release xzidd.

“We are in the process of working with the contractor to address several issues that were observed. We apologise to the public and assure that this circumstance will not occur again.”

Mr Bowleg told The Tribune the ministry contracted a private Bahamian company. However, it appeared the timeframe given to the company to complete the production did not allow them to complete the work up to the standard expected.

“There were missteps and we realise the missteps and the production was not—the production quality we believe could have been better but this is a reputable Bahamian company that has done many works before up to a standard that is acceptable to many,” he said yesterday.

“We realise that the production after being placed out there… we believe that there is some improvement that could be made and those improvements are being made right now but the livestream on Facebook was very poor and those who would have watched on ZNS would have had a better appreciation because I watched on ZNS and Facebook but in (a) nutshell. . .the ministry itself has realised along with the production team what went wrong after speaking with the production team.

“They’re correcting those errors and we’re going to move forward and once those errors are corrected we (will) seek to rebroadcast that once it’s able to be done in a proper manner that it should have been done and from the get go.”

Asked when the rebroadcast will air, Mr Bowleg said: “Well I can’t say that right now…the production team gave us a deadline to have it prepared. It should be completed by the 9th of January.”

Although he was not harsh towards the company, Mr Bowleg felt the company could have been more transparent.

“I think the production team should have said to us, ‘we’re not going to make the deadline’ and then the technical team aspect of the ministry then should have said to me ‘we’re not going to make this deadline’.

“. . . If we had to push it back, it would have disappointed (people)… then so be it. It’s better to present something at your best then to just to present something to try and make a deadline,” he said.

Many people took to social media over the holiday weekend to criticise the production.

“To say it was horrible would be a compliment,” one person wrote on Facebook.

“My eyeballs and ears still hurting (sic),” another person said.

Despite the response to the production, Junkanoo Corporation of New Providence (JCNP) chairman Dion Miller expressed gratitude.

He admitted he had not seen much of the production as he was not feeling well on January 1, but requested to see it from the ministry.

While stating it was an “awesome time and an awesome experience” for the Junkanoo groups, he noted the reactions he has received from the Junkanoo community over the production quality.

“In general, I’ve had quite a bit of phone calls. There was disappointment in the quality of the recording of the film. The film recording itself does not depict what the actual experience was out at the recording venue. So there’s great disappointment in that regard.”

Mr Miller added he had seen the public comments regarding the quality and he had a discussion yesterday morning with the ministry in reference to it.

The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture also released a statement on Sunday detailing the costs associated with the event.

The ministry said the budget for New Providence, Grand Bahama and the Family Islands amounted to $300,000. The ministry said it provided $126,000 to Junkanoo groups as a stipend, providing grants of $11,000 to seven Category A groups and $7,000 to seven Category B groups.

“On production and advertising, the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture spent $24,000 on production and $200 on audio advertising. The remaining balance of the $300,000 will be spent on the virtual parades for Grand Bahama and the Family Islands.