Panmen not paid since Carnival

In addition, employees of Pan Trinbago have not been paid their monthly salary for July.

Contacted yesterday about this sad state of affairs, Pan Trinbago president Keith Diaz said pan’s governing body has no money even to pay its own staff who work at its head office in Port of Spain and several regional offices including in Tobago. Pan Trinbago sources said Panorama remittances owed are in the region of $4.5 million.

Pan Trinbago cancelled its media launch of Pan Month, carded for yesterday at the VIP Lounge at Queen’s Park Savannah with no reason given. An email from Pan Trinbago apologised for any inconvenience caused by the cancellation and promised another media release on Pan Month.

“The National Carnival Commission (NCC) never gave us any money from gate receipts for 2017 Panorama competitions nor have they given us the ten percent we normally get from prize monies.

That is the funds we use to run the organisation and over 40 employees have not been paid for the month of July. I am not seeing any funds,” Diaz complained.

In early February, days before Carnival, Pan Trinbago took the NCC court over an impasse regarding Panorama. The pan body accused certain Carnival interest groups of seeking a hostile takeover of Pan Trinbago. In January, Minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly ordered a forensic audit into Pan Trinbago.

Following allegations of financial mismanagement and impropriety, Gadsby-Dolly also instructed the NCC to take over the gate receipts for Panorama 2017. Panmen threatened a boycott of this year’s competition but an agreement was arrived at in January, to allow for the staging of the Panorama.

However, up to yesterday, panmen have received no payment for their performance in the marquee pan competition. The court case remains pending with the last hearing being on July 29 and the case being adjourned to October 10.

Asked about players’ unpaid Panorama remittances, Diaz yesterday said, “Pan Trinbago has nothing to do with that. The NCC is supposed to have that money paid to the players since the NCC was instructed by government to take all of the gate receipts of Panorama.” Efforts to reach NCC chairman Kenny De Silva for a comment yesterday proved futile.