Bring on the audit

In fact, we fully endorse De Silva’s assertion that there should be a forensic audit of all of Carnival’s special interest groups: the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians’ Association (TUCO) and the National Carnival Bandleaders’ Association (NCBA) in addition to Pan Trinbago.

It is also welcome that De Silva is quite willing to subject the statutory NCC which he heads to a similar audit. “What’s good for one is good for all,” De Silva is quoted as saying yesterday. We complement that by pointing to the local dictum: “Those who don’t have cocoa in sun should not be afraid of rain.” By the same token if the latter holds true, then De Silva and the leadership of the special interest groups must do everything possible to remove the pall that has descended over Carnival 2017 with the goings-on at Pan Trinbago that have triggered the audit action as revealed Wednesday by the Minister of Community Development, Culture and Arts, Dr Nyan Gadsby- Dolly.

“The Cabinet has been noting with growing concern, allegations of financial mismanagement by Pan Trinbago,” the minister said.

“These concerns began when there was a public furore regarding non-payment of remittances for 2016 and it has been steadily growing with allegations becoming more and more damning as time goes by.” This is not a pretty picture of an organisation that represents hundreds, or indeed thousands of prime Carnival stakeholders, the steelbandsmen and steelbandswomen, who not only give their all in wanting to attain supremacy, not for individual financial gain – they get just $1,000 from the NCC for playing – but in preserving and continuing to promote something that bursts us all with pride, the steel pan.

So that Panorama is more than a Carnival calendar event, and the tens of millions of dollars that are pumped into its organisation are reflective of the extent to which the Government – on behalf of the people – treasures it. Indeed, $87 million over a three-year period is no little bit of money, but we stand to lose much more if the behaviour of those charged with steering the pan movement allows it to be thrown into an abyss of confusion and bacchanal.

The intended audit must therefore be more than an accounting exercise. It must correct the weaknesses that are inherent to disorganisation and inexperience in setting goals and translating these into action for related results. We are sure the organisation also has strengths which could and should be capitalised on.

For too long the pan movement has been energised only at Carnival time. Looking only to the fete is madness. Too many people have studied and compiled reports about the efficacy of Carnival including the place of the steelband to render this facet of our culture moribund when it comes to ideas to take it to another level.

And so it has to be also with the bodies to whom the other elements of Carnival – mas and calypso – have been consigned. They too have their controversies, but there is hope in that so far these have not been related to ugly questions over money. We have been down this Pan Trinbago road before, up to a few days ago, and we make no apology for returning.

In times of little as the country is now experiencing, we are challenged with being creative with what we have. Therein lie other possibilities of doing more with less if indeed we have been mismanaging and wasting what we have been receiving over the years.

The audit will speak volumes.

Bring it on.