By: Drizel Hanley
BASSTERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 30th March 2018)– With just two days left in the month of March, winners and participants of the Sugar Mas 46 competitions are yet to be paid their prize monies.
During a press conference held a few weeks ago, Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Shawn Richards and Minister with responsibility for Carnival told the media that he was hoping to pay all carnival debts by the end of March.
“…….there was a town hall meeting for all stakeholders of Carnival. I said during that meeting that I’m hoping by the end of March that all outstanding debts in respect of carnival would be settled,” the Carnival Minister said.
He further revealed that there is a submission before Cabinet that seeks to get the sum to settle the outstanding prize monies.
Prize monies for carnival 2015/2016 were paid on February 26, 2016; and for carnival 2016/2017, prize monies were distributed on January 20th, 2017.
“The fact is that each year this has been ongoing so, while I’m not saying it’s acceptable, having the bills outstanding by February/March isn’t anything new,” he added.
To this date, no day or time has being allotted to the staging of the Prize Giving Ceremony.
In the interim, the National Carnival Committee has already started hosting planning meetings with stakeholders in preparation for Sugar Mas 47.
In recent months, the Minister with responsibility for Carnival as well as the Chairman of Carnival Noah Mills had come under pressure from members of the public to resign on the basis that they were not doing an acceptable job.