Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

New­ly ap­point­ed Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) chair­man Pe­ter Kan­hai says one of his first pri­or­i­ties will be to as­sess the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s fi­nan­cial po­si­tion with the fis­cal year draw­ing to a close at the end of this month.

Kan­hai, the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ (UNC) gen­er­al sec­re­tary, of­fi­cial­ly took up the post yes­ter­day, re­plac­ing Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters.

The oth­er board mem­bers are UNC me­dia and com­mu­ni­ca­tions ad­vis­er Ke­van Gibbs, Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore, three-time So­ca Monarch Neil Iw­er George, TU­CO pres­i­dent Ains­ley King, for­mer Chut­ney So­ca Monarch Im­ran Be­har­ry, for­mer UNC San Fer­nan­do East can­di­date John Michael Ali-Bo­cas, at­tor­ney Robert Mitchell and Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val Bands’ As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Mark Ayen.

Mo­ments af­ter he was ap­point­ed dur­ing a swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny, Khan said he is keen to un­der­stand the fi­nan­cial stand­ing of the com­mis­sion, which is re­spon­si­ble for plan­ning and ex­e­cut­ing the coun­try’s pre­mier cul­tur­al show­case, Car­ni­val.

“We are al­so aware that all the time, every year, we hear about the amount of mon­ey that is spent and peo­ple ask­ing where it gone, so we want to look at the ac­count­abil­i­ty and trans­paren­cy and so on, whilst build­ing the Car­ni­val prod­uct and en­hanc­ing it and live up to what we say, Trinidad and To­ba­go has the great­est show on Earth,” Kan­hai said.

His com­ments come in the con­text ques­tions which con­tin­u­al­ly sur­face about the man­age­ment and dis­tri­b­u­tion of car­ni­val-re­lat­ed fund­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly re­gard­ing state sub­ven­tions to stake­hold­er groups and the broad­er eco­nom­ic im­pact of the event.

“My first or­der of busi­ness will be to look at what is in ex­is­tence at NCC and that is all as­pects of NCC. We are in the mid­dle of Ju­ly, Car­ni­val is ear­ly next year,” he said.

“We have to look at plans for 2026 and we have to take a look at what has gone on in the past, in­clud­ing look­ing at the ex­pen­di­ture. From my read­ing of the NCC Act, I know Ju­ly 31st is the fi­nan­cial year for the NCC, so hope­ful­ly the NCC is al­ready en­gaged in prepar­ing its ac­counts for au­dit­ing.”

It has been re­port­ed that since its for­ma­tion in 1991, the NCC has sub­mit­ted on­ly eight au­dit­ed re­ports. A pre­vi­ous Guardian Me­dia in­ves­tiga­tive re­port dis­cov­ered that un­der for­mer chair­man Pe­ters’ tenure, there had been no au­dit­ed fi­nan­cial state­ments.

The new NCC board has been tasked with strength­en­ing gov­er­nance, deep­en­ing com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment, and prepar­ing for Car­ni­val 2026, a re­lease said yes­ter­day. Pri­or­i­ties in­clude im­prov­ing in­ter­nal op­er­a­tions, sup­port­ing tra­di­tion­al and emerg­ing Car­ni­val art forms, and boost­ing glob­al mar­ket­ing to po­si­tion Trinidad and To­ba­go as a top cul­tur­al des­ti­na­tion.

Gibbs, the deputy chair­man, said he was ex­cit­ed to serve as an NCC ex­ec­u­tive and looked for­ward to ad­vanc­ing car­ni­val.

Cul­ture Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin, in de­liv­er­ing re­marks at the cer­e­mo­ny, is­sued a man­date to the new board, say­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Car­ni­val not on­ly pro­motes cul­ture but cre­ates jobs, earn­ings and pro­motes com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment.

“Car­ni­val is more than an event, it is a liv­ing ex­pres­sion of our peo­ple’s cre­ativ­i­ty. In keep­ing with that, this new board is ex­pect­ed to fur­ther build on that lega­cy, while po­si­tion­ing Car­ni­val as a lead­ing glob­al fes­ti­val. One that cel­e­brates our cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty and at­tracts even greater in­ter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion and rev­enue,” Ben­jamin said.

More on NCC

Es­tab­lished by Act No. 9 of 1991, the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion of Trinidad and To­ba­go is a statu­to­ry body charged with co­or­di­nat­ing, man­ag­ing, and pro­mot­ing Car­ni­val ac­tiv­i­ties. The com­mis­sion works along­side key stake­hold­er or­gan­i­sa­tions, in­clud­ing Pan Trin­ba­go, the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans’ Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO), and the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion (NC­BA).

Its man­date in­cludes the al­lo­ca­tion of state fund­ing, the main­te­nance of ma­jor Car­ni­val venues such as the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, and the pro­mo­tion of Car­ni­val as a glob­al cul­tur­al prod­uct.

Over the years, the NCC has faced scruti­ny over its fi­nan­cial re­port­ing, with re­peat­ed calls from civ­il so­ci­ety and cul­tur­al or­gan­i­sa­tions for greater trans­paren­cy in how funds are dis­bursed and ac­count­ed for.

Ed­i­tor's note: A pre­vi­ous ver­sion of this sto­ry in­ac­cu­rate­ly re­port­ed that Love Move­ment Gen­er­al Elec­tion can­di­date Robert Mitchell had been named to the NCC board. It was, in fact, at­tor­ney Robert Mitchell.