BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Feb.08.2018 – THE various winners of the 2017/2018 National Carnival events, and service providers will have to wait a bit longer as the Government is eyeing the end of March as the latest to award prizes.
That announcement was made as Culture Minister, Hon. Shawn Richards was addressing a gathering at a Carnival Town Hall meeting last evening at NEMA.
According to Richards, they are awaiting funds from the Finance Ministry to begin clearing off outstanding payments and prizes.
“We are almost at the end of February and I would say, hopefully before the end of March we would be able to meet those commitments.”
The Minister said that though he can’t give an exact time frame when outstanding invoices will be settled, they are hopeful of clearing them off in a short period.
Looking ahead, they are hopeful of becoming more regular in terms of paying persons for services rendered.
“I know that for this year, the Ministry of Finance allocated more money to the Carnival Committee to be able to meet its overall expenses. So, we are hoping that that will also make a difference in terms of meeting the financial commitment.”
Payments to service providers of Carnival has been a contentious area over the years.
In some instances service providers and event winners waited until April to get their winnings.
