CDC Head Confident of 90-day Payout Plan

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Carnival

Monday, 13 August 2012 02:30

By caribarena news

Antigua St. John's - Chairman of the Carnival Development Committee (CDC) Kayode O'Marde says his team is working feverishly to ensure that the commitment to have all financial obligations settled within 90 days after Carnival Tuesday is met, with prize moneys to be paid within the coming weeks.

O'Marde spoke with Caribarena over the weekend where he noted that although he could not accurately disclose the financial standing of the Committee at this point, he could report that payments have already begun. Service providers have already been asked to submit invoices and these submissions are expected to continue during the course of this week.

"I can't answer the financial standings yet. We are still receiving invoices and have called for everyone to ensure that they have them delivered next week," O"Marde said. "Payments will continue from Monday as we continue to receive funds budgeted from the government."

In this regard, the CDC head noted that government had long begun disbursements of funds earmarked for the 2012 celebrations.

He said that unlike the situation in 2011 where monies didn't come forward until 2012, his office actually started receiving money in intervals soon after the final payment was made from the 2011 allocations.

"Government started disbursements a few weeks before Carnival activities started," he said. He pointed out further that some of the payments that have already been made include service providers.

Just last week, Minister of Culture Eleston Namba Adams expressed hope that the “mistakes” of 2011, which included paying service providers before prizes, were not repeated - considering the inconsistencies in government finances.

“The service providers can wait. Most of them don't mind waiting. All you need to do is talk to them and explain the situation and they would understand,” the minister had said.

But O’Marde maintains that the CDC has estimated a time period of 90 days to ensure everything and everyone had been paid. He admitted however that, “It still all depends on how the disbursements are received from the Treasury. But that is still our hope.

“We have started paying all the persons that have provided services for the Carnival season and that had begun since we started receiving funds from the treasury, and we hope to start paying prize monies over the next couple weeks,” O’Marde said.

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