Who in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture sold VIP seats and took the money? Inquiring Minds want to know!
Someone in the Ministry of Youths, Sports, and Culture is a THIEF!!!! And we hope it isn’t who hands are pointing to…
Nassau, Bahamas — It is clear that the current Minister for Youth, Sports and Culture is out to lunch on how Junkanoo is run or indeed who runs Junkanoo.
On Friday a press conference to update the public on Junkanoo proved that the new generation leader was off his game.
After attempts to backstab members of the Junkanoo world, the minister during that conference tried to suggest he was in charge and could tell Junkanooers how Junkanoo will be presented by the next season.
What the Minister charged with culture should do is explain to the public how did a skybox get on Bay Street without the permission of the JCNP.
We can report something shady is afoot in the Department of Culture and we warn the minister to not mislead the public – after all this is BP.
Without consultation with the JCNP, a senior official in the Culture Department made arrangements for a Skybox section to be erected on Bay Street during the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day Parades.
The VIP Skybox section goes at a cost of $30,000. Members of the JCNP never received a response from the persons who were seated in the section on Boxing Day morning and guess what? When questioned about the section, Ministry officials claimed they were unaware that anyone would be seated in the area.
But lo and behold, when it was time for Junkanoo, the section was filled and the person[s] believed to have collected the funds said not a damn word.
UNBELIEVABLE!
Bahamas Press can confirm members of the JCNP have repeatedly brought the matter to the Minister, who appeared to be lost in space on the developments. But guess what? He knows more than we can say.
Bahamas Press has learnt that the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture has several bank accounts, one of which we have reason to believe was not properly authorized by the Minister of Finance [Successive Ministers of Finance for that matter].
We know for a fact that according to the laws of the Bahamas, as duly ascribed in the functions of the Minister of Finance – ONLY THE MINISTER OF FINANCE can open a bank account in the name of a ministry. How the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture ended up with more than one account – some of which was not opened by the Minister – is entirely another story. But we ga return to our story which will get hotter by the minute.
Evidence presented to Bahamas Press also confirms an official in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, a high-ranking one at that, attempted to over charge the JCNP some $16,000 to have a private section platform created on Bay Street for the parades.
BP can confirm JCNP official responded to the Ministry and advised that they would have the platform section constructed privately. Guess what was the cost to do the same work proposed by the Ministry crook? $5,000.
JCNP officials also discovered that after taking over ticketing themselves this year, the Corporation raised an additional $120,000. And guess who was a part of the ticketing in years past? You guessed it, that same official who sits in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture.
Now this is where the story gets interesting.
Bahamas Press therefore is warning the Culture Minister to come clean and reveal the ‘dut’ now surfacing in his department.
And so, ga ask the questions again:
1) Who collected the funds for a private Skybox for the Junkanoo Boxing Day and New Years Day Parades?
2) Did the official in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture collect a cheque from the VIP guest on behalf of the Ministry?
3) If Yes, why were the funds not turned over to the JCNP?
And we ga ask this one for the road: Were the funds collected for the Skybox seating deposited to a Scotia Bank Cable Beach branch account?
