Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has accused the National Council of Indian Culture (NCIC) of failing to disclose a $500,000 Government funding application for this year’s Divali Nagar while also seeking support from other organisations, according to the Trinidad Express.
Persad-Bissessar said the NCIC would receive the money from the Ministry of Culture. She argued that greater transparency about applications for public funding could have prevented the controversy surrounding financial support for the celebrations.
Her comments followed an NCIC statement saying the organisation had never accused her of political victimisation through the withholding of State funding for Divali Nagar. The council also acknowledged that it should have acted earlier to correct what it described as a false public narrative about the dispute.
The Prime Minister maintained that the organisation should have disclosed its ministry application. She said the $500,000 allocation was twice the contribution from the event’s Diamond sponsor, identified in the report as the Dominic Hadeed-owned Blue Waters business.
Persad-Bissessar also said the NCIC had received $500,000 directly from the ministry last year while continuing to approach other organisations for assistance. She named bmobile, First Citizens, Republic Bank, VMCOTT, National Flour Mills and the National Gas Company among the entities approached for funding.
Those statements were allegations made by the Prime Minister. The report did not establish that every organisation approached had provided money, or specify the amounts sought from each.
Persad-Bissessar extended her criticism to sporting, cultural and non-governmental organisations more broadly. She said she intended to stop a practice in which organisations seek funding from several State agencies for the same event without disclosing their other sources of support.
The account did not set out a mechanism or timetable for that proposed change. The immediate dispute centres on the Prime Minister’s demand for fuller disclosure and the NCIC’s position that it had not accused her of withholding funding for political reasons.