A week after rejecting the request for additional funds to offset expenses for activities for the 60th anniversary of Carnival, the Cabinet has agreed to grant a little more than half of the $1.2 million requested by the Festivals Commission.
Last week the Commission asked for the sum to bridge the shortfall of its $7.2 million budget but the Cabinet said the request was not justified.
Culture Minister E.P. Chet Greene was not present when the application was put forward. However, he was present yesterday and he made a fresh argument himself.
Information Minister Melford Nicholas said following that discussion in Cabinet, Greene’s department will get $700,000 for some of the initiatives upon which the Commission wants to embark.
It was agreed the Commission would not need the additional $500,000 during the discussions in Cabinet.
“I believe in the detailed presentation that the Minister made yesterday, based on a number of initiatives they wanted to undertake there was acceptance of some of the additional programmes and some rejection in a number of other instances,” Minister Nicholas said.
The list of initiatives included:
Nicholas said, “The expectation was to do all those programmes but based on what the Cabinet felt was affordable and necessary at the time, there was some shrinking of the budget.”
The minister did not indicate which programmes were cut from the list.