Businessman Elvis Radgman who tried through the courts to block the hiring of any firm without considering his own – Stage Solutions Ltd – to provide stage production services for the 2023 Tobago Jazz Experience assures that he is not any in "fight" with the THA.
"There is no fight between Elvis and the THA," Radgman said on the Tobago Updates morning show on Friday.
Radgman was responding to the legal action he and Stage Solutions filed against the Tobago Festivals Commission Ltd (TFCL) and the Division of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation, which he lost.
The Office of the Chief Secretary reported last week that High Court judge Justice Robin Mohammed dismissed Radgman's application for an injunction.
Radgman, the director of Stage Solutions, is also the chief executive officer of the Tobago Performing Arts Company (TPAC) and a former member of the Tobago Jazz Experience Implementation Committee.
He sought an injunction to prevent the Festivals Commission and the tourism division from accepting services from any other company to provide lighting and equipment, stage and roofing, or LED screens for the 2023 Tobago Jazz Experience International Night, featuring headline act Boyz II Men. The High Court found that the application was without merit as it did not disclose a cause of action and did not meet the legal grounds required to obtain an injunction. Radgman and Stage Solutions were ordered to pay the legal costs of the TFCL and the tourism division.
Radgman said on Friday: “We went to the court and people think that there is a fight between Elvis and the THA, there is no fight between Elvis and the THA. Elvis is just simply trying to bring closure to procedure and systems.
He added: “If it is that I am following the procedure and systems as set out by the law, if there is a conflict, disclose the conflict and the interest, and I have done so on several occasions.”
He said the Tourism Secretary, Tashia Burris, brought together the CEOs of TPAC, TFCL, and the Tobago Tourism Agency Ltd, as well as her advisers along with the executive coordinator of the Shaw Park Cultural Complex, Kern Cowan, creating a steering committee for the Tobago Jazz Experience. He said there were clear and separate roles and functions adding that his role was the strategic, creative and aesthetic aspects of the Jazz Experience.
[caption id="attachment_986897" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Secretary of Tourism and Culture Tashia Burris[/caption]
“I would have shared those things and those things were very clear. Everything with regards to budgeting, financing – all of those roles and functions, there were other individuals responsible for those things and those things were under the Festivals Commission and the division. At no point in time was I involved in any of those things.”
He said the first day that the secretary called the meeting of the committee, he indicated that he did not want any function that would create a conflict of interest noting that he is a part of a company which provides many
