AFTER repeated calls by stakeholders for the Tobago House of Assembly to reveal the budget for the October carnival, Tobago Festivals Commission Ltd CEO Kern Cowan has announced that some $9 million was allocated for the upcoming event.

On the Tobago Updates morning show on October 15, Cowan disagreed with the view, in some quarters, that the allocation should have been revealed sooner.

“I don’t know that it took long. But that budget has always been what it was. It has always been $9 million and we are at the point where we are doing the work to support that,” he said.

Cowan, who was appointed Festivals Commission CEO in September, said the money was allocated with stakeholders in mind.

“The budget is what it is. We were planning the carnival all of the time. We are taking this carnival from a stakeholders’ point of view and trying to do as much as we can to support all of our stakeholders across the board. So it’s been working along with them, ensuring that everything that is needed is supplied.”

He said the commission has been meeting on Wednesdays with the various interest groups, including the Tobago October Carnival Association, Pan Trinbago, the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation and promoters, “to ensure that we are close in terms of what they expect and what they are looking for.”

Cowan added, “We are working to support them tremendously throughout the carnival. We have been in conversations with them and we have been working with them very closely to execute.

“So this budget is an all-inclusive budget based on what we need to do to support all of Tobago, all of our stakeholders, all of our viewers, all of the masqueraders, everybody that has to be a part of the carnival has been considered in this budget.”

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