Trinidad & Tobago Newsday
By Joan Rampersad Thursday, November 3 2016
Minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts, Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, told Newsday yesterday that accusations of financial impropriety on the part of Pan Trinbago are unsettling.
She said, “In this regard. I have been in discussion with NCC (National Carnival Commission) Chairman (Kenny de Silva) on this issue and we are actively examining the situation and our options with respect to the way forward for Panorama 2017. We are committed to ensuring that the Panorama experience, which highlights and celebrates our national instrument globally is neither compromised nor tarnished.” She added, “The taxpayers fund Carnival and protecting their interest will be a large factor in our discussions and decisions on this issue.” With respect to former Pan Trinbago Vice-president Bryon Serrette’s recent resignation, she said, “Pan Trinbago is a private entity, therefore the interest of the Ministry and the NCC lie less in their internal politics and more in their receipt of large amounts of State funding for the running of Panorama.” On the question of the players’ remittances not being paid to date she said; “The NCC has indicated that $5 million, which represents the balance of the 2015/16 allocation to Pan Trinbago, was paid within the last week of October specifically to facilitate the payment of players’ remittances. If in fact these remain unpaid to date, Pan Trinbago would have to account for this delay, as the NCC has reported that they supplied Pan Trinbago with their entire 2015/16 subvention including monies for the players.” Serrette said yesterday that on Friday he tendered his letter of resignation to the Secretary (Richard Forteau) to take effect on November 1, with all intention to attend the AGM on Sunday to address his concerns about financial impropriety within Pan Trinbago.
However, at the AGM he was not allowed to speak. He related: “The President said it was his meeting and he shall decide who speaks and who doesn’t speak, in spite of the shouts from members there that they want to hear the Vice President, because some of them only knew of my resignation while they were at the meeting on Sunday, so they wanted to hear from me.” He continued: “I stood for more than an hour and the president who was the chair, refused to recognise me, until it came near the end of the meeting and people started to call on the president to recognise me. “He spoke to people in a certain kind of way saying that it is his meeting and he will decide who shall speak in his meeting. So after a while, there was a microphone that was close by and when one of the members attempted to take the mic and give it to me, other members of the executive grabbed it away and some of them even vented: ‘He will stand up there for the whole day and even the next day.’ So then I strolled across to the podium where there was another mic and he (Diaz) started to shout that he did not give permission to anybody to go and speak in any mic.
“When I got to the mic, I put down my papers and I prepared to speak, he said this meeting is closed. He said as a matter of fact I hereby close this meeting, please switch off those microphones.” But Serrette had prepared for what happened at the AGM. He said: “I had a presentation that I made at a retreat of the Central Executive back in June, (re financial improprieties). I had made 100 copies of that and I said I would distribute it to the membership because I suspected that they would not have allowed me to speak, in spite of the fact I was still the VP until Tuesday. That is when I distributed the copies to the membership present.”
Replies
She looks so hearty, feeling fine;
She loves to smoke, sometime shiftin' coke;
She'll be laughin' when there ain't no joke.
A pimper's paradise: that's all she was;
A pimper's paradise: that's all she was now;
Pimper's paradise: that's all she was.
(Every need got an ego to feed;
Every need got an ego to feed.)
She's in the scramble and she moves with passion (oo-bee doo-be doo),
She's getting high, trying to fly the sky (oo-bee doo-be doo)!
Eh! Now she is bluesing when there ain't no blues.
A pimper's paradise: that's all she was, oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!
A…
The more things change the more they remain the same....total disregard for the rules/process is this a dictatorship?
DENIAL OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
Dear Mr. Houlder, I do not want to get back into Steelband Politics of T&T, but i wish to confirm that Ms. Denise Hernandez representative of Massy All Stars. was not allowed to speak when she went to the microphone, by Mr. Keith Diaz. Do you not remember Sir, That she tried ti explain that she brought a letter from the management of All Stars which was handed in to the secretariat of PT at the front desk , advising that Berrisford Hunte was unable to attend the meeting and that she would replace him as one of the Band's delegates?
Do you not remember that , try as she may, Keith Diaz jumped up on a "HIGH HORSE" tactic and shut her up?
Do you not remember Keith Diaz saying," move from the mike and take your seat, i say i am not allowing you to speak?
Well, if you cannot remember all this well maybe you went outside to try and get something to eat, or maybe to the washrooms or something.
Do you not find it strange that the Auditors indicated in their report that Pan Trinbago's Liabilities outweighed its assets by over $5,000,000.00 million dollars and no one seemed to care, that the organisation could be heading for bankruptcy
But what does it matter.?
https://whensteeltalks.ning.com/forum/topics/denial-of-constitutiona...
Diaz is nothing less than a bully, invoking the long-time "badjohn" and disrespectful mentality. He showed the same disrespect to the women of New Visionaries during the Election Meeting last year. Does he think he is God? or Hitler?
Then after more than 10 years as cronies, wheeling and dealing with panmen money, Serrette decided to spill the beans. Isn't he part of the conspiracy against pan players?
Anyway, the longest rope has an end. Somebody should make a jail for the thievery to stop.
At this juncture I'll refer to Stalin, "Bun dem!"
Black Stalin - Burn Dem