The Bahamian taxpayers lost $1,189,562 on the recent Junkanoo parades, according to a draft report from the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche.
This after the government spent $2.4 million on the five parades of the 2002-2003 season.
The losses from the parades are significantly greater than the loss incurred during the previous Junkanoo season, when $8,277 in losses were incurred.
After weeks of probing, the Bahama Journal has obtained a draft of the long-awaited ten-page report that details the expenditure and revenue of the most recent parades and the previous season under the former administration.
A letter from the accountants to Financial Secretary Ruth Millar attached to the draft, itemizes glaring accounting deficiencies. The accountants were concerned that the $1-million bleacher contract did not go out to tender; that there was improper use of the National Junkanoo Committee’s bank account stretching back to 2001; questionable record keeping and problems with reconciling Junkanoo ticket accounts.
At the brunt of the controversy is the award of the bleacher contract to Canadian firm Tower Scaffolding Limited.
The accountants, in their letter to the financial secretary, wrote, “Attempts were made to obtain a confirmation from the suppliers of the bleachers with a view to establishing in writing whether all sums payable under the contract were paid in full. We are still awaiting a response.”
The accountants concluded that it is customary for a government contract of that size to go out to tender.
“There was no evidence of such a process,” they said.
The accountants noted that in analysing disbursements in some instances, payments were made out of the National Junkanoo Committee account that did not relate to the parades.
“One example of such a payment was a cheque for $17,319.51 payable to a trucking company for the clean up of Bozine Town Park in December 2001,” the letter said.
“Additionally, we noted the approximately $181,000 in funds belonging to the Community Uplift account were used to pay expenses related to Junkanoo parades. Although, instructions have been given to replenish this account out of the additional $1,500,000 allocation made available by the Government, we feel that such practices should be discouraged.”
Government officials who had the report in hand recently started saying that a price should not be put on culture.
But Youth, Sports and Culture Minister Neville Wisdom in late November in the House of Assembly said he expected to gross $3 million from the parades.
Minister Wisdom faced criticisms from some Members of Parliament like Bamboo Town M.P. Tennyson Wells who thought the Minister was “chasing a rainbow.”
“I think you should try and spend that million dollars so we own those bleachers,” Mr. Wells said. “At the end of the day, we should have those bleachers.”
Minister Wisdom then said, “It is hoped that at the end of the exercise, if it works…we will be able to make some sort of arrangement for some permanency. I don’t want to go any further than that at this point, but suffice it to say, what we will have here in total will be facilities or equipment, valued to some $8 and a half million.”
Minister Wisdom told House Members that he had a “beautiful arrangement” with the Canadian firm to bring in the bleachers, which have since been returned.
“I simply say this to you, that sometimes in business ventures, you spend money to make money,” he said. “Yes, a million dollars is being invested, but the return anticipated from the exercise is $3 million.” In the 2002-2003 Junkanoo season, the government spent $1.3 million on bleacher rental. This is compared to the $192,000 the former government spent on providing bleachers the year before.
The report also itemized the specific expenditure for the bleacher arrangement.
* Rental contract – $996,000
* Freight, inwards and outwards – $202,833
* Insurance – $40,000
* Work permits – $12,300
* Accommodations, travel etc. – $29,000
* Security – $21,418
* Fees for drafts etc. – $7,073
Ticket sales in 2002-2003 totalled $672,000, about $236,000 more than the year before. The report breaks down the sales as follows:
* Boxing Day Parade – $302,085
* New Year’s Day Parade – $242,344
* Junior Junkanoo Parade – $60,235
* Gus Cooper Float Parade – $57,835
* Percy “Vola” Francis Float Parade – $8,780.
The report noted that significant resources were expended on the ticketing system and it should have been possible to reconcile tickets sold by section and parade.
However, it pointed out that the system was compromised for the following reasons:
A significant amount of tickets were taken out of the system for sale at the venue just before parades. Several of these tickets were sold at prices below their face value. Although an attempt was made to record the differences, we understand that it became impossible to keep up with this procedure throughout the event, it added.
“The problem was further aggravated by a decision to print all unsold tickets before the New Year’s Day parade making it necessary to count thousands of tickets which were never sold in order to complete a final reconciliation. For practical reasons this exercise was never completed.
“Reports received with respect to request for complimentary tickets should be more detailed. A request for 10 tickets can just as easily be satisfied by 10 fifty dollar tickets or by 10 one hundred dollar tickets.”
In this past Junkanoo season, prize monies awarded more than double the year before, totalling $294,000.
One government official told us that one positive aspect of the report is that there were no signs of impropriety and that the seating that was provided, though shrouded in controversy, were comfortable and safe.
Again, what many are concerned about is the loss of about $1.2 million incurred at a time when the government has been preaching cautious spending.
Because the draft is not a final version, the government official pointed out that slight changes may have been made to it.
By Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
