Carnival Commission Clarifies Third Prize Controversy

Tonight, the Carnival Road March saga is far from over, what started as a missing third‑place prize has now blown up into a wider fight over trust and transparency. On Friday, a band leader publicly challenged the Belize Carnival Association, questioning whether prize money was ever delivered to competing groups. The allegation quickly caught fire, raising eyebrows about how the organization handles its finances. Now, the Carnival Commission is stepping in. Member Eluide Miller says the Commission can’t answer for every claim being thrown around, but he can clear up whether that third‑place prize was actually issued, and he breaks down how payments are supposed to move between the Commission and the Carnival Association.

 

Eluide Miller, Member, Belize Carnival Commission

“Now, I can’t speak to the allegations that were made directly, but again, we work in tandem with the Belize Carnival Association. And I must highlight that carnival is bigger than any one individual, any one group. It’s bigger than me, any member of the commission, right? It belongs to the people of Belize. And so our only focus remains on unity, collaboration and ensuring that we could deliver a safe and successful celebration. Now, in terms of that specific allegation that you cited earlier, I can confirm that a third place prize for that specific category was not issued to the Carnival Association nor to any of the bands. How it works is that the Carnival Association usually informs the NCC of the winners of the respective categories, and the NCC would remit direct payments to those bands that are to be awarded. And so in that case, on the advice of the association because they did not meet a specific threshold, it was agreed that a third place price for that category would not be issued. And so in that instance, the NCC did not make any payments to any bands, given that none of the bands qualified under the advice of the association, none of the bands qualified to be rewarded that specific price. And so those monies were not issued by the NCC.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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