PM: Govt will not spend another dime on “PLP” carnival

PM: Govt will not spend another dime on “PLP” carnival
Revelers participate in the 2018 Bahamas Carnival Road Fever March.

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis has placed the Carnival Band Association on notice, that the government will not invest another dime in what he referred to last week as the “PLP” carnival.

While making his contribution to the 2019/2020 Budget Debate in the House of Assembly last week, Dr. Minnis said the government had to pay to clean up after this year’s road fever event, and this, he said, will not happen anymore.

“Of course, many of the vendors who benefited from the PLP Carnival were well-connected special interests. If private citizens want to have a Carnival, that is their right, but the government should not be paying for such a party, so this government stopped spending the people’s money on the PLP Carnival,” Dr. Minnis said.

“And, Mr. Speaker, I want to send a notice out to the private owners; the contractors of the Carnival, we made a commitment that we will not spend government money. But during the last Carnival it cost us an average $9,473.92 to clean up after it. That will be the private owners’ responsibility next time. We will save our money for something else.”

Bahamas Carnival was launched in 2015 under the former Perry Christie-led  Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration.

Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis, then leader of the opposition, said that government funds spent on carnival should have instead gone to Junkanoo.