Less than one month after Carnival 2015, the National Carnival Bands Commission (NCBA) is looking to disqualify more than ten Kings, Queens and Individuals who took part in carnival competitions. The Sunday Guardian learned that a group of performers were called into the NCBA head office on Picton Street on Monday and informed of the disqualifications. The group met with NCBA president David Lopez and two other NCBA officials and were asked to sign a document agreeing to the disqualifications.
The Sunday Guardian learned that a small argument broke out when the group refused to sign the document. One senior king, Edwin Worrell said he and the other ten performers were called to the NCBA office on Monday and left after refusing to sign any document declaring them disqualified. Worrell owns Branches Mas Band and has been producing a mas band for over eight years. He said he was being disqualified for competing in the Kings competition without being attached to a mas band which is in the NCBA rules.
“How can the NCBA say that when my band competed Downtown and at the Queen’s Park Savannah. The NCBA is telling me that I passed the judging points, but my band did not. I was with my band when we passed the judging points, so I do not know how they could say that,” Worrell said.
Though Lopez did not return calls to his mobile phone over the past four days, one NCBA insider yesterday said that once a performer was disqualified by the NCBA, they could not collect any money or cheques already released by the Government. The payment issued by the Government is deemed an “uncollected cheque” and is returned to the NCBA coffers. Those that are being disqualified are all members of the T&T Carnival Bands Association (TTCBA) and not the NCBA.
Just over three years ago, after a fallout with Lopez, a large group of the mas fraternity left the NCBA and formed the TTCBA to challenge the NCBA’s dominant role in the management of Carnival. The TTCBA is led by Gerard Weekes whose medium band, Mas Passion, was also disqualified from the 2015 Parade of the Bands competition. The Sunday Guardian was informed that the NCBA is currently going through its rule book to find reasons to disqualify winning King of Carnival, Roland St George. St George also belongs to the TTCBA.
“I haven’t heard anything officially yet, but I did hear that they are looking for a reason not to pay me my winnings. “The NCBA has never advertised winners so no one knows if they win or what they win. In my case, if they disqualify me that’s over $250,000 that goes back to the NCBA and no one knows where it goes from there,” St George said in an interview with the Sunday Guardian. “The rules have been orchestrated to disqualify people.
“Imagine a rule that says that the NCBA could decide to change the rules at any time without notice. That is dictatorship,” St George said. St George challenged the NCBA ruling last year as well and the matter was settled out of court. Last year, renowned mas maker, Rosalind Gabriel, was also penalised for allegedly breaking the parade route. Gabriel defended the move, though, saying that she had already paraded at all judging points and was taking her band back to her camp base.
She was not in competition at the time the NCBA disqualified her. The matter is still before the courts. Weekes is also querying why he was disqualified and was told that his band did not compete in the NCBA’s Downtown competition. Weekes though has obtained sworn affidavits from his road manager and band manager confirming that the bands registration card was handed over to NCBA officials. He now believes that the card may not have been swiped at the computer terminal at the Downtown judging point.
The Sunday Guardian has since learned that the computerised system and the entire adjudication system was descredited back in 2010 by former chief judge Nigel Eastman. The report, obtained by the Sunday Guardian, speaks of too much “interference” in the adjudication process. The computerised system is managed for the NCBA by Nigel Chinapoo. Despite distancing itself from the adjudication process, it is the NCBA that is now disqualifying those who portrayed a variety of Kings, Queens and Individuals.