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Con­tro­ver­sy erupt­ed yes­ter­day over a re­port­ed $750,000 pay­ment to top ex­ec­u­tives of the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO).

The is­sue sparked a tense meet­ing at the Bel­mont Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, where ca­lyp­so­ni­ans de­mand­ed a full ex­pla­na­tion from TU­CO pres­i­dent Ains­ley King about the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s fi­nan­cial prac­tices.

At the meet­ing, mem­bers pre­sent­ed a doc­u­ment dat­ed Feb­ru­ary 5, 2024, de­tail­ing “re­im­burse­ments” that in­clud­ed $350,000 to King, $100,000 each to the pres­i­dent, vice pres­i­dent, and gen­er­al sec­re­tary, $100,000 to the trea­sur­er, and $60,000 to the as­sis­tant trea­sur­er.