Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo says the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the sub­stan­tial for­eign ex­change pay­ment made to Ja­maican dance­hall artiste Adid­ja “Vy­bz Kar­tel” Palmer re­mains on­go­ing and ac­tive.

Con­tro­ver­sy erupt­ed ear­li­er this month when Kar­tel, along with sev­er­al oth­er artistes, with­drew from the May 31 One Caribbean Mu­sic Fes­ti­val at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, cit­ing un­re­solved con­trac­tu­al is­sues. Ac­cord­ing to the event’s or­gan­is­ers, Kar­tel re­ceived US$950,000 of US$1.3 mil­lion for his per­for­mance be­fore he de­cid­ed to pull out of the con­cert.

Tan­coo pre­vi­ous­ly stat­ed that he was in­trigued by the amount of for­eign ex­change be­ing men­tioned in re­la­tion to pay­ment fees for artistes in­volved and or­dered an in­ves­ti­ga­tion.