The Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC) con­tin­ues to be in the spot­light af­ter pulling spon­sor­ship from three steel bands, a move that has raised eye­brows in the cul­tur­al sec­tor. The com­pa­ny, how­ev­er, re­mains silent not on­ly on its spon­sor­ship de­ci­sions but al­so on how it failed to prop­er­ly ac­quire the Banyan Archives.

On Au­gust 24, Guardian Me­dia sent NGC a se­ries of ques­tions re­gard­ing the archive, none of which have been an­swered: Why did NGC pub­licly an­nounce in 2022 that it would ac­quire the Banyan Archives on be­half of Trinidad and To­ba­go but fail to fol­low through? Who with­in NGC was re­spon­si­ble for en­sur­ing the ac­qui­si­tion was com­plet­ed? Was there a for­mal agree­ment, con­tract, or board ap­proval for the ac­qui­si­tion? If so, why was it not ex­e­cut­ed? Were any se­nior ex­ec­u­tives in­volved in de­lay­ing or ob­struct­ing the deal? Was the US$250,000 price for the full archive eval­u­at­ed or ap­proved by NGC?

Now, a source with di­rect knowl­edge of the ne­go­ti­a­tions has come for­ward to ex­plain what hap­pened. The source, who held a se­nior role at NGC at the time, said the com­pa­ny had board ap­proval to pur­chase the archives over two years ago.