$9M in Carnival prize money still unpaid as September deadline nears

Car­ni­val stake­hold­ers are still wait­ing on prize mon­ey from the 2026 cel­e­bra­tions, even af­ter the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion says it has paid $4.55 mil­lion to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion (TTC­BA); and now a Gov­ern­ment com­mit­ment to ad­dress the out­stand­ing pay­ments by the mid­dle of Sep­tem­ber is ap­proach­ing.

TTC­BA pres­i­dent Mark Ayen said the $4.55 mil­lion does not rep­re­sent the full prize al­lo­ca­tion, ex­plain­ing that the NCC made pay­ments to the as­so­ci­a­tion for ad­min­is­tra­tive and op­er­a­tional ex­pens­es as well as prizes.

The NCC paid the TTC­BA $850,000 on Jan­u­ary 21 for ad­min­is­tra­tive and op­er­a­tional sup­port for Car­ni­val 2026, Ayen said. On Feb­ru­ary 7, it paid an­oth­er $3 mil­lion as a part-pay­ment to­wards prizes. Ayen said that mon­ey was al­lo­cat­ed to the ju­nior Car­ni­val prize struc­ture.