$$ wasted on NAPA but too late to make changes: Culture minister

Art and Multiculturalism Minister Winston Gypsy Peters told reporters Wednesday the Manning government wasted money in building the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) in San Fernando.

He added that if he had been in government at the time to decide on the matter he would have preferred to upgrade the Naparima Bowl.

However Peters said the People's Partnership government would not abandon the project because of its magnitude. The original budget for the NAPA was $205 million but it is now expected to cost about $300 million by the time it is completed.

The minister made the comments after he and Planning Minister Mary King toured the south NAPA, the Chancery Lane Complex and the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba.

Each of the projects, managed by UDeCOTT, has suffered long delays and is hundreds of millions of dollars over budget.

Peters noted that some of the cost overruns at the NAPA happened because UDeCOTT began work without the necessary approval from the Environmental Management Authority (EMA). The building contractor, Shanghai Construction Company, has given January 2011 as the completion date.

Commenting on the overall project, Peters said it is unacceptable that the main auditorium would accommodate only 810 persons. "Neither of them is worth the money for the seating capacity... this one nor the one in Port-of-Spain," he added.

"We could have built something which could have housed much more people. If you have a show in Trinidad and Tobago and you have 810 people, then you have a buss show," he remarked.

However, he said it is too late to redesign the building. "We will never be able to pay for these things. Our great grandchildren would be paying for these things. It matters not what activities you keep here, in terms of a financial return, we will never be able to do that," he told the Trinidad Guardian.

King suggested that the government would have to conceptualise a business plan to ensure the NAPA generates income to repay loans government-to-government loans borrowed to finance the facility.

"It can be used for conferences. We have a large auditorium-type theatre that can be used for business, as well as, Government functions, as well as drama and theatre. We have to make it a profit machine,” King said.