Rowley supports Browne in seeking audit for Nicki Minaj concert; Roberts provides details

Opposition Dr Keith Rowley is supporting MP Dr Amery Browne in asking for an audit of the Nicki Minaj concert, which was held at the Hasley Crawford Stadium on October 30.

Rowley, who is recuperating from minor surgery, issued a media release Tuesday asking for an explanation of the expenditure of nearly $900,000 on the concert saying Sports Minister Anil Roberts “is yet to account to the people of T&T on the matter of who benefited financially from the proceeds of the concert.”

Roberts has declined an audit. However he told reporters Tuesday the Government spent over $869,000 on the concert, which launched the “Localise It” initiative. He gave a breakdown of the ministry’s funding of the show:

• Local advertising - $150,000
• Venue infrastructure - $75,000
• Local fashion show - $60,000
• Local culture (moko jumbies etc) - $26,000
• COTT fees - $32,383
• Local artistes fees - $40,000
• Hilton Trinidad - $60,343
• Nicki Minaj entourage and agent fees - $382,000.

Roberts said the country benefited tremendously. “So at $869,000, already we have generated benefits far outweighing, by 1,000 per cent, what we have spent,” Roberts said.
 
Reporters asked about whether a private individual benefited from the concert. He said, “The Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs does not consider, when it is funding or sponsoring or granting funds to individuals, companies, radio advertising or the like, whether or not the individual company will make a profit. We hope that they will.”

He said the proposal “had some merit and the ministry saw some benefit in getting aligned with that product, so if the individual makes a profit, well that’s good...We wouldn’t like...citizens to suffer and make losses.”

Roberts admitted that the concert was not a financial success. And he denied that promoter Darryl Braxton was the main beneficiary. He said his association with Braxton on the project had nothing to do with his relationship with Braxton.

"I know him for two years, I would not say that he is my friend but we respect each other. He loves Trinidad and Tobago and I love Trinidad and Tobago...

“The key issue is he had the contract with Nicki Minaj—a Trinbagonian superstar—the number one Trinbagonian out there worldwide. He had the paper.”

Roberts also denied a claim by Browne that youth organisations were denied funding from the ministry in recent weeks because of the expenditure on the concert.

Roberts explained that the ministry did not fund two projects because it received the applications just days before the dates for the events.