By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

YOUTH, Sports and Culture Minister Mario Bowleg revealed yesterday that 90 percent of the team contracted to produce a virtual Junkanoo show had COVID-19, which has affected the production.

A day after he told The Tribune the production’s quality could have been better, Mr Bowleg reiterated to reporters that the Bahamian company hired for the job faced challenges that caused the production not to be up to standard.

Asked about these challenges, he said: “We (are) in a COVID environment and sad to say 90 percent of the production team got COVID and they were unable to do their work that would allow them to meet the deadline or do their work to the perfection I should say to allow them to meet the deadline that we wanted to air the production.

“Unfortunately, the work that they would’ve put in would’ve not been sufficient to satisfy us but again I’m not taking anything away from them. They’re gonna correct their errors and we’re gonna move forward.”

The show aired on January 1 on television and social media, but there were some complaints from viewers about the quality of the production.

Mr Bowleg said once industry stakeholders and ministry officials review the corrected programme, it will be rebroadcast.

Mr Bowleg also gave a breakdown of the cost of production.

The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture previously said the budget for virtual Junkanoo for New Providence, Grand Bahama and the Family Islands amounted to $300,000.

The ministry said it provided $126,000 to Junkanoo groups as a stipend, providing grants of $11,000 to seven Category A groups and $7,000 to seven Category B groups.

“On production and advertising, the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture spent $24,000 on production and $200 on audio advertising.

“The remaining balance of the $300,000 will be spent on the virtual parades for Grand Bahama and the Family Islands,” the ministry said in a statement issued over the weekend.