By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

YOUTH, Sports and Culture Minister Mario Bowleg said the Prodigal Sons blamed “unforeseen circumstances” for dropping out of the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day junkanoo parades, an explanation he finds insufficient.

Mr Bowleg said he plans to meet with the leaders of the Junkanoo group this week to get more details on their actions. 

 He said his ministry received a letter from the group and a list of receipts detailing how their seed money was spent.

“They sent me a letter saying unforeseen circumstances, but that’s not sufficient for the ministry, and so we are requesting them to reveal those circumstances to us, and unless that meets our satisfaction, we won’t be satisfied with just an unforeseen circumstances report and no details to go with it,” he said. 

 Category A groups like the Prodigal Sons received $30,000 from the $928,500 in seed money the government provided this year.

 Mr Bowleg said groups are also required to sign a contract confirming their attendance for the parades and that the funds will be used for junkanoo purposes.

 “If they are in breach of the contract, then we would then request funding back, but I don’t want to say that that’s the way it’s gone right now because we have to see if their rationale of unforeseen circumstances makes sense,” he said. “Because if it doesn’t, then we have to see to do some things.”

 He said the ministry would report to the public about the matter, adding: “We can’t have this to be the norm.”

 Eric Knowles, the group leader, did not respond to calls by this newspaper yesterday.

 In November, he told The Tribune his group wanted to dazzle attendees after a fire destroyed its shack last year, consuming dozens of drums, costumes and materials. 

 “You know, when you have a God and a few good friends, we have been able to put things together,” he said. “As a matter of fact, we have completed one-half of our shack. We were able to get BPL to come and turn the lights back on after trying to get it on for quite some time.”