Compensation coming, says PM

Organizers of the more than 60 New Year’s Eve fetes that were cancelled last minute due to the announcement of a curfew, are one step closer to receiving promised reimbursement for some costs they incurred but are unable to recover.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley has indicated that the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) has been identified by the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit as the entity that would oversee the process for reimbursement.

In an update late last week, following an announcement that the curfew would be extended from January 14 to January 31, Mottley disclosed that the reimbursement was almost ready to be issued to qualifying New Year’s Eve fete organizers.

“I remember speaking to you on Old Year’s Day. Let me say to those who are worried, the Government is, and has put a mechanism in place through the National Cultural Foundation to start to collect the data,”
she announced.

“For those who are upset that we didn’t do it fast enough, I beg you, do, [the first week of January] had two Bank Holidays and we were full dealing with COVID. We [are] now on to it, so bear with us and you are going to get through.

“We said sunk costs. There is no sunk cost in alcohol and there is no sunk cost in a number of other things. But generally, this Government will do right by everyone,” Mottley promised.

It was hours before New Year’s Eve celebrations that Mottley announced to the country that there should be no commercial fetes and that the island would be under a curfew from December 31 to January 14, 2021 at midnight to 5 a.m. each day.

She also announced that January 4 and 5, 2021, would be declared public holidays to give officials the opportunity to carry out some extensive contact tracing.

This came as health officials reported that the island recorded ten new cases of the coronavirus, two of which were prison officers.

Stating at the time that her administration was a caring one, Mottley said: “There are 65 events that apply to the COVID Monitoring Unit [to host New Year’s Eve fetes]. We will reimburse those persons the expenses for perishable items and some cost for set-up, this Government is caring but it is not foolish”.

She added that organizers would not be compensated for alcoholic beverages.

Government has not indicated what percentage of cost for set-up will be compensated or how much the overall activity was likely to cost.

However, organizers are expected to produce evidence of the perishable items they purchased and cost of set-up to the NCF in order to receive compensation.