Marigot: --- Board members of the Committee of Traditions and Culture (CTC) responds to the accusations made by their choreographer Kofi Walker who claimed that he was not paid in full for the work he did for the CTC. Speaking on SOS radio on Thursday Gayel Mussington said she intended to take the reporter to court as she seeks to rectify her name.
Mussington said her point of contention in the article was that her name was written in full. She further said she is not the treasurer of the CTC neither is she paid by CTC. Mussington said she is donating her time to the association in the best interest of the island. Mussington further said that she would be seeking a court decision because someone accused her of conflict of interest in one of the comments.
According to Mussington the people, accusing her of conflict of interest does not know its true meaning since she is not the owner of the Sheriff Security. She said the company belongs to her father and she is a manager. Furthermore, she acknowledged that the company did not execute the job at the Caribbean Festival reasons, which she did not disclose. SMN News did write an article on that subject matter.
The company’s manger and CTC board member said she would like for someone to show her where the alleged Euros 50,000 that was paid to the security company went since she does not know where it is. She went as far as saying someone should give that money to her, since the CTC members are working for free and they were not paid. Mussington said Walker should not throw stones when he is living in glass house. She said Walker should be last person to throw those stones. Mussington said she was hired to be in charge of the troops and chorography and admitted she was aggressive in pushing the work.
According to information, reaching SMN News is that the CTC hired Walker on a three-year contract even though he is residing and working on the island illegally. According to our sources, the CTC is using this information to intimidate Walker because he exposed the Association and its members. According to French law, it is prohibited for any employer to hire anyone who is residing on the island illegally, if caught these persons can be prosecuted and a hefty fine would be imposed.
President of the CTC Joel Dormoy acknowledged that the CTC did sign a three-year contract with Walker, which is negotiable, which means that if the CTC does not agree with anything in the contract he can then terminate it. Dormoy said he is rather angry at what went on with the entire situation regarding Walker. Dormoy said the CTC has nine board members with 25 members making it an association with 34 members that cannot get payed for whatever work they did. He said they have been trying to organize the carnival but this is the first time they have been trying to organize such a festival. Dormoy said that at least three of the CTC members went to the BFC bank with an account number that was provided to them by Walker.
Dormoy said the bank told them that they were not able to wire any monies on the account since according to him the number was not good. Dormoy said they notified Walker and he came back to them with the same number this time with a stamp attached. Dormoy explained they were not looking for a stamp instead; they wanted the correct bank account number. Dormoy said he does not understand why Walker is carrying on with all this drama because on numerous occasions they informed Walker that they could not pay him in cash monies. He said that according to him that is illegal.
However, the CTC president did not address payment with a certified check, which was also possible. Dormoy said the reason they agreed to pay someone six or eight thousand Euros to organize the festival (carnival) was because they were behind time and they needed someone to carry out the job. Dormoy said carnival is no longer about pleasure instead it is about making monies. Dormoy further acknowledged they made mistakes in organizing the Caribbean Festival that they intend to learn from it in the future. Dormoy said despite the mistakes they considered the festival a success because the overseas artist and troops are very content with the way they handled matters. Asked if they received all the monies Euros 350, 000, Dormoy said everyone is making a mistake with the budget and the deficit. Asked if they owed anyone monies especially Mr. Walker the treasurer said they made a payment to Walker to the value of Euros 1,500 and there is a balance of Euros 1,500. However, Walker does not want to be paid by, check he wanted cash and as such, he voided the check and returned it to the CTC board. She said if Walker had cashed that check, it means they paid him Euros 4,500.
The treasurer said that even though Walker has an agreement for six thousand Euros he did not do the work for the monies he was receiving, a sentiment shared by the board members and panel on SOS radio.
Asked if they brought in someone from overseas and paid him the Euros 35,000, which is creating anger in the community. Dormoy said the overseas promoter was not paid that amount of monies. SMN News understands that the promoter was paid Euros 60,000, this reporter also requested the financial breakdown from CTC to bring clarity but to date we have not gotten that breakdown.
However, Dormoy did not disclose the amount of monies that was paid to the overseas promoter. Dormoy said he wanted locals to see how the promoter organized the show something he never saw before because to put on the festival had lots of administrative work. Dormoy said the CTC did not bring in the promoter instead; it was the Collectivity who brought in the promoter since they were investing monies. Dormoy insisted that Walker should stop his commotion and confusion since the CTC does not owe him that amount of monies. Dormoy also assured that everyone they owed would be paid. As for next year festival Dormoy said they already begin working on getting some monies from the FIDER funds. He said the balance of the subvention is expected as late as next week.
According to reliable information, reaching SMN News is that the father of one of the CTC board members threatened Walker on Thursday afternoon when Walker refused to meet with him. The source said Walker was supposed to meet with a person who had nothing to do with the CTC board and wanted to discuss the ongoing dispute. The man it is said told Walker that he would show up at the home and when he does, the situation would turn nasty. The source also said that another person who Walker worked with on the Dutch side of the island looked for him and told him that he needed to retract all the statements he made on SOS radio on Wednesday. It is further understood that the former employer of Mr. Kofi Walker are connected to persons in politics on the French side of the island as well as the CTC board.
