Lynch

DESPITE ASCRIBING "iconic" status to the annual Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival, Jamaica Tourist Board Director (JTB) John Lynch tried unsuccessfully on Wednesday to convince a parliamentary committee that the US$500,000 (J$44.5 million) government funding for the event next year was necessary.

"This is going to be a very hard sell to the people of Jamaica this time around," said D.K. Duncan, a member of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) of Parliament.

Batting for the staging of more events such as the upscale festival, Lynch asserted that it benefited the country.

"It is an iconic activity that we have. We need more of this sort of thing; it drives traffic," Lynch added.

However, committee members were united in their position that it would be difficult to support the multimillion-dollar expenditure without a proper analysis of its overall benefit to the country.

"If the Government of Jamaica is investing so heavily in a project, the people need to know more about the project, what sort of cost does it take to put on, what are the benefits?" committee Chairman Wyke-ham McNeill inquired.

No benefits for public

Another committee member, Ronald Thwaites, wanted to know whether proceeds from this event trickled down to the ordinary Jamaican.

"We make these expendi-tures, they are open to special-interest pressure, whereas the broad interest of the mass of people who have no voice, except through their MP, is seldom heard on an issue like this," he said.

Lynch continued to defend the staging of the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival, pointing out that during the event, economic activity in Montego Bay was substantial. He said small hotel and restaurant owners reaped benefits from the festival.

"Having the Jazz and Blues is a way to showcase the good things about Jamaica and it generates an enormous amount of publicity overseas that is beneficial to the destination," he said.

JTB executives were asked if the Government received audited accounts from the promoters and organisers of the festival.

Lynch advised that there was no arrangement between Government and the promoters to provide audited statements of accounts. "That was never the agreement," he stressed.

He later indicated that government funding should cease when the economy rebounds and the private sector could support the event.

The JTB will submit a report to the PAAC by next week. The committee will review the report and then make recommendations to Parliament on the issue.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com