$80,000 missing – where did it go

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a3DZsO36cA

Music PEI announced their latest musician grants on June 1, 2009. While we applaud their compliance with our request for transparency, the awards raise more questions. Where did the money go? It appears $80,000 of their budget from the Province of PEI has disappeared. It’s time for Music PEI to publish audited financial statements.

In researching the update to Does Music PEI discriminate against women and minorities? we came across the news about the latest awards . They are publishing the awards and the amounts this time.

Last year we asked for this level of detail and Music PEI stalled all year and finally released only the names and not the amounts. It’s good to see that they have responded somewhat to public criticism to clean up their act.

The announced awards amount to only $56,000 in the next six months. With a government budget of more than $250,000 annually and recent announcements about generous funding increases, where did the money go? How much of the money for musicians is going to Oakie, directors, other staff, the new fancy office digs and wasted entertainment?

The news of Music PEI incompetence just keeps piling up. Administration should only eat up 20% of their budget. It looks like they are spending 65% on overhead and 35% on musicians.

The good news is women are making some gains. While only 17% of the musicians are females, they are getting 29% of the funding for this six month period. That’s an improvement but hardly proportional to the 51% of women in the PEI.

Poor Sandbar Music, Lloyd Doyle has such a habit of dipping into the budget he had to take a small amount this time – $401.

At least we’re not seeing 60% of the Music PEI directors loading money into their cars as they drive home. Massive conflict of interest at Music PEI hurts musicians We note with some irony that a salute the flag comment on our story about Lloyd Doyle previous trips to the insider dealing trough was rewarded by the tie for largest grant this time. Loyalty has its rewards.

Here’s what their website says about the process:

The recent round of funding (April 30th 2009) was very competitive and the Jury (consisting of four persons) was unable to grant support to all requests. The Jury received in excess of 50 applications and due to limited funding was only able to approve 18. As per the guidelines, the jury scored each application out of a possible 100% with various aspects accounting for different portions of the total score. The final aggregated scores of all four jurors were used to determine which applicants received funding.

If 32 musicians were turned down, it seems odd that Dennis Ellsworth and his band Battery Point received two different grants this time. Last year they were the recipients of three grants. It hardly seems fair that 32 musicians or groups were turned down yet the same musicians get funded repeatedly.

The word on the street is “Music PEI – a private club with public money.”

75% of the grant money this time went to musicians funded in the prior year. Sure looks like a cosy little club.

Musicians receiving funding for the second or third time this award period were Battery Point, Chas Guay, Meaghan Blanchard, John Connolly, Dan Currie Band, Sandbar Music (Lloyd Doyle), Nudie and the Turks and Teresa Doyle.

We don’t begrudge anyone their awards but it would be appropriate for Music PEI to act more equitably. However, it seems beyond the Directors of Music PEI.