-Members of staff who are underperforming will be removed from NCC – Culture MinisterThe Minister of Culture,Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony disclosed that the National Cultural Centre (NCC) is facing a lot of challenges and that the modernization of the building may cost up to $80M.Dr. Frank AnthonyThis declaration was made at his “End of the Year” press conference, yesterday, at his Ministry on Main Street, Georgetown.Last year at the award ceremony of the National Drama Festival, Mr. Godfrey Naughton, Director of the NCC, said that the high rental costs of the National Cultural Centre is literally chasing producers away.Dr. Anthony was present at the event and was challenged by Naughton to take serious action in this regard.Naughton had said that while students are trained at the National School of Drama which is housed at the National Cultural Centre, he insisted that more needs to be done to improve the platform upon which they use to exhibit their talents and to practice the art form which is also a critical aspect of their course.Naughton had made reference to the poor lighting facilities and the sound system which he deemed to be outdated.He had said that for over two years the processors which produce lighting at the events and during most of their plays was malfunctioning even throughout the drama festival last year.“We only had four major productions for the year,Cheap NHL Jerseys, and that cannot sustain the Cultural Centre. The light bill is extremely high and we are unable to pay it with just that. We are up to our neck with expenses and we continue to plead with the Minister (Dr. Frank Anthony) to help us with subsidies as other companies are assisted.“The high cost to rent the centre is chasing people away,Cheap Basketball Jerseys, especially producers of plays because they would have to pay 20 percent tax on even the tickets.”When this was put to Dr. Anthony yesterday,Cheap Jerseys From China, he firmly asserted, “While producers may complain about how much it costs to use the centre,Jerseys NFL Wholesale, we are actually subsidizing the centre and I think people should understand that.? We have difficulties at the cultural centre and one of these includes the Air Conditioning.“When you turn on the Air Conditioning in the National Cultural Centre to cool that entire place it is costly and sometimes the $80,000 or $70,000 that we charge has to be spent again on the electricity bills. People don’t take this into consideration and if we are to implement market rates I don’t know how many of the producers will be able to afford it.”He added, “We have to retire the old AC system and put in new ones. We had some advertisements out for invitation for bids from contractors to replace the AC System. We had one contractor who came in and the estimate was too high so we have nullified that bid and we went to the tender board and asked if we can do selective tendering.? We did this and we gave several companies a timeline. So far, we got two bids and we are evaluating those.”The National Cultural CentreAs it relates to lighting, he noted that the ministry is in the process of replacing the current lights with an improved digital system.He said,Cheap Jerseys Wholesale, “We also had difficulty with staff at the centre and we will now be changing the staff that has been underperforming. And the sound system will also be improved.”“We have to fund all these things. If the centre was making money we could have been able to invest this money. We have to now find money from our budget to do this and to do all this that I have spoken on we would be spending close to $80M on the centre.”With regard to the Drama School, the Minister said that the centre has been in existence for over 30 years and no one thought to establish the School. He said, “When the school started it was done so without a budget. We started small. We have demonstrated that this initiative is viable and we know that improvements have to be made because we have had an overwhelming response. We know it is not perfect but we will continue to work towards improving this area.”