GEORGE TOWN: Only one proposal was submitted to manage the George Town Festival (GTF) for 2027 and 2028, leading George Town World Heritage Incorporated (GTWHI) to organise the festival in-house instead.
Penang tourism and creative economy committee chairman Wong Hon Wai said GTWHI's technical committee assessed the sole proposal but recommended rejecting it, deeming the bidder unsuitable.
Wong said none of the individuals or organisations behind a petition opposing the in-house arrangement had submitted a proposal for the tender.
"If there had been a suitable bidder, GTWHI would have considered that option.
"However, as the project owner, it has to evaluate its options and has decided that it can organise the festival itself," he told reporters on Thursday (Nov 12).
He said managing GTF through third-party contractors had posed challenges in the past, including compliance issues.
"After relying on third-party contractors for so many years, GTWHI wants to set a new direction and improve the way the festival is managed," he said.
Wong added that GTWHI remained open to collaboration and had received nine inquiries from local and international arts circles within less than 24 hours of publishing its statement on the in-house arrangement.
In June, GTWHI invited external organisers to submit proposals to manage GTF for the next two years, with an annual allocation of RM2.5mil, up from RM1.5mil previously.
However, on Wednesday (Nov 11), GTWHI announced that it would organise the festival in-house from next year.
Following that, Penang Art District general manager Kenny Ng said GTF had traditionally been managed through a tender process, keeping the festival organiser separate from the body responsible for oversight.
"Previously, the party organising the festival was separate from the one responsible for checks and balances.
"Now that GTWHI is organising the festival itself, who is doing the checks and balances?” he asked.
Ng also highlighted concerns over intellectual property, in the event that artists and production houses' ideas are used even if their submissions are unsuccessful.
He said copyright registration and patents were options for protecting creative work, but could be costly for emerging artists.
The eight-member GTF Temporary Action Team submitted a petition to GTWHI and the state government on Saturday (Nov 7), calling for greater transparency in the festival's management and to suspend GTF 2027 preparations until its concerns were addressed.
The petition had gathered more than 350 signatures as of Thursday.
Among its six demands are disclosure of the tender outcome, an explanation for the in-house decision, a breakdown of the RM2.5mil annual budget and assurances of independent artistic leadership.
GTWHI had said it would recruit its own teams for festival planning, programme execution, management, production, technical operations and outreach.
"All GTF activities, including procurements, transactions and governance, shall be subject to direct inspection by independent auditors," it added.
The 2027 edition will be the 17th GTF and coincide with the 19th anniversary of George Town's inscription as a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Established by GTWHI in 2010, the festival celebrates the city's heritage through arts and cultural programmes.
