1 week ago
6
Tobago Correspondent
Minority Leader Kelvon Morris says the Tobago House of Assembly is spending millions on overseas trips while local businesses, workers, and even Government offices can’t get paid or supplied with basics like toilet paper.
“At my last count last year, it was about $20 million. The THA responded and said it was $12 million. But what we are counting and including is not simply the cost of the personnel—per diem, hotel, et cetera—we are also including all travel-related expenses,” Morris said at a media conference yesterday.
He explained that travel costs cover setting up booths, transportation, and hiring firms abroad to facilitate movements.
Just last month, the Auditor General’s 2024 report flagged $6.8 million in unverified overseas travel expenses by the THA.
Chief Secretary Farley Augustine responded then, saying it was caused by an administrative oversight. However, he said he has found reason to launch an internal investigation into the Division of Tourism’s travel spending.
Although Augustine said in May that his administration had spent $11 million on travel over the last three years, Morris claimed he has evidence the figure was $20 million and has now surpassed it.
“My information is, as of today, that cost is now ballooned to $25 million. So it means between last October to present, the THA would have spent over $5 million in overseas travel,” Morris said.
He said huge spending was happening while suppliers and workers face “record delays in payments.”
“Some people are waiting over five years for gratuity payments. Persons don’t have basic supplies in the division of support,” he added.
He said the lavish travel budget contradicts the hardship faced by families and small businesses.
“This is happening in the face of what I just described, where the THA is unable to pay suppliers, small businesses, where workers who would have worked hard during their contract period can’t even get their gratuity,” Morris said.
Minority councillor Petal-Ann Benoit backed Morris’ claims, saying the THA is receiving the highest budget allocations in its history and spending the money, yet service providers are still waiting for payment, and some Government offices cannot even get ink.
“We have heard the voices of our small business owners, our transport operators, our cultural workers, our school communities, and even the very staff in the Tobago House of Assembly. They are all being squeezed, not because there is no money in the THA, but because the money is not reaching them,” Benoit said.
She said unpaid bills are affecting maxi taxi operators, carnival stakeholders, daily-paid workers, and schools, which last term only received basic supplies like toilet paper and cleaning products near the end of the term.
Benoit dismissed claims that the THA is broke. She said allocations have risen every year: $2.365 billion in 2022, $2.521 billion in 2023, $2.5852 billion in 2024, and $2.60796 billion in 2025—over $10.076 billion in four years.
“If this THA received over $10 billion, why aren’t our service providers and individuals not paid on time?” she asked.
She said expenditure has also increased each year, with $1.287 billion already spent between October 2024 and April 2025, while 79 per cent of this year’s budget had been released by the Ministry of Finance by April.
“It is not accurate to say that the THA has no money,” she said.
Benoit noted that the THA also receives extra funds during the mid-year budget review. She said Tobago got $60 million in 2022, $100 million in 2023, and $50 million in 2024, but only $32 million this year—the “lowest … in recent history” despite one of the highest national supplements.
Benoit called on Augustine and the Executive Council to settle all outstanding debts.
Guardian Media reached out to Augustine and Deputy Chief Secretary Faith Brebnor but did not get any responses up to late yesterday.
English (US) ·