Lambeau residents concerned about late pay for THA workers, bad roads

Late pay for THA workers, roads in need of repair and an unaware of who the electoral representative was for the area were among issues raised by residents of Lambeau and environs on Tuesday at the Tobago House of Assembly’ (THA) One-on-One meeting held at the Lambeau Multi-purpose facility.

Resident Peter Carl Bio complained about the poor construction of the roads.

“If we leave Crown Point, heading to Scarborough, we would recognise that all the laybys are not properly done, it is not safe to drive with your vehicle. At the mall, Lesson George Drive, it should be left in, left out, a lot of dangerous driving takes place there. The layby to exit from that road that leads from the mall is very dangerous, even to turn left onto the highway from Shirvan Road, there is a depression that developed,” he said.

Esther Boatswain called for THA workers who werenot paid on time to get assistance from the Secretaries of the particular Divisions, so they could meet their commitments, especially loan servicing.

She cited the example of some persons who had loans with the credit union and that while they had letters from their workplace showing that they had not yet been paid, that was of no help.

“What I want to say is that if it is possible that when these workers don’t get paid and their loan interest just boils over, it affects their whole credit. If there is something that these Secretaries that don’t pay them could do to help these people, not only do they give the persons a bad name, but they also put their loans in jeopardy,” she said

Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles responded by saying that Secretaries were no responsible for preparing paysheets.

“It is not as simple as outlined…no Secretary nor Assistant Secretary prepares any pay sheet or signs any cheques. The point needs to be made and the bigger question is accountability…our responsibility in the main is to make sure that funds are available.

“Every Division is managed … by an administrator and we need to understand that and therefore the administrator is the one who has the responsibility for ensuring in the first instance that the administrative arrangements for every Division or the Division for which he or she is responsible is carried out effectively,” he said.

James Clarke of Spring Garden Trace Extension, in his contribution, said he was shocked that while speaking to his neighbor, he told him that he did not know the electoral district representative, Jomo Pitt.

Pitt, who was at the meeting, said: “I apologize, there is no excuse, I would do better.”

Charles added to Pitt’s response: “What I would suggest you do, because you did not call a name, is to speak with the Assemblyman and you could advise him who the person is. Truth be told, I meet people everyday who say that they are happy to meet me because while they see me on TV, they have never met me in person, so I could understand the situation.”