Duke calls for strengthening of private sector

TOBAGO House of Assembly (THA) Minority Leader, Watson Duke, is calling on the THA administration to strengthen the private sector.

Yesterday, Duke led off the fiscal 2018/2019 budget debate, after Monday’s presentation of the estimates of expenditure by Secretary for Finance and the Economy, Joel Jack, at the Assembly Legislature Chamber in Scarborough.

Duke gave data from a number of Caribbean islands as he concluded that the THA is hiring too many people.

“The THA boasts of being responsible for 62 per cent of the island’s employment, which is really a shame and disgrace. In other parts of the world, in other parts of the Caribbean, people are developing other parts of the sectors. The private sectors, the business sectors are being developed to take the load off the Government’s spending.

“While we boast about some 62 per cent that we are responsible for employing, we are living on a subsistence from Trinidad but yet employing 62 per cent.”

Describing himself as the Chief Secretary in waiting, Duke said after Jack’s presentation on Monday, he went out to get a sense of what people were saying on the ground. He said that it was during this journey he realised, based on the responses, the minority is becoming the majority.

“People are not happy with the budget… it lacked the component of accountability, it lacks the component of transparency. Your core that passes as a budget is nonsensical and irrelevant to say the least.”

Duke said if the Assembly is going to develop Tobago, the island must be developed in tandem with Trinidad, adding that there must be a national conversation especially when all the money is coming from Trinidad.

He accused the administration, led by Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles, of keeping Tobago dependent on central Government allocations to fund its economy.

“As long as the central Government keeps Tobago dependent upon it, Tobago will find no need to launch out and diversify its economy along with Trinidad. It is only when we do that we can recognise our true potential for growth. It is quite clear to me that not everyone who occupies office really belongs there, for some it’s a job, they get paid and that’s it.

“We the people of Tobago lack a visionary leader. We are led by a Chief Secretary who is not inspirational in his leadership, and so all Tobagonians are asking the question, ‘how long’ and then they turn and ask themselves the question, ‘how far before we have elections’.”