THA to roll out new payment system by May 1

The Tobago House of Assembly (THA) is preparing for a full Assembly-wide rollout of the Automatic Clearing House (ACH) system from May 1.

Speaking at the weekly post-Executive Council media briefing on Wednesday in Scarborough, Deputy Chief Secretary and Secretary of Finance and the Economy Joel Jack said: “We have onboarded all utility payments during the period December 2018 to February 2019 via the ACH system and we are currently in the process of executing phase two, which is where we would be onboarding contracted services such as security and janitorial services.

Jack said the ACH system has improved the payment processes across the assembly, as well as reduce the delivery of payment to the banks by at least three to five days. To date, the first phase of the rollout of the ACH payment to suppliers in the Division of Finance and the Economy has been successfully completed, as the division is being used as a pilot.

In May 2017, the Finance Division announced the implementation of the ACH system to make the payment of THA workers more efficient.