Augustine on new THA committee: All smoke screen and mirrors

The three-man committee announced by Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Ancil Dennis geared at creating greater synergies between the operations of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) divisions and the Office of the Auditor General is being labelled as "smokescreens and mirrors," by deputy political leader of the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) Farley Augustine.

Augustine told Newsday: “All smokescreens and mirrors. A lame attempt to disguise and draw attention away from the repeated embarrassing and unpleasant issue of bad auditor general’s reports.”

Dennis made the announcement on Wednesday during the weekly post Executive Council media briefing following the recent release of the Auditor General’s report, which highlighted concerns over the assembly’s management of covid19 relief support.

Augustine said for years Tobagonians have been getting the "same lame resolve.

“From Anslem London to Joel Jack, they have been promising to fix the system to ensure that we don’t have situations where the Auditor General turns up and records are missing or not in line with financial rules, yet that has never happened.”

He said the issue is with the management of Tobago’s resources and not with efficiency between the Auditor General’s office and the THA.

“The THA needs to strictly abide by financial regulations and keep records of what was done.

“The Auditor General’s Office is an independent external agency, whose job it is to come in and verify the accounts and the expenditures and the financial decisions of the THA. It is the THA’s job to operate above aboard and follow all the financial rules. The THA also has internal auditors whose job it is to guide the divisions along the right path.”

He said he has received information that the internal auditors previously pointed out the same flaws in the Division of Health that the external auditors (auditor general’s office) eventually pointed out.

“Yet they were ignored and swept aside.”

The Chief Secretary, Augustine said, needs to stop pretending that these bad reports are the fault of the Auditor General.

“They are the fault of the THA which he leads.

“Administrators must put their feet down and insist that policies and regulations are followed. Politicians must stop thinking that state resources are for them to use as they wish.”

He added: “If everyone does what they are supposed to do, we won’t be embarrassed with bad reports. And once these accountability issues continue to surface, we are left with no option but to allege wrong doing.