Augustine upset: THA's debt records 'all over the place'

Chief Secretary Farley Augustine has accused the former PNM-led THA administration of not managing its liability portfolio over the past few years.

He was delivering a statement on the THA’s financial position at Thursday’s plenary sitting in the Assembly Legislature, Scarborough. It was the second sitting of the new Progressive Democratic Patriots administration.

Augustine said the THA, under his watch, will put a plan in place to manage its liabilities.

“I stand resolved to fix this. We have to fix this. The portfolio of our liabilities isn’t being properly managed and the liabilities over a year old are difficult to ascertain, as records are all over the place, which leads to the question as to what measures were put in place to pay out these liabilities over time,” he said.

“If it is one cannot go to a single desk anywhere in the THA and readily put one’s hand on what our current liability stand is, it means that we are not paying attention to paying our debts.”

Augustine said the owner of a small shop in his native Speyside could have given the PNM administration lessons in keeping track of its debts.

“It means that Miss Maisie’s parlour in Speyside is doing better than the THA, because if I go there I can find copybooks from the 1970s detailing all the people who owe she...

“But the THA cannot seem to properly collate records of who we owe and how much we have to pay them.”