Service providers still not paid for February Carnival in Tobago

THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine has hinted at incentives for public servants in the THA’s accounting departments in hope that the issue of late payments for supplies and services to the assembly will be quelled.

Augustine was responding to reporters after service providers complained that they had not been paid for services provided for Carnival 2023.

One service provider, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: “We have not been paid since Carnival. We are accustomed to being paid a week or two weeks after Carnival. Never in 18 years have we ever taken two months to be paid when money was allocated for the division.”

She asked: “What did they do with the money? Where has the money gone? No bandleaders, masqueraders, judges, servers or DJs have been paid, and nobody has said anything to us. Now they are keeping another big event (Tobago Jazz Experience) and no Carnival workers have been paid.”

In response, Augustine said late payments continued to be a challenge.

“I have a serious issue with local suppliers not being paid on time. I really don’t understand why we have this culture of paying people when we feel like paying people. I’m saying 'we' because I am in the chair, and I must take some of the responsibility, but it goes beyond the elected officials, really and truly.”

He thinks he has found the solution.

“We are going to introduce incentives in the public service – awards to public servants that work well to try to encourage public servants to really do the work in a timely manner.”

In November, local entertainer Marvin Lewis demanded that the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP)-led THA find money to pay the Tobago artistes who performed during the island's inaugural October carnival (28-30).

In an emotionally-charged video posted on his Facebook page, Lewis, who sang at several events during the festival, claimed local artistes had not been paid and said the issue had brought him to tears.