Chief Secretary: Tobago's national security treated as 'bastard child' by ministry

THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine is dissatisfied with how the National Security Ministry treats with the security apparatus in Tobago.

Speaking at the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) on Monday, Augustine made the statement reiterating that the Assembly could only try to help.

He said: “The security apparatus in Tobago is treated quite like bastard children by the National Security Ministry in Trinidad.”

Noting that this was indeed a “strong statement,” he gave examples.

“When we see the condition of Signal Hill where we call Army Camp – those are the guys we have to call out and provide vehicles for so that they can help us dig people out of their homes when landslides come. When you see the conditions that they work in, we have pigsty on the island that are in better conditions, and that is unacceptable.”

He pointed to the situations at the other bases across the island.

“When we look at the police station in Scarborough, it is supposed to be our headquarters, look at the dorms. Recently as in Carnival, we had to, in a matter of some hours, try to get 25 mattresses for the security officers to get some place to sleep so that they can work long hours over the Carnival weekend – unacceptable.

"When you look at the fire station in Scarborough, the fire officers did the work themselves to rebuild the station and they are just out a little over $350,000 to complete the work and not even that they can get. I am looking through my budget to see if I can find that so that they can move back into Scarborough.”

The Coast Guard base in Scarborough, he said, is slipping away into the nearby sea. While its operational base, a little distance away at the jetty, has been opened by THA Chairman Lennox Denoon, Augustine said nothing has been done there since.

Questioned further by Newsday, Augustine said he accepts that national security is a fifth schedule item but noted that better could be done.

“National Security remains a scheduled item for the Central Government and, every year, the Minister of Finance would appropriate funds into National Security to see about Tobago’s security issues and simple things are not done.”

He said while he heard the complaints of the fisherfolk about the lack of support from the Coast Guard, he empathised with officers on the island as they were just not equipped.

He recalled that, recently, when the Tobago prison was closed, he used THA funds, despite it not being THA’s responsibility, to fix up the prison and to purchase appliances for the prison officers.

“Last week, I visited some lands allocated to the K-9 unit of the TTPS in Crown Point. Those lands were given since 2014 and, since then, we are only now getting action to have a facility for the K-9 unit and the mountain branch – nine years later.”

He concluded: “We have a deeply demotivated staff, and we depend on them to rescue us in times of trouble. The Tobago House of Assembly will continue to support the national security apparatus. We will go outside of our remit to ensure that we can take care of the security needs as far as our limited budget will allow.”

As Augustine voiced his complaints at the TEMA function on Monday, regional government officials including the Prime Minister and National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds participated in a two-day regional crime symposium at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain.

Augustine said that he had been invited to take part in the symposium but decided to decline because of prior engagements.

Newsday made several attempts to contact Hinds as well as former chief secretary and current political leader of the PNM Tobago Council Ancil Dennis for comment. However, all calls went unanswered.

For the year, Tobago has recorded three murders while there were ten murders in 2022.