Minority Leader: Is Chief Sec willing to resign over chief administrator issue?

IS the Chief Secretary willing to put his job on the line if his version of the events which resulted in no one being appointed to the office of chief administrator in the THA since May 17, is found to be untrue?

Minority Leader Kelvon Morris posed this question to Farley Augustine on Thursday as he wound up his three-hour response to the THA’s $4.5 billion budget in the Assembly Legislature, Scarborough.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister delivered a lengthy statement in the House of Representatives in which he outlined his version of how the events concerning the non-appointment of a chief administrator unfolded.

He also laid a dossier in the House surrounding the appointment of a chief administrator.

Dr Rowley said if his version of events was wrong, he will resign his post.

“If it can be truthfully shown by any of the authorities that I have mentioned or impacted here today, that I have misled this House, I will immediately resign forthwith and hand over the reins to another in the interest of peace, good order and progress of the people whom I have continued to serve to the best of my ability,” Rowley said.

In his budget contribution on Thursday, Morris alluded to Rowley’s stance on the issue and urged Augustine to follow suit.

“The honourable Prime Minister, in an address to the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago, laid a comprehensive dossier of all the relevant documents supporting his statement of clarification and rebuttal in respect of the issue of the appointment of a chief administrator in the Tobago House of Assembly,” he said.

“The honourable Prime Minister then gave the undertaking that he was prepared to resign forthwith if it could be truthfully shown by any of the authorities he mentioned, which included, of course, the honourable chief secretary, that he misled the Parliament.

“Deputy Presiding Officer (Joel Sampson), as the Minority Leader of Tobago, I call on the honourable Chief Secretary to subject himself to the same standard, if only because we both took an oath to uphold the Constitution and the law.”

Morris, assemblyman for Darrel Spring/Whim, believes the chief secretary, as the CEO of the THA, is responsible for setting the moral, ethical and spiritual tone of the island.

“Deputy Presiding officer, the PNM may not be perfect but this administration is 1000 times worse…I can say without fear of contradiction, this administration is 1,000 times worse and that may be putting it mildly.”