Chief Secretary defends oil spill cover-up 'questions'

TOBAGO House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, on February 16, said he was acting in defence of Tobago when he alluded to a possible cover-up of the circumstances surrounding an oil spill off the western coast of the island during a press conference on Wednesday.

Augustine was responding to a statement made by the Prime Minister in Parliament earlier on Friday.

In a statement to the House of Representatives, Dr Rowley said, "The Government knows of no such existence of any such interest or conflict and views this assertion as patently ridiculous."

Speaking during a THA media conference at the Milford Road Esplanade in Scarborough on the ongoing oil spill clean-up efforts, Augustine denied calling any names when referring to a cover-up.

“Well, if you noticed at my last press conference, I did not state specifically who I think were withholding information, but I made it quite clear and I would repeat myself. Sometimes people hear information, and they create their own headlines that don’t always line up with what was said.”

Augustine said a statement from the Ministry of National Security issued on Wednesday, left a lot of unanswered questions.

“Who is the owner of the vessel that ran aground in Tobago and is leaking oil? Where are the schematics for the vessel? The schematics really and truly are the drawings, the outlines of the vessel that can tell us shape, size, compartments so we know what we are working with.

"Beyond the schematics and beyond the owner of the vessel, the question is: if a vessel went missing from the fourth, how is it that between that time and February 7 when we were called about the leak, how between that time period, we had no sort of theorising, no sort of effort to consider whether or not that which went missing, that fell off of our radar – how between that time no one communicated?”

He said he asked those questions, which he is dutybound to ask on behalf of Tobagonians.

“My duty is to protect Tobago in all of this, and I have a responsibility to ask those questions. I hope the Central Government aren’t offended by those questions, but I like to operate with transparency, and I will ask and continue to ask until I get an answer.”

He added, “I stand by my approach, and I stand by asking the questions. I am for transparency – I’m really not concerned about who is vex and who is annoyed. My job is to ask those questions on behalf of the people of Tobago.”