Minority: Visionless THA rubbing salt in wound

Minority leader Kelvon Morris has said the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) announcing it would cut travel expenses after spending millions of dollars on travel was like rubbing salt in the wounds of Tobagonians.

“After they have travelled overseas and racked up the miles and spent over $20 million in three years – that is a world record for a small legislature such as ours –they are now coming to make a point of saying they are going to restrict travelling. It’s like rubbing salt in the face to Tobagonians.”

During a post-executive retreat update at Castara Fishing Depot on November 12, Secretary of Finance, Trade and the Economy Petal-Ann Roberts said the THA will be restricting its spending to 2023 levels and cutting expenditure such as official overseas travel. Part of those cuts included using the in-house workforce on some projects, reducing the need to spend on external contractors.

She also said it will prioritise spending on 44 major projects, including the Scarborough beautification project on Calypso Rose Boulevard; beginning a Youth Residential Learning and Training programme; a subsidised housing programme for public officers; a baby box initiative in which mothers of new babies will be given essential supplies; and providing grants and loans for micro, small and medium enterprises.

Morris criticised the plan to use in-house labour to complete projects, and questioned where restricting opportunities for contractors, especially those based in Tobago, would lead the Tobago economy. He said the tourism and construction sectors had already declined under the current administration.

“When you restrict opportunities for contractors, how are you going to build out a robust construction sector? And we are still waiting on the megafarm promise by the Secretary of Agriculture, so food production is down.

“And we are having the worst tourism arrival figures in years, when every other island has rebounded and surpassed their pre-covid figures. Tobago is the only tourism-based economy that continues to struggle, and it continues to struggle because they lack the vision, the capacity and the ability to manage.”

Earlier this year, the Division of Tourism said there were 27,899 international visitors for January. The division said it was a 27.2 per cent increase from the previous year. It said it was the highest number of arrivals for any January since 2017.

However, Morris queried the figures and accused the Secretary of Tourism of "fudging" the numbers. He said the division was counting visitors who came aboard cruise ships but never left the vessels.

On the post-budget retreat, Morris said he heard no projects about earning funds.

“It tells me they lack vision; they lack capacity. It is just frustrating and disappointing. Tobagonians are just waiting to exhale.

“The reality is, what we are faced with is an administration that is just incompetent and lacks the capacity to implement and manage its resources. And once the same players exist, we will continue to see the same level of mismanagement, the same level of corruption, the same level of political wickedness, which has resulted and continues to result in Tobagonians being extremely frustrated, disappointed and cannot wait for the opportunity to treat with these jokers.”