Finance secretary: Current THA inherited $1b liability from PNM

SECRETARY of Finance, Trade and the Economy Petal-Ann Roberts claims the Farley Augustine-led administration has inherited the highest liability in the history of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) – approximately $1 billion.

She said to date, the administration has not been able to settle all of its debts and it was hoping for a meeting with the incoming Minister of Finance next week to air concerns and perhaps devise a strategy to resolve the situation.

On the Tobago Updates morning show on May 1, Roberts said the assembly’s liability was still in the vicinity of $400-$500 million

She said, “We did indicate to the public that we did have a forensic audit done and because of that, some of those liabilities would have come off the books. Because the forensic auditors would have said, ‘We got invoices for this, no work was done’ and then we were seeing where we were overcharged.

“So the liability actually came down because of that but we were not able to settle and pay the legitimate ones as we would have liked.”

So far, Roberts said, the THA has paid approximately $68 million in liabilities – $42 million in fiscal 2023 and $26 million in 2024.

Roberts, who was appointed finance secretary in June 2024, said the assembly was in the process of making payments to contractors.

Of the payments, the division’s technical adviser Anslem Richards, said, “That is really where the rubber hits the road in terms of our fiscal and financial space. The THA is boxed into a financial box because we cannot borrow.

“So whatever we get from Port of Spain is what we have to juggle around and make sure we touch everyone in a positive way.”

Richards, who also was interviewed, added, “These liabilities are on the development side of the expenditure and from fiscal 2022, our development budget was reduced from $400 million to $205 million in fiscal 2023. So you see the kind of fiscal constraints you are working with.

“That is why we have only been trying to make these small payments just to keep the economy alive and pumping some resources to keep some economic activity happening.”

He said the assembly’s ability to pay was directly linked to the allocations it received from central government.

“We have not had that opportunity in the last budget and we do not have the luxury of borrowing to deal with the liabilities.”

Saying Tobago’s economy had “dealt with some shocks” over the years, Roberts said the THA would be focusing on tourism, agriculture, digitisation and human capital development in its 2026 fiscal package.

“There are some other areas but these trump everything else in rebuilding and stabilising the economy of Tobago.”

She said the THA was doing an assessment of the last six months.

“Funding is a challenge, capacity is a challenge. We have so many challenges and even with a new government and as we are at the mid-year review we want to look at some of these initiatives, look at the liabilities, look at some of the things we intended to do in 2025 and do an assessment.

“We have already done that kind of work, because even before we were heading into an election, we did have a plan as to what are the things we are going to go to the central government with. And we have that plan already and we are going to see if we can have that meeting sometime soon, maybe next week.”

Roberts said self-determination for Tobago would be one of the main items on the agenda at that meeting.

“We have had so many bills being drafted and none of them really materialised into law. So we would want to look at the two that we had in 2013 and most recent one and look at that and come up with the ideal legislation for Tobago to have its autonomy.”

Last December, the then House of Representatives passed the Tobago Island Government Bill 2021 by a vote of 20-10 but failed to pass the Constitution (Amendment) (Tobago Self-Government) Bill 2020. The latter required a three-fifths majority for passage.

Contacted on May 2 for a response to the finance secretary's claim of an inherited $1 billion liability, former PNM chief secretary Ancil Dennis declined to comment.