Morris hits 'deceitful' budget: Tobago's development allocation reduced

THA Minority Leader Kelvon Morris said Tobago's $2.96 billion fiscal package for 2025/2026 has been "seasoned with deceit, deception and in some respect, dishonesty.”

At a media conference on October 15 at the Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort in Lowlands, Morris said "the devil is in the details” as he noted a decrease in the island's allocation for development when dissecting the budget.

At the House of Representatives on October 14, Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo announced that Tobago will be receiving five per cent of the national pie. The figure represents an increase from the 4.35 per cent the island received last fiscal year under the PNM government, which translated to $2.599 billion.

Tancoo also said there will be an additional $763 million spent on the island by central government.

"In total then, the allocation to Tobago for the fiscal year 2026 will be $3.72 billion, which equates to 6.3 per cent of the national budget. Mr Speaker, when UNC wins, Tobago wins!” Tancoo declared to loud desk-thumping from the government side and Tobago People's Party MPs.

However, Morris said, “What looks on the surface as something very well packaged, something giving a lot to Tobago, when you scratch the surface and you get to the meat of it, what you recognise is it is smoke and mirrors, it is well seasoned with deceit, deception and in some respect, dishonesty.”

Morris said there would usually be a disaggregation in the budget and what it represented.

“They usually would breakdown and tell you of that five per cent that is further broken down in terms of recurrent expenditure: the day-to-day functions, things like salaries, gratuities, increments, purchasing of minor equipment, purchasing of stationary, the things you need to keep the THA going on a daily basis. That is your recurrent expenditure.

"It is the development expenditure that treats with the growth of Tobago’s economy and the development of Tobago’s economy.”

He said there are also the allocations that deal specifically with URP and CEPEP, none of which was placed in the budget presentation.

He added: “Putting the figures together is really dishonest, it is disingenuous, and it is an injustice to how that would impact the average Tobagonian. So the funding and the allocation that we usually consider when you consider Tobago’s allocation is that THA allocation of between 4.03 per cent to 6.9 per cent.”

He said the island requested $3.71 billion which was broken down to $2.71 billion for recurrent, $1 billion for development, $91.9 million for URP and $443.4 million for CEPEP.

“What Tobago actually received based on the budgetary allocation – we received $2.7 billion in recurrent, only $201.5 million in development and what is interesting about that is while our recurrent expenditure increased phenomenally by $400 million, our development allocation actually decreased.”

He said there were constant cries by the current administration as development moved from $300 million in 2022 to $260 million in 2023 and then $205 million in 2024. With a further decrease to now $201.5 million, he said THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine and Secretary of Finance Petal Ann Roberts remained quiet on the issue.

“These are the people who would have described these allocations in the past as fiscal wickedness. You would hear from economists such as Vanus James that it is the development side of Tobago that really needs a buffer because Tobago’s development has been lagging for years behind that of the country. Therefore, to get Tobago up to speed, the area that really needs a kickstart is on the development side.”

He added: “In the details, where they are saying that Tobago received a phenomenal increase overall, but we are saying specific to the development allocation which is the most important side to really grow Tobago’s economy, we have in fact received a decrease in the allocation.”