Dennis holds hand on response to Chief Secretary's allegations

PNM Tobago Council political leader Ancil Dennis says he is anxiously awaiting the forensic audit report into public infrastructure works, undertaken during the former THA administration, before responding to any allegations of corruption in the initiatives.

In a 90-minute public briefing on Friday, carried live on specific media outlets, THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine read excerpts of the audit, which he claimed was riddled with corruption.

But he said the report has not yet been made public.

At a THA plenary sitting on January 27, 2022, Augustine revealed he had ordered audits into five initiatives managed under the former PNM-led administration during the period October 2019-November 2021, three months before the January 2021 THA election.

The projects were the emergency restoration works programme; the road restoration programme; the road resurfacing programme; the emergency infrastructure rehabilitation project and the agricultural access roads programme.

On that occasion, he said a specialised forensic audit firm had been identified, evaluated and selected to conduct the audits into the programmes.

Augustine said later that year, he presented a preliminary report without calling the names of the companies involved.

On Friday, Augustine said the contracts for those projects totalled $352,040,750 and were carried out “without even identifying the funds for this kind of engagement.”

But he said a prominent contractor is demanding the THA pay his company the money it owes, even though some of the projects were incomplete

The company, Augustine said, presented invoices for 82 projects to the tune of $209 million.

He said although the THA has paid a significant sum- $25.2 million – the contractor is demanding the remainder of the money.

Augustine claimed in early March, he received a voice note from the contractor with “an ominous recording - that it will be leaked if I don’t fall in line and pay a certain contractor what he was demanding.”

He also claimed several contractors were already paid for incomplete work.

Contacted by Newsday for comment, Dennis, in a WhatsApp voice note, said, “I don’t know that there is any matter for me to respond to. Of course, several aspects of the audit report were referenced but to date we have not seen the audit report and, therefore, I cannot comment on any statements, inferences, or aspersions cast by this Chief Secretary without seeing the audit. So until there is an audit report to respond to, I have no comment to make on that.”

Regarding the controversial voice recording, Dennis said, “I heard several allegations made of blackmail and extortion and those matters are for the police.”

He said Augustine should have spoken out on the issue sooner.

“It took 23 days and the triggering of a police investigation for this Chief Secretary to finally speak to Tobago during very bizarre circumstances concerning the audio recording."

Dennis claimed Augustine admitted that “they did conspire, they did plan to utilise state resources illegally.

“He said, however, that the plan was not implemented although we heard in the recording that they did indicate persons were already hired and they were looking to hire others.”

Dennis said the police is investigating the matter.

“Let the chips fall where they may.”

Tobago West MP Shamfa Cudjoe, meanwhile, dismissed the briefing as “Another piss poor attempt at shaping a narrative.

“It took 24 days to plan and rehearse this pitiful piece of mess,” she said in a post on her Facebook page.

“If you cannot give the people who depend on you the wisdom, guidance and intelligent leadership they so desperately crave and deserve, the least you can do is to be honest and speak the truth.”

Cudjoe accused the THA of crafting an “evilly implemented” plan to mismanage and squander public funds meant for the development of Tobago “to run your propaganda campaign and practice gutter politics to the detriment of Tobago’s growth and advancement.”