EVEN as questions of financial accountability and corruption continue to hound the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM), which has been in charge of the affairs of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) over the last five years, there are reports that top public officers have now been placed under the barrel as the Orville London regime seeks to assert maximum control over the affairs of the Sister Isle.

TnT Mirror was told that at a recent high-powered meeting with the top public officers of the THA, they came under heavy attack and were given the impression that they could be “summarily dismissed” at anytime.

Mirror’s efforts to get to the root of this latest development was met with some rather cagey responses from one senior public officer. The official noted that meetings between the political arm of the government and senior public officers are held regularly as this was the established link between the politicians and the Public Service, which was responsible for the implementation of government’s policy. Told that there have been reports of a shake up among the senior public officers with several transfers in the pipeline, the source dismissed the reports as the usual old talk.

ORVILLE
LONDON

CASSANDRA
THOMPSON

“The situation is that the Chief Administrator is about to go on leave, so what we are having is the normal shifting around to allow someone to act in his place,” explained the source.

Despite London’s spirited assurances of financial prudence by his administration of the THA at a recent PNM party conference in the Sister Isle, reports persist that a sizeable amount of money is alleged to remain unaccounted from the THA coffers.

The financial situation has become even more critical with several THA departments being hit with late payment of salaries within recent weeks.

This month was particularly grim as teachers and other public officers across several THA departments were forced to grapple with salaries arriving late in the bank.

Some complained bitterly about this disturbing trend of late salaries, especially in the light of last weekend’s lavish activities to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the THA.

The activities included a tree lighting ceremony on Wednesday, THA programmes in all the schools on Thursday, Kaiso competition and parang on Thursday night, a children’s rally and all-day THA exhibition on Friday, followed by a Youth Explosion featuring Destra Garcia and Maximus Dan at the Dwight Yorke Stadium.

There was a gala awards ceremony on Saturday night and on Sunday it was the turn for people in the windward region to share in the celebratory activities with a massive thanksgiving service at the Roxborough Sporting Complex.

Amid all the revelry, wining and dining, several public officers have been quietly expressing their concerns to Mirror about the kind of spending frenzy and wastage that has overtaken the THA.

They are calling on the Auditor General’s Department to re-establish annual audits of the THA’s books.

“Since the PNM came into office in Tobago in 2001, it appears that the statutory audits of the THA accounts and public reports for the same have ceased,” noted one well-placed source.

“Given all the allegations swirling around this administration of the THA, even a forensic audit may be necessary,” added the source. “I think that the taxpaying public needs answers on a number of issues including the still-to-be-resolved matter of the missing THA cheques, then more THA cheques totalling $5 million made to a mysterious dummy company called Kadds Construction Ltd., which surfaced at a bank in Princes Town and the failed Medical Transcription project, which has been handed over like a platter to the Gillette Group,” the source contended.

There have also been numerous reports of double and triple invoicing for goods purchased in Trinidad, which could be bought in Tobago at unbelievably cheaper prices,” the source continued.

Mirror was told about a THA department that purchased over a 100 steel tip boots for its office staff from a Trinidad company at twice the cost of similar boots in Tobago.

Contacted, a top official of the department confirmed the purchase but fingered a lower level procurement officer in the scandal.

The call for a thorough forensic audit of the accounts of the THA is an urgent cry among many concerned Tobagonians in the Sister Isle.