With a police investigation into the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) “audio tape leak” allegedly involving two officials and Chief Secretary Farley Augustine’s explosive press briefing last Friday, the expected flourish of further accusations, denials and legal threats quickly erupted. So while the police look for any criminal implications from the audio tape, Augustine, 37, with his loyal executive behind him, has taken Tobago politics to an unsettling height. Rather than settling matters, further questions arise. His allegations of “contractor corruption” and denials have a long way to go, politically and legally. The troubling headlines will not stop.
Given the published backlash, Augustine himself appears to emerge “wounded and bruised” from his press disclosures. Even his "audiogate" explanations remain incomplete. His political stock and credibility have suffered blows. With more to come, Augustine may have to spend some time outing small and big bushfires.
After weeks of speculation and Augustine’s skirting around "audiogate", last Friday he spent about one hour dropping a bombshell list of alleged corrupt activities, most involving contractors and the PNM. He said he faced “extortion,” “threats to his life” and “blackmail” by a “mystery man” for allegedly having sex with a minor which led to an “abortion.” Wow! We also heard about a “psychic.” Intervention. Any police action on these “threats?” But what about the tape, the voices, numerous social media posts asked. Will forensic voice analysis become necessary? Augustine’s bombshell looked like a “distraction.” He should have dealt with the “corrupt contractors” matter separately, some said.
The threats and blackmail, he alleged, were mainly because he “did not pay” some people for questionable or incomplete work. For Augustine, all this is a declaration of war against “mischief-makers” and PNM agents in Tobago. “Part of a larger plot” since the THA “stood against corruption.” But the audiotape? Augustine continued, all this “overpricing we found makes me wonder what happened before we came." He then teasingly declared: “If hypocrisy had a face, it would look like (PNM Ministers) Shamfa Cudjoe, Ayanna Webster-Roy and (Minority Leader Kelvon Morris.) On social media Erica Charles asked: “What this has to do with the tape?” Morris described Farley’s corruption exposition as “baseless and disappointing.” Tobago’s homogeneous population (50,000) does not have any political ethnic shelter.
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Social media became divided over his briefing. Some asking about the audiotape, others defending Augustine for honesty. In response to his corruption bombshells, we may hear “corruption” allegations against him from the two PNM MPs, and even from the Prime Minister himself. Tensions between the central government and the THA are likely to increase overtly or covertly. The named contractor has threatened to sue Augustine. For “lying.”
And at last, the audiotape came up. “The tape was a clos
