GOVERNMENT Senator Laurence Hislop advised Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Farley Augustine to stop blaming the PNM for everything that is wrong in Tobago and partner with Government to develop the island for the betterment of its people.
He offered this advice to Augustine during the budget debate in the Senate on Monday.
When Finance Minister Colm Imbert presented the budget in the House of Representatives on October 2, he announced a $2.585 billion allocation for the THA for fiscal 2024.
Imbert said, "Beyond the budgetary allocation to the THA, an additional $678.5 million is allocated to various ministries and state agencies to undertake and execute major projects in Tobago in keeping with their responsibility under the Sixth Schedule of the THA Act 40 of 1996."
Hislop said that Augustine and his new Tobago People's Party (TPP) are trying to blame all the problems on the island on the PNM.
He said that evidence of the PNM's support for the THA and Tobago's development over the years cannot be disputed by Augustine or anyone else.
Hislop had some advice for Augustine.
"Change the narrative. Partner with central government for the development of Tobago."
Despite his political affiliations, Hislop said he was a Tobagonian first and wanted nothing but the best for the island.
"I actually want them (TPP) to succeed."
Hislop said he has accepted the 14-1 THA electoral defeat that the PNM suffered to the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) in December 2021 as "a steep learning curve."
Augustine and other members of the PDP subsequently broke ranks with the party and formed the TPP.
Hislop said Tobago was not bouncing back as it should have after the covid19 pandemic.
He claimed that a 4.2 per cent economic recovery, which had started just before December 2021 under the PNM, has been replaced by a 2.9 per cent decline under Augustine's watch.
"Tobago's affairs are not being properly managed."
Hislop recalled that Augustine and others in his party have regularly complained that the 4.03 per cent of the budget, which the THA receives by law, is not enough.
He reminded senators that within the Tobago autonomy bills, which the Opposition UNC, Augustine and others have refused to support, was a provision to increase the THA's share of the budget from 4.03 to six per cent.
Hislop said Imbert's announcements of increased financial allocations for Tobago in the budget showed that the "Tobago administration are able to receive two bites of the cherry."
He also said that unlike other government agencies in TT, the THA can freely move money around to benefit Tobagonians.
Waxing biblical, Hislop told Augustine, "To whom much is given, much is expected."
Senate vice-president Dr Muhammad Yunus Ibrahim said the UNC and its allies were stumped because their predictions of doom and gloom were not realised in the budget.
Ibrahim said this is because they do not understand how to govern a country properly.
"You can't make a century in five strokes. You have to sit and bat."
