THE BACK-and-forth over the true state of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) coffers is disconcerting.
Mere days after assuming office - as is often the case when a new party takes power - Chief Secretary Farley Augustine painted a picture of exhausted allocations, irregular disbursals from the Ministry of Finance, unnecessary overdraft fees, pre-election spending sprees, low unspent balances, inadequate allocations and a stymied capacity to plan as a result.
'We were promised that, given that we were drawn at six-six in the last THA elections, and we had no House, no public accounts committee, no way of scrutinising the expenditure of the THA, that there would be prudent restraint,' Mr Augustine told the media last Wednesday. 'The complete opposite happened.'
The Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) deputy leader said given the situation, Tobago cannot afford an emergency. (One has already befallen it.) He further expressed the view that there had been irresponsible spending in order to get an advantage in the recent elections.
In reply, officials of the People's National Movement (PNM) denied these claims. Former chief secretary Ancil Dennis said Tobago had got more than it did in the year before, though he did not directly address the specifics.
Former finance secretary Joel Jack said more than $314 million in funds from the Ministry of Finance had been left behind for December. He called on Mr Augustine to buckle down and stop campaigning, and said several infrastructure projects were funded with some of the cash spent.
Minority leader Kelvon Morris detected a ploy to mislead people or else a lack of familiarity with budgeting procedures on the part of Mr Augustine. He said it stands to reason there remains $1.6 billion in funds left to be disbursed for the financial year (which runs from October to September).
Others noted funds tend to be absorbed by a range of standard ongoing expenses such as salaries, rent and utilities.
That these claims and counterclaims are possible in the first place is the result of a system that is not often as transparent as it could be. While state funds are subject to auditing, such audits generally lag behind contemporaneous events.
Additionally, the track records of special state enterprises, which often execute government mandates, is not good when it comes to reporting to legislative bodies.
The political sparring (until appropriately detailed evidence is presented by either side these utterances must all be seen as rhetoric) has only been aggravated by the prolonged period during which the THA did not function.
Meanwhile, though the parties are at loggerheads now, perhaps both might agree on one thing down the road. If Tobago were in a position to earn enough revenue to fund its own expenses, there would be little room for any of this confusion.
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