CHIEF SECRETARY Farley Augustine says the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) intends to give the government, ahead of its mid-year review, a financial breakdown of the money the assembly is likely to spend to contain the oil spill, so that more money could be put into its allocation.
He was speaking at a news conference on February 20 at Canoe Bay, metres away from the capsized barge - Gulfstream - which continues to pollute the waters off Tobago's south-western coast with fuel oil, as revealed by Energy Minister Stuart Young.
The vessel was discovered on February 7, some 200 metres off the coast of the Cove Eco Industrial Park.
Since that time, the island, led by the Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), has mounted a wide-scale containment and clean-up operation to eradicate the spill. The collaborative exercise includes several ministries, companies and agencies.
The Prime Minister, at a news conference in Tobago on February 11, said the government will support the THA's efforts to rehabilitate the island as such an occurrence was not budgeted for in the assembly's allocation.
On February 20, after a media tour of the affected areas, Augustine told reporters the THA will provide a financial breakdown to the government.
'We have coming up in a few months what is known as the mid-term review. That is where we go back to Parliament and reallocations happen by the Minister of Finance. So the process is as soon as this thing starts to settle down, I will now include in my requests of the central government as the mid-term review, the monies that we will expend to do this,' he said.
'We won't necessarily wait until we get all of those monies from central government to act. We will have to act up front and in good faith, because I believe we can trust the word of the Prime Minister, when we make the requests and we send the bill down, we will get the requisite supplementary allocation to our budget. So that is the process in how that's going to be done. We do have a few weeks left before those submissions will be made.'
Augustine said he met on February 19 with the Chief Administrator, TEMA officials and accounting staff to begin the process 'So that I, as secretary for finance, will get it in a timely manner to be able to despatch to the Ministry of Finance so we get the requisite supplements to the budget.'
He said he does not yet have a cost for the rehabilitation efforts so far, adding the Procurement Act governs how goods and services are procured.
Augustine said he is not involved in the 'actual procurement and day-to-day operations of what is required for this emergency.
'I am not a part of it so it is difficult for me to give that answer with certainty until more of that information makes its way up to the executive level.'
He said the THA is pursuing its own investigations to determine the owners of the Gulfstream and are 'getting some leads,' which they will disclose at a later date.
'We are doing our own independent investigations. It is in our interest to do so. This is us mind
