Secretary of Health, Wellness and Family Development Tracy Davidson-Celestine has accused the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) deputy leader Farley Augustine of trying to blame her for his lack of representation in Parlatuvier/ L’Anse Fourmi/ Speyside.

Davidson-Celestine said Augustine was using contents from a recent Auditor General's report to attempt to tarnish her reputation.

Augustine, the assemblyman for the area, recently alleged that food vouchers were distributed in his district by Davidson-Celestine, who personally visited the area.

The Auditor General's report, which spans the period October 2019 to September 2020, raised concerns over some irregularities in the disbursement of covid19 relief, particularly food cards, food vouchers and rental assistance.

At a news briefing on Thursday, Davidson-Celestine said: “I want the people of Tobago to know that my role in the division is to ensure that we have policies set and that those policies are able to meet the people out there.”

She added, “To indicate to all and sundry that this secretary was personally involved in the processing and signing off and distributing vouchers is totally inaccurate – totally.”

She explained how she got involved in the distribution of grants in the electoral district.

“On one of my public days, one of my liaison officers of the division attached to the Office of the (Health) Secretary indicated to me that there was an overwhelming situation at Blue Waters Inn (Speyside) where quite a number of the persons had lost jobs.

"In addition to that, there were some reafforestation workers who would have come to the end of their contract and needed food support. I quickly asked them to collect the information so that they can be brought into the system and be dealt with accordingly.”

She said there was no call to her office from the representative asking for any support for those affected.

“What was the assemblyman doing at that point in time?

"The assemblyman speaks from all sides of his mouth without telling people the truth and so the food cards that were distributed would have gone through a particular process, because I was there to interact with the people and to ensure that the system was churning out food support to those who were in need.

"I did not see, I have not heard from the assemblyman in that electoral district – so don’t try to distract the people of Tobago. I think the people of that electoral district must focus on the lack of representation of their representative throughout that time.”

Davidson-Celestine noted statistics from the THA Division of Finance and the Economy showing the number of requests put forward by assemblymen for financial aid. She said in Augustine's electoral district only 15 applications were put in.

“Where was he in the height of the covid19 when all of his people were looking for support?

"That is the question that we have to ask Farley Augustine...The point must not be lost that as the secretary leading the division and whose role and responsibility it is to