Contractors in Tobago can expect their payments from the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) from as early as next week.
Speaking at the THA’s post-executive media briefing on Friday afternoon, Chief Secretary Farley Augustine explained that the sole reason he was not able to honour his promise to pay contractors on the island in the month of June was a result of due diligence.
“Because we had to do due diligence and I am very very certain in my mind that there would not be a single payment unless such due diligence is met.”
Augustine emphasized that having had a preliminary report from the forensic auditors, the decision “was and still is the right decision.”
Augustine met with the contractors last month, who said they are owed millions of dollars from the THA. In that meeting, Augustine promised that he would have to return to the drawing board to see where the funds would be derived from. He also gave a commitment that the contractors would be given a first payment and a quarterly payment thereafter.
With no payments up until this week, the contractors accused Augustine of lying to them and breaking his promises.
On Friday Augustine revealed however that some “extremely troubling” signs were discovered based on a preliminary report, and without giving many details he said that a first official report is expected to be presented by mid-August on the Emergency Road repair program.
“But I can tell you definitely the due diligence is a requirement.”
He said early next week, the affected contractors will be written to, and they will be asked to visit the division where they will meet with an independent team, who will perform a rapid assessment to initiate payments.
He said, however, “Definitely the contractors will not be able to get all their monies one time, but they will get some initial payments, and during the Budget, I indicated that those payments will be minimal given the constraints we have generally.”
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