He said the Tobago economy did well last year. “We did not have cut backs in the school feeding programme, the road repair programme and no one was sent home,” he added.
Dr London also strongly refuted claims that the THA was in a financial crisis. He said the THA is functioning within its means, working with the budgetary allocations agreed to by parliament. In fact under his financial management over the past ten years, there has never been such a situation.
He added though that there have been some “delivery slippages”, which some people may interpret as financial problems. However, this has more to do with staff that process payments within particular Divisions. Making an appeal to the workers, Dr London cautioned: “If you fail to expedite the processing of payments, one of the negative effects is that you slow down the entire payments mechanism and the credit mechanisms in the Tobago economy.”
He noted that the Assembly’s rule to pay suppliers within ten days if all the paper work is right is not always followed in some Divisions. In light of this the necessary intervention will be made in Divisions where it occurs.
He said the Executive Council provides monthly financial reports at sittings of the House of Assembly, outlining the source of income and how the money was spent.