April 22, 2016: Chief Secretary Orville London has addressed concerns over the financial status of the Tobago House of Assembly. At the April 20th post Executive Council Media Briefing held at the Administrative Complex, Calder Hall, London said issues with the THA’s finances arose because the Assembly has not yet received its full parliamentary allocation from Central Government for this quarter.
“The funding was received the middle of this month,” London explained, “and we received one month of funding under the recurrent and under a month and a half funding under the development vote.”
The Chief Secretary said Finance Secretary, THA, Mr. Joel Jack has discussed the matter with the Ministry of Finance and provided an update. “The reasons are similar to the reasons that were put forward during the midterm review,” London stated. “The government is operating in a scenario where they can only spend what they collect with the unavailability of the $9 billion overdraft; the government has no flexibility and therefore only what it collects, it can spend.”
Mr. London said the Ministry of Finance has stated that the Assembly should receive the outstanding portion of its allocation within the next four weeks.
For further information please contact:
Department of Information
Office of the Chief Secretary
Tobago House of Assembly
639-3421 ext. 5019