The Central Government is planning to establish a parallel CEPEP in Tobago. This, according to Deputy Chief Secretary in the Tobago House of Assembly Hilton Sandy. He told reporters on Wednesday that CEPEP management in Tobago attended a meeting in Port-of-Spain on Tuesday to discuss the enhancement of the programme. Instead they heard of the parallel plan from officials of the Cepep Company of Trinidad and Tobago. Sandy said, representatives of CEPEP Tobago inclusive of line Secretary for CEPEP under the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), Assistant Secretary Huey Cadette expected that the outstanding balance due to CEPEP Tobago would have been discussed but instead a parallel plan was put forward.
He said the suggestion for parallel CEPEP was a duplication of efforts. "What we had hoped to discuss at that meeting was the outstanding funding for Tobago because of the promise in the budget.. but low and behold the discussion was not even to enhance CEPEP in Tobago, but was talking to our CEPEP counterparts that CEPEP Company wants to come to Tobago to set up a parallel CEPEP," Sandy said.
Sandy said the CEPEP Company Limited priorities were skewed and emphasis should be placed on enhancing the Tobago product of CEPEP and working in collaboration with the THA. He said the idea was a serious one, since current workers may be on the breadline, but THA would not allow it to happen.
He said: "From where we sit we will not allow that to happen because the THA has that responsibility and we have been pushing and we would have pledged to finance CEPEP Tobago from the Tobago allocation money has been put aside for that.
"So to come now at this time of the year when the budget cycle is closing in for them to say that they want to put in a new CEPEP in Tobago it will just create problems." The Agriculture Secretary noted that the assembly had asked for $50 million in its 2010/2011 budget to run CEPEP but Parliament approved only $8 million which it had not received to date. He said that was perhaps why the Central Government was withholding funds-to establish the parallel CEPEP in the closing stages of the fiscal year. "They should be saying here is the money, they should be saying we are increasing the wages in Trinidad so here is the money to increase the wages in Tobago, they may want to bring some policies that they want us to follow in Tobago, we may have policies in Tobago that we can offer in Trinidad, there should be collaboration on the entire exercise, the idea is a serious one and we would be looking out for it," he said.