Tobago Correspondent
Secretary of Finance Petal-Ann Roberts said the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) has disbursed $40 million to contractors for the 2025/2026 fiscal year.
At a media conference yesterday in Scarborough, Roberts said the payments were made for work done under the current administration as well as the previous People’s National Movement (PNM) regime. She noted the THA inherited almost $1 billion in liability when it came into office, but will continue to chip away at the debt.
Roberts confirmed over $300 million is still owed for projects done over four years ago under the PNM-led THA.
General Contractors Association of Tobago (GCAT) PRO Jerron Quashie recently told Guardian Media that significant verifiable sums were owed to local contractors.
Roberts said her division has a strategy and a timeline to settle outstanding payments.
“We have to verify the works and ensure we are using state funds appropriately to settle these amounts. So although you may hear people complaining in the space, businessmen complaining in the space about outstanding amounts, we have to verify that these works were done satisfactorily, and there is a process of doing that.”
Roberts also gave a breakdown of the THA’s spending of its $2.96 billion allocation for the fiscal year. She noted $201.5 million was allocated for the island’s development.
She said the THA had a $79 million increase in its parliamentary appropriation to cover arrears to teachers, while an additional $15 million was released for the construction of the new Scarborough Secondary School.
She added the division moved $304.4 million from recurrent expenditure to supplement the developmental programme shortfall.
Roberts noted there were several THA priority projects which required funding, including the Charlotteville Community Centre, operationalisation of the new airport terminal, road paving, expansion of the loan guarantee programme and housing projects, to name a few.
