Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les says the 2026 Bud­get al­lo­ca­tion to the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) is not the high­est per­cent­age it has ever re­ceived. She has al­so slammed the dras­tic re­duc­tion of an­nu­al al­lo­ca­tions for PNM-con­trolled cor­po­ra­tions.

In her Bud­get re­ply yes­ter­day, Beck­les said, “In 2018, un­der the PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion, To­ba­go’s com­bined al­lo­ca­tion—in­clud­ing both di­rect THA fund­ing and cen­tral Gov­ern­ment spend—rep­re­sent­ed ap­prox­i­mate­ly 6.4 per cent of the na­tion­al bud­get. So, what is be­ing trum­pet­ed to­day as ‘his­toric’ is, in truth, record-break­ing spin ... fake and fraud­u­lent.

“The de­vel­op­ment al­lo­ca­tion, which funds To­ba­go’s growth, con­struc­tion, and in­vest­ment, ac­tu­al­ly de­creased by $4.5 mil­lion, from $205 mil­lion to $201.5 mil­lion. This is the same fig­ure the Chief Sec­re­tary once de­scribed as ‘fis­cal wicked­ness.’ To­day, he ac­cepts it in si­lence,” Beck­les said.

“Since 2021, this THA ad­min­is­tra­tion has re­ceived over $11 bil­lion, av­er­ag­ing $2.7 bil­lion per year—more than any ad­min­is­tra­tion in the his­to­ry of the As­sem­bly.”

Beck­les said the PNM had vot­ed to guar­an­tee To­ba­go a min­i­mum of 6.8 per cent through the To­ba­go Is­land Gov­ern­ment (au­ton­o­my) Bills.

“It was the UNC, aid­ed and abet­ted by their al­ly in To­ba­go—the cur­rent Chief Sec­re­tary—who de­railed and re­ject­ed that con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment. The re­sult is that in­stead of re­ceiv­ing 6.8 per cent—rough­ly $4 bil­lion—To­ba­go is now get­ting on­ly five per cent, or $2.96 bil­lion. So, the UNC did not give To­ba­go a bil­lion dol­lars more—they cost To­ba­go a bil­lion dol­lars less.”

She ques­tioned why there was al­so no word on au­ton­o­my for To­ba­go in the Bud­get.

“The Chief Sec­re­tary, who once de­clared To­ba­go’s au­ton­o­my his life’s mis­sion, who led march­es and ac­cused oth­ers of be­tray­al, was ig­nored by the UNC. To­day, be­sides his Con­gress part­ners, the very ones who vot­ed down the To­ba­go Bills, he pre­sides in si­lence.

“This de­cep­tive UNC has found it­self once again in bed with a To­ba­go par­ty. Just a few weeks ago, To­ba­go’s most well-known pump­kin farmer, who was re­ject­ed by the peo­ple of To­ba­go in 2010, was res­ur­rect­ed by the UNC. Time will tell. I await a dif­fer­ent song and dance by the Chief Sec­re­tary.”

Beck­les said over $300 mil­lion in de­vel­op­ment spend has been award­ed to con­trac­tors out­side of To­ba­go, for works that To­ba­go con­trac­tors pre­vi­ous­ly did.

“The eco­nom­ic ef­fect is dev­as­tat­ing—To­ba­go con­trac­tors who pre­vi­ous­ly ex­e­cut­ed these ser­vices now face cash­flow crises, and banks are mov­ing to fore­close on long-stand­ing lo­cal firms,” she claimed.

Beck­les said the Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment in­volved “po­lit­i­cal vic­tim­i­sa­tion cou­pled with re­gres­sive poli­cies, crowned with a lack of vi­sion.”

“The PNM-led cor­po­ra­tions, which ac­counts for more than 50 per cent of the pop­u­la­tion, saw dras­tic re­duc­tions in their re­cur­rent and de­vel­op­men­tal plan al­lo­ca­tions. How­ev­er, UNC cor­po­ra­tions re­ceived a greater share for them­selves. This is a most vin­dic­tive, dra­con­ian and dis­crim­i­na­tive move by this Gov­ern­ment!”

She added, “The Bor­ough of Ari­ma’s 2026 De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme al­lo­ca­tion was cut by $12.6 mil­lion when com­pared to 2025. The bor­ough of Diego Mar­tin’s De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme al­lo­ca­tion was cut by $6.3 mil­lion. The Port-of-Spain Cor­po­ra­tion’s de­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme was cut by $15.6 mil­lion ... every PNM cor­po­ra­tion has had its 2026 De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme al­lo­ca­tion dras­ti­cal­ly re­duced.

“Yet, UNC cor­po­ra­tions, like Ch­agua­nas, Princes Town and Pe­nal/Debe cor­po­ra­tions have seen huge in­creas­es in their 2026 al­lo­ca­tions, in ex­cess of $20 mil­lion, mak­ing their De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme al­lo­ca­tions for 2026 more than six times as large as the PNM cor­po­ra­tions. Princes Town Cor­po­ra­tion’s De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme al­lo­ca­tion is now twice as large as the al­lo­ca­tion for the cap­i­tal city and our sec­ond city, San Fer­nan­do!”