00:00 Chief Secretary Farley Augustin told members of the media he only knew about
00:05 the chartered flight following speaking with Infrastructure Secretary Trevor
00:09 James. He also indicated to members of the media the THA would not be using
00:15 public funds to pay for this chartered service. THA Chief Secretary Farley
00:21 Augustin speaking with reporters on the matter said while the issue would have
00:26 to be brought to the Executive Council the THA would not be using taxpayer
00:32 money to pay for any chartered flight. The one thing I can tell you up front
00:37 though is that as Chief Secretary if the request is made to pay back for
00:44 the charter the answer will be no. I will use my veto powers in that regard. The
00:48 Chief Secretary said he only knew of the chartered flight when he was contacted
00:53 by Infrastructure Secretary Trevor James on Monday after 6 p.m. Initially I
00:59 thought they were still trapped because you know they were under storm watch and
01:02 flights were cancelled and so on getting out of Martinique and so initially I
01:07 thought they were stranded so my first question was how can the THA help to
01:12 retrieve you all and then indicated that they retrieved themselves and treated
01:16 the matter themselves and to which my next question was is this a company that
01:21 the THA is doing business with the answer was no and then I doubled down
01:25 this morning by asking a management accountant to check diligently to see to
01:30 ensure that that is in fact the case and having done that check the management
01:35 accountant has reported that the THA has never done business with this company
01:39 the THA is not doing business with this company and I don't see a need for the
01:44 THA to do business with this company in the foreseeable future. As for Secretary
01:49 James being investigated in the matter Mr. Augustine had this to say.
01:55 Secretary James is a pilot, the Secretary James owns a plane, the Secretary James lands the plane
02:00 I don't know how the Secretary himself could be under investigation if there
02:06 has been an investigation it must be with the company that the charter can be
02:11 the customer so I don't see that as really an issue. According to the
02:18 newspaper report the flight was flagged by the country's Civil Aviation
02:22 Authority on Sunday as sources said the aircraft did not have authorization for
02:29 any commercial travel. Elizabeth Williams TV6 News
02:35 [BLANK_AUDIO]
