Finance Secretary Petal-Ann Roberts has doubled down on her budget request to Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo and is today seeking no less than five percent of the budget, down from her previous five point nine percent demand. This comes following a recent meeting with the Finance Minister who once again brought to the fore the financial state of the economy. More in this Elizabeth Williams report.
00:00We did meet. One of the top, top things and the key things he said to us was the financial position of the country. I do anticipate to get more than 4.3 and no less than 5.
00:18That was the conversation because obviously you know that I would have presented a budget of 5.9% of the national budget, but I said to him what my expectations are at the least.
00:34Speaking on a Tobago morning show, Ms. Roberts admitted, similar to the previous PNM administration, budgetary releases continue to be paid late to the Assembly.
00:45I brought that to his attention. I actually quoted the law, the Tobago House of Assembly Act, and he did indicate that they will try as hard as possible to make good that situation in terms of how we receive our releases because we still receive releases two months, one month.
01:04So we receive, for instance, this last quarter, July, August, September. In July, we will receive a check for two months and then one month in September.
01:15Also, I did indicate to him, if you cannot provide the releases, it means that we may have to go to the market and borrow the money.
01:25She said for the next fiscal year, the longstanding issue of gratuity payments to workers remain a priority.
01:33Gratuities came up across most of the divisions. And because of the funding constraints, I could not liquidate and treat with those as I want to.
01:46But next fiscal, that would be a priority for this administration for certain. I mean, I have not had a discussion with the chief secretary just yet.
01:55Actually, he and I had a meeting yesterday after church, and I told him that, you know, gratuities. And he was the one that actually said to me, also include overtime and increments for public officers.
02:09And while she said CPEP and URP will not be touched, there would be a reduction in financial assistance in another area.
02:18I really want to reduce the financial assistance and the financial support to entrepreneurs and give more technical assistance.
02:27So we'll be going on a drive for both entrepreneurs or external customers and internal customers.
02:33So for the staff, we're going to be doing task specific training.
02:37Actually, next fiscal year will be the year of training and technical support. For entrepreneurs, the same thing.
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