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Chief Secretary Farley Augustine on Thursday accepted responsibility for former Tobago House of Assembly (THA) members passing away, without receiving benefits owed to them for their service as Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries prior to 1996.

Augustine made the remarks during his tribute to the late George Stanley Beard, at the St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Bacolet Tobago.

More from Elizabeth Williams.
Transcript
00:00This is a collective indictment on the entire THA from 1996 to present.
00:07And I accept the responsibility, I accept the blame, and I pledge before God on you to fix the problem
00:15so that it doesn't befall anyone else.
00:19Mr. Agustin said the indictment on the THA brings to the fore the need for Tobago's autonomy.
00:26Tobago, we just have to get our autonomy.
00:30And we have to decide that if we're not getting it now, we will take it by any means necessary
00:36because without our autonomy, we are depending on a parliament in Trinidad
00:43to decide how we give benefits to our own members.
00:47The chief secretary is promising to make things right.
00:50And so the pledge we must make as Tobago owners is that it's a George Stanley Baird pledge
00:57that by the hook or by the crook, we are going to get our autonomy
01:01to ensure that we could decide for ourselves how we honor our own Tobago heroes
01:07so that no one else would have to pass on like George Stanley Baird
01:11and not get thoroughly what's due unto them.
01:1574-year-old George Stanley Baird, former schoolteacher and secretary for tourism,
01:21was laid to rest on Thursday at the Bacolet Cemetery.
01:24Elizabeth Williams, TV6 News.
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