Stakeholder urges asset maintenance for Tobago security unit

Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Stake­hold­ers are wel­com­ing Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine’s an­nounce­ment of a joint Coast Guard-po­lice unit in To­ba­go.

On Wednes­day, Au­gus­tine re­vealed that land is be­ing pre­pared near Gib­son Jet­ty in Bon Ac­cord for a se­cu­ri­ty base so that au­thor­i­ties can re­spond prompt­ly to in­ci­dents at the Buc­coo Reef Ma­rine Park.

How­ev­er, the ab­sence of coastal as­sets has been a peren­ni­al is­sue as the po­lice have no river­ine unit in To­ba­go, while the Coast Guard has not had a func­tion­ing ves­sel for some time.

Nei­ther Min­is­ter of De­fence Wayne Sturge nor Au­gus­tine re­spond­ed to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia on when as­sets will be pro­cured for To­ba­go. How­ev­er, one stake­hold­er said the ac­qui­si­tion of ves­sels is the least of his con­cerns.

Alvin Dou­glas, own­er of To­ba­go Ma­rine Safe­ty and Se­cu­ri­ty Ser­vices, be­lieves poor main­te­nance of as­sets has plagued the coun­try.

He said, “The prob­lem is not ac­quir­ing the as­sets; the prob­lem is main­tain­ing it. They will get the boats, but in a year, two years’ time, ad­min­is­tra­tion change, ad­min­is­tra­tor change, pol­i­cy change, there is no con­sis­ten­cy.”

Dou­glas, whose ves­sels have been utilised by the State to as­sist in emer­gen­cies and ex­pe­di­tions, said a ma­rine res­cue ser­vice re­quires ef­fi­cien­cy and con­sis­ten­cy.

His com­pa­ny was pre­vi­ous­ly con­tract­ed by the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly to en­sure reef tour op­er­a­tors and jet ski users ad­here to reg­u­la­tions in the ma­rine park.

“There is a whole ecosys­tem in­volved in that. Se­cur­ing the boats, main­te­nance sched­ule, fu­el, train­ing for the men, re­sponse sched­ules and all of that has to be put in place in or­der for it to be ef­fec­tive.

“Yuh go put the po­lice post there, but the po­lice go run from there to the end of the jet­ty and then what? What go hap­pen?”

Dou­glas said the au­thor­i­ties must en­sure the new post is well equipped to re­spond prompt­ly and not be ham­pered by the red tape when se­cur­ing re­place­ment parts and main­te­nance ser­vices.

He said the prob­lem is not unique to the THA, but Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment as well.

“A lot of po­lice ve­hi­cles parked up, it’s be­cause they need ba­sic parts. The sys­tem doesn’t al­low them to be ef­fi­cient enough.”