Augustine sets deliverables for new THA Secretaries

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine moved swift­ly from cer­e­mo­ny to sub­stance, as he not on­ly an­nounced his Sec­re­taries yes­ter­day but al­so set ex­pec­ta­tions and as­signed de­liv­er­ables.

Six­teen peo­ple took their oaths of of­fice as To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) Sec­re­taries and As­sis­tant Sec­re­taries yes­ter­day at the Mag­dale­na Grand Beach and Golf Re­sort Ho­tel in Low­lands.

Ad­dress­ing those gath­ered, Au­gus­tine de­clared, “How we or­gan­ise our­selves to­day will shape how we ef­fec­tive­ly serve to­mor­row. So to­day, we put a lead­er­ship struc­ture in place to turn vi­sion in­to ac­tion, plans in­to progress, and promis­es in­to per­for­mance.”

As Au­gus­tine de­tailed the con­fig­u­ra­tion of the di­vi­sions, in­clud­ing new­ly es­tab­lished and re­named port­fo­lios, he iden­ti­fied spe­cif­ic as­sign­ments for the sec­re­taries to un­der­take.

A ma­jor task was placed on the plate of Megan Mor­ri­son, Sec­re­tary in the Of­fice of the Chief Sec­re­tary, as she was charged with re­vers­ing low staff morale across the en­tire THA.

“We in­tend very much for that new area be­ing led by Miss Mor­ri­son to have a ro­bust com­mit­tee, a ro­bust task force rather, whose task it will be to en­sure that we do an ap­pro­pri­ate HR au­dit of the en­tire To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, “

Au­gus­tine, not­ing there are work­ers with Mas­ter’s de­grees be­ing by­passed for pro­mo­tions.

“They nev­er got an op­por­tu­ni­ty any­where or from any­one to up­grade them­selves or to be pro­mot­ed any­where and they sit there and they frown be­cause they see peo­ple com­ing from out­side the THA, get­ting the new high­er po­si­tions and they are seat­ed there do­ing tasks for which they are apt­ly qual­i­fied but nev­er called.”

As he named Ian Pol­lard his Sec­re­tary for the Di­vi­sion of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment and So­cial Pro­tec­tion, Au­gus­tine ad­mit­ted this was one port­fo­lio he be­lieves is falling short.

Keigon De­noon was named Sec­re­tary in the re­named Di­vi­sion of Youth Em­pow­er­ment and Sport. He was pub­licly giv­en the task of en­sur­ing that the 2024 record-high homi­cide rate does not hap­pen again in To­ba­go.

“With youth em­pow­er­ment and sports once again be­ing a stand­alone di­vi­sion, I must say we have to get it right in these four years in en­sur­ing that all of our fa­cil­i­ties for our young peo­ple are well-main­tained and man­aged. And if by chance we have work­ers, con­trac­tors, and ser­vice providers that are not do­ing the task ef­fi­cient­ly, then re­move them be­cause we must spare no in­jury in en­sur­ing that our young peo­ple are tak­en care of. If we don’t, then we will go back to the days of el­e­vat­ed mur­ders,” Au­gus­tine said.

And Zor­isha Hack­ett, who is now Sec­re­tary for Tourism, An­tiq­ui­ties and Cre­ative In­dus­tries, was asked to im­prove the con­di­tions at the is­land’s his­tor­i­cal sites.

“Our can­nons are stuffed with garbage in the mouth. They have been de­faced. Peo­ple are steal­ing arte­facts and tak­ing them to their homes in rich, wealthy homes right here in To­ba­go, and we have to pro­tect our his­tor­i­cal her­itage. Our an­ces­tors were mur­dered here in a geno­ci­dal way to dri­ve the econ­o­my of an­oth­er coun­try. The least we could do is ho­n­our what they died for,” Au­gus­tine said.

The new­ly cre­at­ed Di­vi­sions of Strate­gic Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment and Le­gal Af­fairs are head­ed by Trevor James and Adan­na Joseph-Wal­lace, re­spec­tive­ly.

CON­FIRMED LIST OF THA SEC­RE­TARIES AND AS­SIS­TANT SEC­RE­TARIES

Far­ley Au­gus­tine - Chief Sec­re­tary

Megan Mor­ri­son - Sec­re­tary in the Of­fice of the Chief Sec­re­tary

Nigel Taitt - As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary in the Of­fice of Chief Sec­re­tary

Dr. Faith Breb­nor- Deputy Chief Sec­re­tary & Sec­re­tary for Health and Well­ness

Adan­na Aisha Joseph - Wal­lace - Di­vi­sion of Le­gal Af­fairs

Petal-Ann Roberts - Di­vi­sion of Fi­nance, Trade and the Econ­o­my

Kern Alex­is - As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary Fi­nance, Trade and the Econ­o­my

Trevor James - Di­vi­sion of Strate­gic Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment

Dar­ren Hen­ry - Di­vi­sion of the En­vi­ron­ment, Cli­mate Re­silience and En­er­gy

Nathisha Charles-Pan­tin - Di­vi­sion of Pub­lic Trans­port and In­fra­struc­ture

Wane Clarke - Di­vi­sion for Food Se­cu­ri­ty

Keigon De­noon - Di­vi­sion of Youth Em­pow­er­ment and Sport

Zor­isha Hack­ett - Di­vi­sion of Tourism, An­tiq­ui­ties and Cre­ative In­dus­tries

Nike­ta Per­cy - As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary for Tourism, An­tiq­ui­ties and Cre­ative In­dus­tries

Ricky Joe­field - Di­vi­sion of Hous­ing, Set­tle­ments and Pub­lic Util­i­ties

Or­lan­do Kerr - Di­vi­sion of Ed­u­ca­tion, Skills and In­no­va­tion

Ian Pol­lard - Di­vi­sion of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment and So­cial Pro­tec­tion

Ack­el Franklyn - As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary for Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment and So­cial Pro­tec­tion