Dennis slams THA travel spend, promises investment

PNM To­ba­go po­lit­i­cal leader An­cil Den­nis says the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly has noth­ing to show for the mil­lions spent on for­eign trav­el in re­cent years ex­cept “self­ies and so­cial-me­dia pho­tos,” and he promised that a PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion would on­ly trav­el to se­cure re­al in­vest­ment for To­ba­go.

Ear­li­er this year the Au­di­tor Gen­er­al’s 2024 re­port flagged $6.8 mil­lion in un­ver­i­fied over­seas trav­el ex­pens­es by the THA. Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said in May that his ad­min­is­tra­tion spent $11 mil­lion on trav­el over the years, but Mi­nor­i­ty Leader Kelvon Mor­ris main­tains the fig­ure has al­ready crossed $20 mil­lion.

Speak­ing at a po­lit­i­cal meet­ing in Char­lottesville, Den­nis said To­ba­go must start ask­ing what came out of the trips.

“When your sec­re­tary of tourism or your chief sec­re­tary leaves To­ba­go, he is not go­ing to To­ba­go Day to par­ty and fete and sell benne ball and take out pic­tures. ‘I’m your chief sec­re­tary’ and take out pic­tures and all those kind of things,” he said.

He added, “It’s not to dress up nice and take pic­tures on In­sta­gram. It’s not to trav­el all over the globe and have a good time.”

Den­nis said too many trips yield­ed no ben­e­fit to the is­land.

“It is not to go to a con­fer­ence and just sit down… and then they take your mon­ey and shop and come back with a suit­case full of clothes and Guc­ci bags and Guc­ci belts and all kind of things. And af­ter four years, you ben­e­fit­ed noth­ing from those trips.”

He told sup­port­ers that if elect­ed, his ad­min­is­tra­tion would use every over­seas meet­ing to fight for jobs and de­vel­op­ment.

“When we trav­el, we are not go­ing to be trav­el­ling for friv­o­lous rea­sons. When we trav­el, it will be to sit in rooms with hote­liers, with cruise lines, with in­vestors… We will arm our­selves with a prospec­tus out­lin­ing the ar­eas that we need in­vest­ment in To­ba­go.”

Den­nis promised that with­in one term, the PNM would re­turn with con­crete projects: “At least one ma­jor ho­tel… your cruise ship vil­lage… a new pair to ac­com­mo­date an ad­di­tion­al two to four cruise ships… your ma­ri­na… and oth­er in­vest­ments in re­new­able en­er­gy, the fish­ing sec­tor and the agri­cul­ture sec­tor.”

He said To­ba­go de­serves lead­ers who work, not pose for cam­eras.

“When you hire an ad­min­is­tra­tion, it’s a se­ri­ous mat­ter… When you hire us, it is to work for you.”