Chief Secretary Farley Augustine yesterday acknowledged that the Tobago House of Assembly is aware that “just renting or leasing a boat is not the most appropriate” for use by the Coast Guard in Tobago.
His comments came after National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds called into CNC3’s The Morning Brew programme and said he was not in support of the move by the Chief Secretary to rent fishing vessels for the Coast Guard as a crime-fitting initiative.
However, Augustine said the idea showed that in Tobago, “we are desperate for a solution because those charged with the responsibility of providing resources to the Coast Guard have failed the officers and have also failed the people of Tobago and the country by extension.”
Augustine said the Coast Guard has zero assets and zero boats resident in Tobago for them to work with. He said every user of the marine space in Tobago knows they cannot get the assistance of Coast Guard because it simply has no assets available to it in Tobago.
He explained that the proposal is not to use fishing boats on high seas but just for shoreline monitoring. He said he understood that the Coast Guard is the legal remit of the Central Government and not the THA
“Our coastline in Tobago remains unprotected and open to the illicit drug and gun trade. We can’t just throw our hands up in the air and give up. The THA certainly isn’t giving up.
“And while the Ministry of National Security’s budget is significantly higher than ours, and while the Coast Guard is not our responsibility, we will keep trying to help. We respect that the ministry doesn’t want our help in this regard, but we will keep offering and supporting in any way possible,” he explained.
He added that while Hinds is refusing the THA, he hopes he was also prepared to tell the nation how soon it will be before the Damen vessels are made available to the Coast Guard so they can do their job.
