CAMILLE McEACH­NIE

The po­lit­i­cal leader of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), Dr. Kei­th Row­ley, says Tra­cy David­son-Ce­les­tine—leader of the PNM’s To­ba­go Coun­cil—had left the coun­try when the zi­pline project "was in its in­fan­cy."

The where­abouts of $2.5 mil­lion worth of ma­te­ri­als and equip­ment, paid for by the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly for the Main Ridge zi­pline project, has been a hot-but­ton is­sue on the hus­tings since Jan­u­ary 10th.

The Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP) re­vealed de­tails from a 2016 Au­di­tor-Gen­er­al Man­age­ment Re­port in­di­cat­ing that the de­part­ment's ef­forts to find the zi­pline project's raw ma­te­ri­als showed on­ly some ropes in a ware­house.

The par­ty al­so re­vealed de­tails of the Ex­ec­u­tive Coun­cil Note that ap­proved the project.  The note in­di­cat­ed that al­most $4 mil­lion was spent on the project.  The PDP claimed spend­ing in­clud­ed lo­cal and for­eign trips by THA and for­eign of­fi­cials, try­ing to get the project off the ground.  David­son-Ce­les­tine was the Tourism Sec­re­tary dur­ing the time of the re­port.

The PDP has threat­ened to send the in­for­ma­tion to the Of­fices of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tion, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, and Au­di­tor Gen­er­al.

Speak­ing at a cam­paign meet­ing in Rox­bor­ough on Jan­u­ary 20th, five days be­fore the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tions, Prime Min­is­ter Dr. Row­ley said David­son-Ce­les­tine left the As­sem­bly at the start of the project.

"April 2017, Tra­cy left the As­sem­bly with that project...on the way. She nev­er came back in­to As­sem­bly busi­ness un­til she won the lead­er­ship of the PNM (Jan­u­ary 2020), " Row­ley said.

David­son-Ce­les­tine be­came this coun­try's am­bas­sador to Cos­ta Ri­ca in 2017.

The PNM na­tion­al leader said To­bag­o­ni­ans should re­ject the PDP's ex­pla­na­tion of the re­port as they are "ly­ing and try­ing to con­fuse" To­bag­o­ni­ans.

He said he ap­proved of the zi­pline project and in­struct­ed David­son-Ce­les­tine to con­tin­ue the project af­ter the Jan­u­ary 25 elec­tions.  She is the par­ty's can­di­date for the Lam­beau/Sig­nal Hill seat.

The PM dou­bled down on his claim about the PDP's be­ing the UNC's proxy in To­ba­go.

He said he knows of the re­la­tion­ship be­cause he heads this coun­try's Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil and is privy to the in­for­ma­tion.

He asked why the PDP was not con­cerned about oth­er au­di­tor gen­er­al's re­ports, es­pe­cial­ly those dur­ing the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship term in of­fice.

He read from the 2012 re­port.

"Min­istry of Food Pro­duc­tion, page 35.  $1.9 mil­lion be­tween June 30 and... Cab­i­net ap­proval was not found for $2 mil­lion in that min­istry."

"Min­istry of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, page 39.  Build­ing leased not oc­cu­pied.  $26 mil­lion of li­a­bil­i­ty of which they’re pay­ing $9 mil­lion in each year."

"The PDP and their friends... should be con­cerned about that," the PM said.