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The Tobago House of Assembly is moving to strengthen the digitalisation of its accounting operations as officials seek to reduce payment delays and improve financial monitoring across the island’s administration. Secretary of Finance, Trade and the Economy Petal-Ann Roberts said the THA is engaging FreeBalance, the company involved in digitising government financial operations in Trinidad, after encountering implementation difficulties in Tobago. Roberts said the proposed system should allow payments and financial reports to be processed more efficiently while giving administrators greater ability to monitor transactions and identify problems when they arise. She said approval had been given for Tobago to continue engagement with the company, although she did not provide a timeline for completion of the digitalisation process. The Finance Secretary acknowledged that technology alone would not resolve existing delays. She said the THA is also focusing on training, supervision and improvements within individual departments to make the current payment process more efficient. As part of that effort, Roberts said an experienced former public servant with more than three decades of experience had been brought into the Division of Finance as a management accountant to assist with staff training and operational improvements across the division and wider THA. The changes are intended to improve the timeliness of payments to contractors and service providers, an area Roberts said remains a priority for her team. The initiative represents another step toward modernising Tobago’s public-sector financial administration, with the effectiveness of the programme likely to depend on both the successful introduction of the digital platform and improvements to the underlying administrative processes that support it.
