THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine is questioning why no one came forward sooner with information concerning the vessels involved in the oil spill impacting the island.
In a statement on Wednesday, the National Security Ministry said at least two vessels were involved and they appear to have been bound for Guyana.
At a media conference hours later, Mr Augustine said that the ministry’s release had contained unanswered questions, including why it took seven days for the vessel to be identified by its owners.
He also questioned why the vessel’s owners had not yet made their way to the island to observe the scale of the impact of the spillage.
Augustine said the owners of the vessel were culpable and should be made to pay for the “mess”.
“I want to know how much they will pay for this. Because you recognise your thing was broken you see it on all sorts of global news and it took you this long to come forward? The press release said perhaps it’s from (February) 4 they were reporting this thing was lost from them, and if that was the case nobody reached out to them between then and now and said something washed up in Tobago?”
He also claims that he was not formally informed of an ID being made with regard to the vessels involved in the spill.
The Chief Secretary meanwhile revealed that T&T is receiving assistance from Oil Spill Response Limited, an international company that T&T is associated with.
He says an OSRL team arrived on Monday night, has been reviewing the sites and activities and is providing advice to ensure efforts meet international best practice.