Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) will need to freeze hir­ings in the fu­ture.

Dur­ing to­day’s bud­get de­bate at the As­sem­bly Leg­is­la­ture, Scar­bor­ough, Au­gus­tine said the is­land’s re­cur­rent ex­pen­di­ture is too high.

On Mon­day, Fi­nance Sec­re­tary an­nounced a $4.12 bil­lion bud­get re­quest for fis­cal 2027 with $3.03 bil­lion in re­cur­rent ex­pen­di­ture. Au­gus­tine said the lat­ter fig­ure con­strains the as­sem­bly’s plans and does not al­low for sig­nif­i­cant de­vel­op­ment.