A full-scale investigation has been ordered into the allegations of wanton spending at the National Gas Company (NGC).
The directive was given by Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine after he met with the NGC board at Level 26 of the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs, International Waterfront Centre, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.
In a statement, the ministry said discussions focused on the allegations made in the media against the state-owned NGC in recent days.
"These allegations are cause for concern as they have the potential to damage the reputation of the company.
"The ministry had requested from the NGC a report on the issue. The minister has received the report and is currently reviewing it, together with the permanent secretary. As a result, the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs intends to set up a committee to consider all the circumstances related to the allegations levelled against the NGC," the statement said.
It said the committee would comprise chairman Hayden Toney, Leroy Mayers, a representative of the ministry, and Ministry of Finance Phillip Marshall.
Toney is a lawyer and a retired director of the ministry. Mayers is a retired permanent secretary who served in both the Energy and Finance Ministries and is currently a consultant with the Energy Ministry. Marshall is a former independent senator and now the director of the Strategic Management Office of the Ministry of Finance and the Economy.
Ramnarine also met separately with the board of Petrotrin yesterday.
The probe comes after a series of media reports highlighted questionable spending at the NGC and the fact that an audit committee had recommended an investigation be launched.
Fresh reports surfaced yesterday that several members of an NGC audit team that reviewed the company's communications budget expressed concerns for their safety after the details of their interim report became public.
Among the interim report's findings were that the communications budget increased from $67 million to $200 million on projects, with $95 million of that sum apparently targetting constituencies.
Referring to an NGC-produced map which was published in the media over the weekend, Ramnarine, in his response in the Senate yesterday, said, "The data that was used to draw that map is ex-post facto data. It is spending that had already happened in the years 2013 and 2014 and what the company was simply trying to do was to ascertain how effective their corporate social responsibilities (CSRs) were and the reach of that initiative.
"If we were to use the logic of the Opposition that the NGC's CSR spending is for the gain of the People's Partnership, then one may also extrapolate from that logic that the NGC is supporting the PNM because of the areas that received the largest expenditure from the NGC on that map. [They] were Port-of-Spain South, Port-of-Spain North, Port-of-Spain North/St Ann's West and strangely enough San Fernando East received significants amount of money.
"And if it is you say the UNC or the PP constituencies received more money then that's only logical because we have 27 or 28 constituencies whereas the PNM has 11 or 12," Ramnarine said. –With reporting by GAIL ALEXANDER
PNM: Another scandal to bury
People's National Movement (PNM) Public Relations Officer Faris Al-Rawi said yesterday Ramnarine's decision to probe the matter failed to reassure the public that the issue would in fact be dealt with.
He said the People's Partnership Government had a history of failing to bring to conclusion any probe into glaring and damning allegations.
Describing the NGC issue as one which closely resembled the Life Sport scandal, Al-Rawi said, "The PNM is deeply concerned that a repeat of the Life Sport scandal, where people lost their lives after the news of the true extent of corruption, is not repeated in this matter. We fully endorse Dr Rowley's call for a police investigation into the NGC matter and for the security of the audit team of the NGC to be carefully managed."
He also called on Ramnarine to immediately rescind and reverse the punishment meted out to the members of the NGC audit team, who he said were transferred to NGC subsidiary National Enterprises Company under very "curious and apparently prejudicial circumstances.
"This scandal will be buried in the mountain of other UNC scandals. The truth will be sacrificed on the altar of political expedience and the citizens would have been robbed yet again," Al-Rawi added.
COP Responds?
Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams said yesterday he did not know whether his colleagues were investigating reports that members of an NGC audit team now feared for their safety in the wake of published reports about their concerns over spending at the state-owned company.
He said he was unable to comment as he was out of the country.
Yesterday in the Senate, PNM Senator Faris Al-Rawi raised the issue as he referred to media reports on the matter during debate on legislation for a partial scope trade agreement with Panama.
Al-Rawi was cautioned to stick to the matter at hand but he said NGC had a lot to answer in regard to the alleged $95 million expenditure in the constituencies, asking if the NGC "was the EBC." He said apart from this spending, the NGC board also needed to explain the over $1 million spent on Carnival 2015 tickets.?