Former Petrotrin executives accused of paying themselves hefty pensions, performance bonuses and salaries to the tune of millions of dollars, must be investigated and charged if found guilty.
So said president general of the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union Ancel Roget as he called for a forensic audit into Petrotrin, following a media expose that Petrotrin was seeking to recover millions of dollars in unauthorised salary increases awarded retroactively to senior officials.
During a press conference at OWTU's Paramount Headquarters yesterday, Roget warned that the OWTU would rise up and take action if wrongdoers were not investigated and punished.
"We are not convinced that the board and minister are perusing aggressively those who are accused of wrong-doing. We had been raising those issues between 2010 and 2015 even as they continued to reorganise the company's operations with no discussions from the union," Roget said.
Saying the expos� was not surprising, Roget said the OWTU was hit with litigation for speaking out. Calling for a thorough investigation into corruption allegations, Roget added: "We believe these claims should be fully investigated."
He also said a "full financial forensic audit into the financial operations of Petrotrin between 2010 to 2015," must be done, adding: "Definitive steps must be taken to recover all the money that was paid out."
Roget also condemned the officials for dipping into Petrotrin's pension fund which was owned by the workers. He also called for a freeze on any extra pension allotment given to the accused officials until their names were cleared. Roget further said that some of the officials were still benefitting from free housing, electricity, water, cable and security even though they were no longer part of the company.
Officials respond
Meanwhile, a former official who requested anonymity sought to justify the hefty salary increases saying by 2012 the management (non-unionised staff) had not received adjustments for five years and higher scales unionised employees were being paid more than lower level management employees. He said in March 2012, the board approved a salary and grade schedule for some 200 members of management. The official said a salary increase was granted to former vice-president Kenneth Allum and former president Khalid Hassanali in their final months of service.
"This is not an uncommon practice at Petrotrin. It is generally designed to facilitate the enhancement of an employee's pension benefits by granting an increase in the last month or year of employment depending on the employee's pensionable service and performance and the length of time since the employee's last salary increase," the source said.
He noted that a bonus to the president of up to six months base salary was an established Petrotrin policy and Hassanali's salary was not finalised until May 2015 and applied retroactively to date of appointment as president in May 2012. The official also said none of the individuals gave themselves salary increases.
"The increases for Allum and Hassanali were granted by the chairman, acting on authority given to him by the board. The vice-president of human resources and corporate services was required to sign off on these increases as an administrative requirement and to instruct payroll staff to implement the salary increases," the source added.