SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

In the wake of Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Ltd chair­man Kurt Ram­lal’s res­ig­na­tion, one of the en­er­gy com­pa­ny’s dis­missed di­rec­tors, Romel Lal­loo, says the Gov­ern­ment is “im­plod­ing”, with sev­er­al di­rec­tors and se­nior of­fi­cials de­part­ing State boards in re­cent months.

“The Gov­ern­ment doesn’t in­ves­ti­gate it­self. So there is a need for a whole change...a whole mind­set as to the way things are hap­pen­ing. The Gov­ern­ment is im­plod­ing in it­self be­cause it’s fail­ing to do what is right,” Lal­loo said.

Lal­loo said re­mov­ing and re­plac­ing di­rec­tors and chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cers had not solved the prob­lems fac­ing State en­ter­pris­es.

“They are hop­ing that things get bet­ter, but it’s not hap­pen­ing. It’s get­ting worse,” said Lal­loo, whose stint at Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um end­ed af­ter he was dis­missed from the board.

The for­mer di­rec­tor called on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to “take the bull by its horns”.

“She needs to put in place some leg­isla­tive poli­cies to man­age State en­ter­pris­es with a much more strin­gent mea­sure,” he said.

Lal­loo said State boards had, over the years, proven to be in­sti­tu­tions vul­ner­a­ble to cor­rup­tion and bribery.

He said he was wait­ing to see how mat­ters would un­fold at Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um in the com­ing days.

Guardian Me­dia re­port­ed that Ram­lal re­signed af­ter be­ing asked to step down last week.

His de­par­ture fol­lowed al­le­ga­tions of im­pro­pri­ety in­volv­ing the al­lo­ca­tion of Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um con­tracts.

Ram­lal, a long­time sup­port­er of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), was among the first ap­point­ments made by the par­ty af­ter it as­sumed of­fice and had served as chair­man of Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um since Ju­ly 2025.

His res­ig­na­tion brings the to­tal num­ber of de­par­tures from State boards this year to 24.

Last week, Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TSTT) re­placed act­ing CEO Keino Cox af­ter a year at the telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions com­pa­ny. Reza Ho­sein was ap­point­ed act­ing CEO of the telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions provider.

Over the last eight months, di­rec­tors, man­agers and CEOs have ei­ther re­signed, been fired or been placed on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave at State en­ter­pris­es in­clud­ing the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion, Na­tion­al En­ter­pris­es Ltd, Caribbean Air­lines, Es­tate Man­age­ment and Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny, Na­tion­al In­vest­ment Fund Hold­ing Com­pa­ny Ltd, Na­tion­al Flour Mills, TSTT, Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny and Am­plia Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Ltd.

Last No­vem­ber, Lal­loo was dis­missed from the Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um board amid al­le­ga­tions of sex­u­al ha­rass­ment.

He was ap­point­ed to the State board on Au­gust 11, 2025, un­der the UNC ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Nine months af­ter his dis­missal, Lal­loo said the en­er­gy com­pa­ny had nev­er in­ves­ti­gat­ed the mat­ter and that the al­leged vic­tim had nev­er come for­ward.

Lal­loo, 71, main­tained that he was tar­get­ed for speak­ing out about wrong­do­ing.

Young de­mands an­swers

For­mer en­er­gy min­is­ter and Op­po­si­tion MP Stu­art Young said Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um is one of the few prof­itable State en­ti­ties and gen­er­ates bil­lions of dol­lars.

“Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has to in­form the pop­u­la­tion why Kurt Ram­lal re­signed. Was he forced to re­sign?” Young asked.

Young al­so ques­tioned whether there were is­sues re­lat­ed to the pro­cure­ment and award of con­tracts and whether a favoured con­trac­tor was in­volved.

“Where is Min­is­ter of En­er­gy Mooni­lal in all of this? He too has to in­form the pop­u­la­tion why both chair­men of Paria and Her­itage re­signed with­in months of each oth­er.”

In May, at­tor­ney Nyree Al­fon­so re­signed as chair­man of Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny with im­me­di­ate ef­fect.

Al­fon­so re­ceived her let­ter of ap­point­ment last Ju­ly from En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal.

“There is a com­plete lack of trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty un­der this Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar ad­min­is­tra­tion and they need to in­form tax­pay­ers why Ram­lal has gone,” Young said.

An­a­lyst ques­tions

lack of trans­paren­cy

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath said the pub­lic is sel­dom in­formed of the rea­sons be­hind the res­ig­na­tions of di­rec­tors, chair­men and CEOs of State en­ter­pris­es.

“If, for in­stance, the board’s po­si­tion may be dif­fer­ent from that of the Gov­ern­ment, and to that ex­tent, the line min­is­ter may have sug­gest­ed to the board, there may be con­flict there, and for that rea­son board mem­bers may re­sign,” Ra­goonath said.

Ra­goonath said that if a board mem­ber is fired, the Gov­ern­ment should tell the pop­u­la­tion the rea­sons for the dis­missal.

What­sApp mes­sages were sent to Ram­lal and Mooni­lal yes­ter­day, but they did not re­spond.