Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has said he will not be intimidated into retracting corruption allegations in the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union’s acquisition of the Petrotrin refinery.
His comment followed a recent threat by the union to launch a national campaign against the UNC just weeks away from the local government elections.
Speaking with Guardian Media yesterday, Dr Moonilal said he stood by his claim that Patriotic Energy and Technologies company limited purchase of the refinery lacked transparency, however, his comment was not a frontal attack on the union.
“I said it in the parliament, we are happy a local entity particularly a worker organization is deemed the preferred bidder and we are happy for that. But we still need to have a transparent process and it is on that basis we raised our voice.”
According to Dr Moonilal, instead of issuing threats, the OWTU’s president general should clear the air on the sale of the refinery.
He said, “I think Mr Roget should spend time telling us of the ten criteria the government has placed on the agenda, how much they have been able to satisfy before December. I don’t take rubber talk easily, I think we should go beyond that and get to the issue, this is an issue of a refinery the taxpayer has pumped 11.6 billion TT dollars.