Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales has slammed opposition MP Barry Padarath for revealing information about the security arrangements for TSTT’s acting CEO Kent Weston during a press conference on Wednesday.
When asked to comment, Gonzales said that he would not speak on the security arrangements of any state officials. “I think it is highly irresponsible for any public official to discuss the security arrangements of persons. I think by doing that, you are exposing those very individuals and their families. You are exposing and compromising their security, and I think it is very unfortunate that a Member of Parliament and a public official will engage in that behaviour,” he said at an event in Las Lomas yesterday.
On Wednesday, Padarath, quoting the response to a Freedom of Information Act request, claimed that bodyguard security for TSTT’s acting CEO costs $65 an hour—around $49,000 monthly. He said he had gotten a response from TSTT to a query filed by one of his agents under the Freedom of Information Act. He said the FOI reply stated the private security company providing the service from November 30, 2023, was Amalgamated Security Services Ltd.
Padarath said he could confirm that ex-TSTT CEO Lisa Agard had refused to accept any security because TSTT was sending home workers in cost-cutting exercises during her tenure. Agard had called the security payments ‘wastage’.
“When we had to make some very difficult and painful decisions about separating a considerable number of employees in the organisation, even in those difficult circumstances, I formed the view that incurring expenses for security was not justified for me as CEO.
“I do not think that it is an expenditure that is justified, having regard to all of the circumstances of the company’s operations. In my view, it’s a wanton waste of expenditure,” Agard told Guardian Media on Thursday.