DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath has dis­missed sug­ges­tions that the re­cent res­ig­na­tions of two di­rec­tors from the Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TSTT) board were linked to in­ter­nal dis­agree­ments or gov­er­nance is­sues, in­sist­ing the de­par­tures were prompt­ed by pro­fes­sion­al com­mit­ments out­side the com­pa­ny.

He said there was “noth­ing sin­is­ter” be­hind the res­ig­na­tions of Nadi­ra Prab­hu­di­al and Kyle Mal­oney.

“It was es­sen­tial­ly be­cause of the po­si­tions they hold in their sub­stan­tive jobs. There were con­flicts in terms of sched­ul­ing and work­load,” he said.

Prab­hu­di­al re­signed on Ju­ly 23, while Mal­oney stepped down on Ju­ly 3, about a year af­ter the five-mem­ber board was ap­point­ed.

Padarath said Cab­i­net has al­ready ap­proved one re­place­ment, while a sec­ond ap­point­ment was ex­pect­ed to be con­sid­ered at yes­ter­day’s Cab­i­net meet­ing. He added that the re­main­ing di­rec­tors con­tin­ue to meet the com­pa­ny’s op­er­a­tional re­quire­ments.

The min­is­ter al­so wel­comed the im­proved fi­nan­cial per­for­mance of TSTT and its sub­sidiary, Am­plia, af­ter the com­pa­nies re­port­ed an af­ter-tax prof­it of TT$214 mil­lion for the fi­nan­cial year end­ed March 31, 2026 — a 103 per cent in­crease over the pre­vi­ous year and the strongest re­sult in 17 years.

Padarath at­trib­uted the turn­around to tighter fi­nan­cial man­age­ment, re­duced ex­pen­di­ture and ef­forts to di­ver­si­fy the com­pa­ny’s rev­enue streams.

He said the stronger fi­nan­cial po­si­tion would al­low TSTT to re-en­gage the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Work­ers’ Union (CWU) on out­stand­ing wage ne­go­ti­a­tions, while cau­tion­ing that any set­tle­ment must be fi­nan­cial­ly sus­tain­able.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Work­ers’ Union Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Joanne Ogeer for com­ment but was told she is cur­rent­ly on va­ca­tion.