The Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) president general Ancel Roget has submitted to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard a "stack of evidence" pointing to alleged corruption in the T&T Electricity Commission (T&TEC) and its multi-million-dollar street-lighting project. Accompanied by several union supporters, Roget went to Gaspard's office at Winsure Building, Richmond Street, Port-of-Spain, yesterday in an attempt to personally deliver the documents.
But he was unable to meet Gaspard as he was told the DPP was in court. In the letter, Roget called on Gaspard to investigate the alleged abuse in the procurement procedure at T&TEC and the Street Lighting Implementation Unit. He alleged several breaches of law and acts of corruption were committed. Roget added in the letter that for over a year officials have been in possession of the findings of an audit into the street-lighting project but no action has been taken.
The audit was commissioned in late 2008 after the OWTU passed on documents to Minister of Public Utilities Mustapha Abdul-Hamid. Roget said the findings of the audit were passed to acting Commission of Police James Philbert, Attorney General John Jeremie and Prime Minister Patrick Manning. "The line Minister (Abdul-Hamid) promised to lay the findings of the audit in Parliament but the report ended up in the Ministry of the AG and has not seen the light of day," Roget noted in the letter. Roget said because of the lack of action, the union decided to forward the documentary evidence to an independent body–the DPP.
Among the documents forwarded to Gaspard were invoices and letters exchanged between T&TEC's senior management officials. Speaking to reporters, Roget said he expected Gaspard to contact him on receipt of the documents. He said if no action is taken by the DPP the union would resort to protest. "Workers in T&TEC have been robbed and the nation has been robbed to facilitate the greed of persons," he said. "We want justice to be served and we will not stop our actions until justice is served," Roget said.