Guardian ( Trinidad and Tobago )
07 April 2023 ( Page 18 )
A victory for people of T&T?
By Capil Bissoon
Former attorney general now Minister of Rural
Development and Local Government Faris Al-Rawi, in a
media release on 29th Inst, responded to the Miami-Dade
Circuit Court ruling in favour of the State of T&T against
Brian Kuei Tung, Steve Ferguson (former PNM-turn-UNC
Financiers) and Raul Gutierrez as a “Victory for the
People of T&T.”
Kuei Tung, Ferguson and Gutierrez were found to be liable
for multi-claims arising from fraud perpetrated in
connection with the redevelopment of Piarco Airport in
the early 2000s. Many citizens would want to join with
Al-Rawi and the PNM to “celebrate” other victories if
they had zealously pursued other civil litigation cases
involving individuals and companies with close affiliation
and ties to the PNM.
It is Al-Rawi who, on being named Attorney General in
2015, discontinued the billion-dollar civil action filed by
Petrotrin in 2013 against its former president Malcom
Jones as a result of the failed Gas-to-Liquid project. This
case was filed after extensive forensic investigations were
conducted on the advice of former PNM attorney general
Russell Martineau SC and Vincent Nelson KC. The Privy
Council subsequently ruled there may have been a basis
to support claims that there was political interference in
Al-Rawi’s decision.
It is Al-Rawi who, in 2018, decided not to pursue the civil
action against former eTeck chairman Ken Julien and five
directors who lost their appeal at the Privy Council, which
paved the way for the special purpose company to pursue
a claim against them for a failed 2005 investment of US$5
million ($34million) with a China-based company to
develop eTeck’s information technology business
venture.
As AG in 2019, Al-Rawi did not live up to his fiduciary
duty to protect the taxpayer with regards to $150,000 of
state funds that were allegedly paid to settle a sexual
harassment case against former PNM MP for Diego
Martin Central, Darryl Smith.
Why didn’t Al-Rawi initiate civil action against the board
of NGC when the media was reporting that NGC had
invested and potentially lost more than $400 million in a
failed attempt to restart the Atlantic LNG Train 1 plant,
relying on natural gas that was already committed to the
petrochemical sector and having no real prospect of
getting the gas in the short-term that was necessary for
the plant to restart.
At the same time, NGC lost another $200 million
investment in the Beachfield project which it later
realised was not necessary and the company was left
holding the bag, including $100 million worth of
compressors that it cannot now sell.
As AG in 2021, Al-Rawi had a fiduciary duty to insist that
Petrotrin follow the advice of its attorney Deborah Peake,
SC, who advised the state-owned company to move
quickly and file an application in the High Court to set
aside the results of an arbitration between itself and A&V
Oil and Gas that could cost the state company close to $1
billion. It is now a fact that Petrotrin did not follow its
learned Senior Counsel’s advice and the State had to pay
A&V Oil millions of dollars in damages.
How can anyone forget that former PNM chairman John
O’Halloran constructed two twin-tower high rise office
blocks in Scarborough, Ontario, and was found guilty in a
Canadian court? A “Victory for the People of T&T” will be
an explanation why the AG’s Office, in the last five years,
has allowed default judgment in ten cases totaling $1.9
million.
Al-Rawi can really bring victory if he becomes the conduit
for serious change within the PNM. He can do so by
insisting that the Rowley-led PNM immediately revamp
the procurement legislation to its original form that was
passed by the PP government and have it activated today.
The failure of this administration to do so will only
continue to encourage the 10-30% of the country’s
spending which is lost to corruption, which for 20% of
$26 billion spent in T&T equated to $5.2 billion.
And Al-Rawi can truly bring victory. if he can stop the
government from gutting the Freedom of Information Act
(passed by the Panday-led UNC Administration) where, in
some instances, barriers were placed in the way of
ordinary folks to obtain information from state agencies.
This Rowley-led PNM administration has failed and
refused to assume responsibility for dealing effectively,
quickly and fairly with situations involving claims of
corruption and mismanagement of the public purse. The
PNM would want you to believe that in the 43 years they
have been in government since Independence in 1962,
they have been a model and beacon of integrity in
managing the affairs of the country.