Huggins a former Calmaquip shareholder

FORMER GOVERNMENT Minister Russell Huggins was a shareholder with no shares in Calmaquip Caribbean Limited in 2000. This was revealed yesterday by Deputy Registrar Francis Sandy when he continued evidence before the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport Development Project.

Calmaquip, a US-based company, was awarded the contract to provide speciality equipment for the airport. Government guaranteed two loans totalling US$30 million for the Airports Authority to finance the contract. In response to questions from attorney for the commission, Theodore Guerra SC, on the returns for Calmaquip from 1997 to present, Sandy said the company did not file records for 1997 to 1999 and its returns for 2002 and this year are overdue. Sandy said returns are to be filed on April 3 each year under the Companies Act. He said directors in the company for 2000 and 2001 were Raul Guttierez and Rafael Portela. In 2000 the shareholders were listed as Russell Huggins and Wendy Fay Thompson, who each had “nil shares,” and Guttierez and Portela who each had one share.

In 2001 the shareholders were Guttierez and Portela with one share each. Sandy said if a company does not comply with submitting returns, a letter would be sent from the Registrar General’s Department enquiring if the company was still in business and if so, that it was in arrears of filing. Sandy said all documents filed with the department are public documents and members of the public with proper identification can obtain copies of the documents at a cost. Sandy also said he had not yet located the returns for Maritime Securities Ltd. He said the returns for 1998 for Fidelity Finance and Leasing Company listed several directors in the company with its shareholders as Steve Ferguson with one share and Maritime Life Caribbean Ltd with 6.1 million shares. In 1999 the company had the same directors with one new addition. Its shareholders remained the same with Ferguson continuing to hold one share and Maritime Caribbean Life with 9.9 million shares. The inquiry will resume on Monday at 9.30 am since there are no witnesses scheduled for today.