Sahadeo: Board probing Rao

Minister in the Ministry of Finance Christine Shadeo yesterday said  that she met with one of the individuals who had made allegations against Chairman and CEO of the Estate Management Business Development (EMBD) Company, Uthara Rao, but the person indicated that “they didn’t want to go further.”

Responding to comments from Wade Mark and the sugar union that she (Sahadeo) was doing nothing about the allegations, Sahadeo said that was not true. She said, however, that it was difficult for the minister to directly intervene in such a situation. She also added that one could not deal with an issue based only on allegations. The minister said she met with the Board of the EMBD and the board was “looking into” the matter. 

Sahadeo stated that at this time the issue was sub judice because it was before the Industrial Court. Therefore, she could not give more information on it, she said, adding that that was the only reason she did not intervene in the Senate on Tuesday while Mark was speaking. Sahadeo is the minister responsible for Caroni  (1975) Ltd. Repeated attempts to contact Rao proved unsuccessful. His secretary told Newsday that he was in meetings all day. Later on, Newsday was told he had left the office.