Setting Senator Mark straight

Firstly, the Employers’ Consultative Association (ECA) is well established and recognised as a provider of a range of workplace solutions. The ECA was engaged by Caroni in 2003 after a competitive tendering process to design and coordinate a programme of training, retraining and counselling for those persons who participated in Caroni’s Enhanced VSEP (EVSEP). As Chairman of Caroni’s Tenders Committee at the time and an ECA Board member, I removed myself from the evaluation of tenders and the decision to make the award to the ECA. It is a matter of public record that in July 2003 the Board of Directors of Caroni agreed to make an award to the ECA and the claim by Senator Mark is therefore entirely untrue.

Secondly, in late 2002 Caroni’s Board approved the refurbishment and rental of five dilapidated bungalows to W Connection Football Club (WCFC), a well established regional club. A reputable real estate firm advised that the monthly rental value of the five bungalows was $17,500 once refurbished and WCFC met the cost of the refurbishment on the basis that this would be set off against the monthly rent. The significant point in the arrangement was that these abandoned bungalows have been fully restored without expenditure by Caroni in circumstances where Caroni would not have repaired these assets and further Caroni no longer had to provide watchmen for the empty and dilapidated bungalows.

Thirdly, it would please Senator Mark to know that the miles of rail are still embedded from Ste Madeleine to Valley Line despite my efforts, as Caroni’s CEO, to secure a buyer on the international market for the rail and rail transport equipment. In the near decade since Caroni stopped rail transport, the rails have been subject to pilfering and it would be very interesting to hear from Senator Mark about the steps taken during his tenure as a Government minister to dispose of the rails or at least make a decision on the future use of the rails.

Fourthly, as CEO of the Sugar Manufacturing Company Limited (SMCL) I was faced with piles of ferrous scrap at Usine Ste Madeleine (USM) and my handling of the issue is well known, audited and documented. I would say that through a tendering process buyers for the scrap were identified based on a price of TT$50 but the removal process was slow and during 2003 all scrap dealers stopped buying because of a dispute with the Caribbean Ispat over price.

This allowed us the chance to deal directly with Ispat and negotiate a price of approx US$100 per tonne of processed scrap and Ispat suggested that two contractors were acceptable to them for processing the scrap. Only one of the two contractors was interested and we reached agreement that contractor John Williams Construction Company Limited, which allowed us to receive US$80 per tonne without any expenditure by us.

Most significant is the fact that the residents along the train line at USM and the SMCL Board, Management and workforce would be more than willing to tell Senator Mark about the difference the removal of almost 2,000 tones of ferrous scrap has made to their daily lives.

It would be interesting to hear from Senator Mark how this strategy compares with his strategy for cleaning up the piles of ferrous waste at Caroni and the old Reform, Woodford Lodge and Orange Grove Factories when he was a Government minister.

It would be useful to also hear about the progress made on the then Government’s decision to stop the sale of these old factories as ferrous scrap and convert them to museums.

Fifthly, once the contractor had embarked on the removal of scrap, Caroni requested that the contractor effect substantial repairs to the main thoroughfare at USM, that is Palm Drive up to the sugar factory.

Caroni also agreed that the cost of the repairs would be set off against the sale of the scrap and again this relieved Caroni, SMCL and the shareholder of cash outlay. The claim of repairs to a roadway costing $2 million is entirely erroneous and the $700,000 set off against the sale of scrap has been verified by an independent Quantity Surveyor engaged for the purpose of verifying the cost of the roadworks. Apart from this. I know of no other contract involvement this particular contractor and it would be interesting to hear from Senator Mark how, as a Government minister he had proposed to repair the Tasker Road and relieve the hundreds of motorists who have now benefited from the initiative of SMCL, Caroni, the Ministry of Works and Wayne Inniss from the Sugarcane Industry Team (SIT). Sixthly, Gilbert Park, the pride of Wanderers Cricket Club, is still owned by Caroni and operated and maintained by Wanderers.

Likewise, the golf courses at Sevilla and USM are public courses, still owned by Caroni and maintained by the Golf Clubs at no cost to Caroni.

The golfers, users of Gilbert Park, including the Couva Chamber who recently used the park for the Sugar and Festival, the Central Credit Unions who will use it this weekend and the former workers would be happy to tell Senator Mark about how well these facilities have been operated without Caroni’s direct input.

I am therefore just as anxious to hear from Senator Mark about the progress made on the decision when he was a Government Minister to take hundreds of acres east of Sevilla out of cultivation to construct a thousand room hotel.

CLARENCE RAMBHARAT

Chairman — Employers’ Consultative Association of Trinidad and Tobago