Williams resigned when appointed minister

This was revealed by Ernest Williams in a news conference yesterday in which he sought to make it clear that the Energy Minister was not currently in a position to exercise any "control or influence" over the company or the trustees.

Williams declined to state who the other trustees were, saying he preferred to keep it "private." But he stressed that Eric Williams was receiving absolutely no income from Maranatha Geophysical Services.

At a news conference, which was held at the Marriott Hotel, Ernest gave a chronology of his brother’s involvement and withdrawal from the company as its CEO and chairman. Eric Williams resigned as CEO of Maranatha one day after his appointment as Energy Minister, on December 27, 2001, Ernest stated.

He added that on the same day the board accepted Eric Williams’ resignation, it appointed Kelvin Mapp as CEO and chairman. It also appointed Hannibal Charles and Elizabeth Sankar. Ernest joined the board on May 2, 2002. On the divestment of Williams’ shares (into the blind trust), Ernest said; "We have complete confidence that the steps taken by Eric Williams immediately upon his appointment to the Ministry of Energy were fully consistent with the highest ethical standards expected of public officials."

Ernest explained yesterday that Maranatha offered seismic data storage, transcription and brokerage. The company which was founded in 1999, provides new technology to store geophysical data. Maranatha has the ability to transcribe seismic data from the traditionally large IBM tapes to a much smaller digital (DVD) format.