Proper procedure followed on Jones’ salary

ENERGY MINISTER Eric Williams insisted yesterday that proper procedure was followed in fixing the $70,000 a month salary of Petrotrin Executive Chairman Malcolm Jones. “There is a procedure and as far I as understand, the procedure has been followed,” the Minister said in response to questions from reporters.

During Tuesday’s Senate sitting, Williams defended Jones’ pay package, saying that the Chairman’s salary had dropped from $82,656 to $46,200 between December 2001 and December 2002, when he left the private sector to re-enter the public sector. He added that Titan Methanol had assessed Jones’ worth as “deserving of superior compensation,” but when he assumed the position as President of Petrotrin, “the salary cut was even sharper”. Speaking with the media yesterday at the launch of the BG Science Buses at BG House, St Clair, Williams admitted that “this was not the first time I had seen conjecture as to some of these issues,” but assured that “the procedure was followed and it is what it is”. “Mr Jones, as far as I am aware, is being paid actually less than the going rate for his cohorts and equivalent CEOs in energy companies of that size in Trinidad and Tobago,” the Minister said

When he was asked whether there was Cabinet approval of Jones’ salary, Williams replied, “Well, it is safe to say that the procedure for approving these things was followed.” Questioned as to who exactly gave the approval, or if the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) played a role, Williams referred to “a committee which is advised very heavily by the CPO”. He explained that the matter would have gone to that committee, following which the CPO would have accessed the information and it would have been approved. “Cabinet has set a system of doing these things so that in that sense, yes, the matter was put into the system and went through the appropriate process,” Williams said. He added: “The system was followed, and like I said, Mr Jones at the end of the day is actually being paid less than the going rate of his cohorts.” When asked whether a situation could develop where the Petrotrin Board will be instructed to stop paying Jones $70,000 per month, as was the case a when WASA CEO Errol Grimes had his paycheck downsised, Williams replied: “I can’t really speculate on that and there is a procedure, which was followed, and that’s the end of that.”