Yetming charges Minister took bribe

SPARKS FLEW in Parliament yesterday between Leader of Government Business Ken Valley and St Joseph MP Gerald Yetming, as Yetming charged that a Government minister received an undisclosed sum of money to facilitate a plan involving 20 percent of  First Citizens Bank (FCB) being sold to Michael Lee Chin and his Canadian-based mutual fund company, AIC Ltd.

Speaking during debate on the Insurance Amendment Bill 2003 in the House of Representatives, Yetming said the PNM was contradicting itself by saying it wanted to strengthen the financial sector but was simultaneously doing things to weaken it. Drawing reference to affairs at the Unit Trust Corporation (UTC), Yetming claimed that the controversial idea to merge the UTC and FCB did not originate in Trinidad nor from the mind of FCB chairman Ken Gordon. “The idea was born in Jamaica. Ken Gordon was simply a conduit for that idea from Mr Lee Chin,” he declared. The former finance minister claimed that money was paid “to a Government minister” as part of a plan to sell 20 percent of FCB to AIC. Yetming’s utterance caused Valley to immediately leap to his feet and a shouting match began between the two MPs, which Deputy Speaker Hedwidge Bereaux eventually resolved. “The truth will come out,” the UNC MP quipped. Yetming expressed concern about recent statements by Prime Minister Patrick Manning about Government concern regarding the current structure of the UTC’s Board, and charged that Government wanted “total control” of the UTC and its current assets of $11 billion.

Observing that there appeared to be “an emerging problem of governance in the UTC,” Yetming suggested that Government bring a UTC Vesting Bill it promised in 2002 that would allow the UTC’s privatisation with the necessary safeguards to prevent it from falling into “the wrong hands.” Stating that loss of confidence could cause an overnight collapse of the financial sector, Yetming said the legislation needed to be better developed to give the proposed Inspector of Financial Institutions “more teeth” and warned that failure to do so could cause the sector to collapse similar to Jamaica’s in the 1990s. However, Valley reminded Yetming: “The Government has in its possession an opinion from eminent London counsel stating that in fact Government is the true owner of the UTC. The UTC has it, the Government and the Central Bank has it, and everybody knows that.”  Valley recalled that when he held the investment portfolio in the Finance Ministry, UTC executive director Clarry Benn and then managing director Renrick Nickie suggested to him “that the UTC buy into the FCB. The UTC proposed that then. It is no magic.

For some time now in TT, the UTC has been thinking about getting involved, buying into the FCB,” he declared. Valley said it was the PNM which started the financial sector reform process in 1995, a Green Paper to that effect will be turned into a White Paper by Carnival and Yetming’s entire argument was contradictory. He added that Lee Chin was “the 18th richest person in Canada” and a former school mate of his. Yetming subsequently indicated that Valley was not the minister in question, evoking riotous laughter from the Opposition benches.