Company director testifies in $M lawsuit

PHILLIP WHITEMAN, director of WE Whiteman and Company, yesterday said the company was yet to receive some $0.7 million in outstanding monies from Cliff and Associates for retention of his company’s services, including completion of work on a construction project six years ago. Whiteman revealed this while giving evidence in San Fernando Civil Court, where the trial is being heard on the $14 million lawsuit filed by his company against Cliff and Associates of North York, Ontario, Canada. Whiteman told Justice Carlton Best that the Canadian-based company never bought any local products, having spent thousands of dollars air freighting bolts and purchasing paint from the US.

The company director added that after WE Whiteman and Company (1977) completed the project in 1998, he had not received any complaints about the job done. The Point Fortin-based Whiteman company constructed the foundation on the project based on a contract agreement, the particulars of which were drawn up in the United States and Canada. Whiteman is contending in its lawsuit that Cliff and Associates, through its local agent Bechtel International Inc, pressured the company (Whiteman) to accept a lesser sum. Bechtel is a Canadian company involved in construction of Train IV of Atlantic LNG in Point Fortin.