Smelter bigwigs blank JSC

Absent were National Energy Task Force chairman Prof Ken Julien, National Energy Company (NEC) president Prakash Saith, and National Gas Company/NEC chairman Keith Awong.

Moreso, she later told Newsday, neither Julien nor Saith had written or telephoned the JSC ahead of the sitting to notify their absence, although Julien had indicated two months ago that he would not be appearing before the committee. King told the sitting that just before the start of the session, Awong had sent in a fax notifying his absence. She did not think a fax was an appropriate method of notification. “We will be writing Parliament as to the respect or disrespect this committee has been given today,” she announced. Fellow JSC member, UNC Senator Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan agreed saying: “It’s apparent that we will not get answers.

It is a total disrespect to the committee that these members will not attend and they communicate this at the eleventh hour”. Later King told Newsday how serious is the work of the JSC. “The committees sit as if Parliament is sitting. It is under the Constitution”.

She said at a previous sitting of the JSC there were no proper answers from representatives from the Ministry of Energy who had instead referred the JSC to the experts of the NEC and NGC, but now some of these were absent. She said Awong had sent in his place Wade Hamilton, but the JSC does not accept any substitute spokesman.

The two persons who were interviewed by the JSC were Alutrint senior engineer, Vijay Lall, and Alutrint public affairs manager, Clement James.