$HADY DEALS

She kicked off the Lower House debate on the Budget presented last Friday by Finance Minister Colm Imbert.

The Minister, talking to reporters during the tea-break, totally rejected her allegation of impropriety in his proposed sale of shares in First Citizens Bank (FCB) and TTNGL (Phoenix Park Gas Processors), a subsidiary of the National Gas Company.

Alleging a Government plot to create an “Ultra Elitist State”, Persad-Bissessar said these share-offerings will help only big investors but not “John Public” and “Dulharie Public”.

She urged that these sales not proceed until current procurement legislation is proclaimed and said she saw no good reason to give special access to existing shareholders. Saying both sets of shares are very valuable and were oversubscribed in an Initial Public Offering (IPO) done under her administration, she said the offerings were much more wider than this new offering now proposed by Imbert. The FCB sale was three times oversubscribed and private persons sought 43 million shares when only seven million were offered to them, she related.

BROOKS KNOCKED Of TTNGL, she said, “I could not believe such a small circle of people are involved in the ownership of this valuable piece of financial capital.” Persad-Bissessar said NGC chairman Gerry Brooks, was chief operating officer of a conglomerate which has companies or individuals which comprise five out of the ten shareholders of TTNGL and hold a combined stake of 5.64 percent.

Brooks is a former chairman of Tatil, a TTNGL shareholder.

She said that Brooks had retired as the conglomerate’s chief operating officer (COO) in 2015 and then was named by Government as NGC chairman. “Thanks to this Government, Mr Gerry Brooks within days went from being an associate with five of the entities holding shares in TTNGL to being Chairman of the largest shareholder (NGC) of the TTNGL and Chairman of the TTNGL as well,” Persad-Bissessar hit.

So now, instead of controlling 5.6 percent of this lucrative corporate asset, as a direct result of his appointment by this government to the state owned companies NGC and TTNGL, Mr Brooks and his associates now control 57.64 percent of TTNGL, she told the House.

AND WHAT OF FARRELL? Persad-Bissessar also asked if any conflict of interest arose by Economic Development Board chairman Dr Terrence Farrell possibly advising Government on these divestments while himself being a consultant and director at TATIL, a shareholder of TTNGL.

“Was he party to the decision that only current shareholders are to benefit from the sale of shares of TTNGL,” she queried. She also questioned the position of another Economic Development Board member, Allison Lewis, who is a board director of Republic Bank - yet another shareholder in TTNGL.

“There is a lot more room it would appear in this $4.1 billion disposal of assets for friends of the Government,” she concluded to heavy desk-thumping by Opposition MPs. Persad-Bissessar hit Imbert’s Budget speech for its “superficiality, vagueness and obtrusiveness”, saying it was riddled with miscalculations and misrepresentations and was crafted to bamboozle the population.

She quoted calypsonian David Rudder’s song, “Madman’s Rant” to say the Budget failed to address high crime-rate including 400 murders under the current People’s National Movement (PNM) Government. Denying she deliberately lost the 2015 General Election to evade paying public workers backpay, Persad-Bissessar said she would have shored up the country’s social safety net, even as she accused Government of ignoring the downtrodden.

OPPOSITION STANDS READY She said the Opposition is ready to work with the Government but without any “backroom deals or front room gallerying”. After one year of the Government in office, she said it is time to stop blaming her for current ills, even as she scoffed, “If your have the same problems as last year, you are not a leader but you are a problem and you must be solved.” The way forward, she suggested, was by The Fourth Industrial Revolution, an allusion to opportunities in ICT. Persad-Bissessar said many anti-crime steps from last year’s Budget were unfulfilled such as appointing a Police Commissioner, setting up a Joint Border Protection Agency, re-engineering the judicial and prison systems and linking up the TT Police Service to local government corporations. She hit Government for 20,000 jobs lost under its tenure and a 31 percent dip in tax revenues, despite new tax measures by Imbert.

She questioned the Budget’s figures, saying Imbert’s speech spoke of $53.4 billion in expenditure, but the Draft Estimates of Expenditure showed $56.6 billion plus an Infrastructure Development Fund of $2.6 billion, giving a total of $59.29 billion. She claimed that $6 billion was unaccounted for.

SHE GOT IT WRONG Later, in reply, Imbert told reporters he was shocked that Persad- Bissessar despite her former tenure as prime minister, is now seemingly unable to correctly read Budget documents. “She got everything wrong. I’ll explain in my winding up.” Regarding the TTNGL and FCB share sales, Imbert said any sort of exclusivity of the offering was “a figment of her imagination”. He said it is standard practice for existing shareholders to be given an allotted amount such as ten percent, with the general public able to access the balance. Imbert dismissed any conflict of interest in shareholders of TTNGL.

“She spent an hour putting up a straw man, which is an imaginary thing, and then knocking down the straw man,” he said.

“There are no inter locking directorates.

That’s nonsense. The vast majority of people who accessed shares in the FCB and Phoenix park IPOs are UNC activists, so if there is any inter locking directorate it is UNC activists.” He said her allegations were scandalous given that the great controversies arising during the FCB IPO under her administration.

Imbert scoffed at Persad-Bissessar’s concerns about yachts, saying it is for foreigners only (and not for his “old boat”) and to boost the local boat repair industry that saw a recent decline.

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi told reporters the conglomerate, ANSA Mc Al, is a public-traded company, and that it makes no sense for the Opposition to attack its shareholdings.