Education Minister announces new EFCL chair

His appointment comes after the resignation of former chairman Arnold Piggott last week. Vasquez, who was the acting chairman on the former board, was one of three members who was retained– Daniel Cox, who was appointed acting general manager and Clyde Permell.

Piggot resigned citing family commitments and “the protection of my reputation and family name.” During a news conference yesterday at the Education Ministry, St Vincent Street, Port-of- Spain, Garcia expressed his dissatisfaction with the former board’s operations which included reporting lines not being adhered to, retrenchment exercises, the slow pace of construction works being carried out, and the process to be undertaken when emergency repairs were to be done when schools are forced to close.

There are now six members on the board, however, Garcia said they would add more, adding that the board could have a maximum of 13 members and a minimum of two.

Saying that they intended for the ministry to work closer with the EFCL in the future, Garcia said there were many areas they needed to tighten because of some of the challenges they experienced over the last few months “We will not allow the spectre of schools being closed down for simple reasons. During the day to day operations of the schools, you would find that in some of these schools closed so that they could effect repairs.

“One of the things that we frown upon is the delay in having those repairs put into place. Some schools would remain closed for two-three, sometimes four weeks. Our children have a right to education. We have decided that whenever a school has to be closed, we must immediately trigger emergency measures.

We are going to ensure that the procurement of all measures be put in place. The tendering process would be done expeditiously, so that our children would not be forced to stay away from school for any prolonged time,” the minister said.

Asked why they decided to retain some of the members, Garcia said Cabinet, in its wisdom, decided that they were going to move forward with new members.

“We were having some challenges with the board and quite a large amount of concern to express in various quarters of how the board was operating.

Cabinet found it was necessary to make a step forward. Cabinet decided to inject new life into the board,” he explained.

He added that it was within the remit of Cabinet to decide how they treated with boards, who decided on the appointment of boards, and who would constitute members of the board.

Asked if there was blame laid against Piggott and his leadership of the former EFCL board, Garcia said he did not want to ascribe any blame or any misdeeds on the former chairman.

“All I am concerned with at this point is that an audit is taking place and in a week’s time we will be apprised of the results accordingly.

Until then I can say no more. We have to wait until the results are made known to us before we can say if there is any impropriety,” he said. The minister said there were 141 schools currently in need of repairs and the minister assured they would do so during the July-August vacation to ensure that all schools would be opened on time for the new school term.

Meanwhile, former education minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh renewed his call for the remaining directors to follow the former chair and tender their resignations in light of allegations being made.

He said Government had a moral responsibility to dismiss the directors to restore the country’s faith in the organisation, following the extensive published claims of unlawful activities at EFCL.

Gopeesingh said failure do so would hold the Government equally guilty in the ongoing EFCL debacle. He added that only one member of the board attended a statutory meeting of a bipartisan Joint Select Committee (JSC) of Parliament last Monday, to inquire into matters at the State-owned company. The JSC, was a constitutional creature of the Parliament.

However, Garcia said he was not aware that all members of a board needed to be present during a JSC meeting.

He said Vasquez had indicated that his name not be included in the list of names of those attending the meeting.

Vasquez indicated that he would attend the meeting if it was so requested.