Government outwitted by multinationals

THE EDITOR: It may have shocked Pavlov and decimated some of his theories on behaviour but the recent statements from our Minister of Energy lamenting the fact that, again, companies in the energy sector have pulled the wool over Government’s eyes should come as no surprise to us in TT. Our history is that successive TT Governments have been outwitted by Shell, Texaco, Trinidad Tesoro, Amoco and most other companies with which they have conducted business and the minister’s recent pronouncements suggest that Government is now getting much of the same from the BG/Repsol/Tractebel/NGC Consortium at the LNG Plant. I am baffled by our own NGC’s role in all of this reported mischief since they are a shareholder, as token as this shareholding may be, and I assume they are represented at board and shareholders meetings and would be privy to information on ALNG’s arrangement with Government, where it sells its LNG and at what cost.

These three bits of information alone would have enabled NGC to determine that ALNG is selling produce in the USA (not Spain as they are leading Government to believe) and at  price significantly above that which Government is being reported to Government — if what the minister is saying is true. It is no secret that the natural resources of TT have contributed significantly to the global success of Texaco, Trinidad Tesoro, Amoco and BP, etc — as it is now doing for BHP Billiton, BG, Tractebel and Repsol leaving one to wonder if there would not have been sufficient learning in all of this for Pavlov’s dogs, and perhaps our Government officials as well, to have concluded that the smart thing to have done with these companies, particularly BHP Billiton, would have been to leverage for equity participation/shareholding, however small, in their parent/holding companies, based on the early data on probable findings locally; data to which these officials would have been privy or could have insisted that they be made so (would this be considered insider trading?). 

The benefits from this would have gone beyond that of dividends as it would also have provided us with a platform from which to access information through the parent/holding companies and generally influence the operation and “attitude” of the subsidiaries operating locally. Regrettably, we are not being managed by the dogs of Pavlov and therefore the lessons of the past have not been translated into learning. There is of course another explanation for the repeated failures on the part of our governments but this would mean “speculating” on the premise that many of those in government are ignoble, unpatriotic and, for personal gain, would sell out the interests of the country (unlike Pavlov’s dogs?). But I suppose since our legal and judicial system, which we all know to be quite fearless, competent and incorruptible, have never found any government officials guilty of such dealings with these highly respectable companies I don’t suppose we have any reason to suspect that this goes on — do we?

EUGENE A REYNALD
Port-of-Spain