Elias quits Petrotrin Board

EMILE ELIAS, former Pre-sident of the Joint Consultative Council (JCC), which was at the forefront calling for a Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco airport development project, has resigned from the Board of State-owned Petrotrin.

Elias has been serving on the Board since the PNM, of which he is a strong supporter, came to power in December 2001 following the 18-18 tie. Elias’s letter of resignation addressed to Petrotrin’s Executive Chairman Malcolm Jones was dated April 18, 2003 and took immediate effect, pre-empting what a source said was a Cabinet decision to remove Elias and two others from the Petrotrin Board. Contacted yesterday, Elias would only confirm he had tendered his resignation letter dated April 18. He said he had no further comments to make.

But Sunday Newsday understands that there has been a falling out between Elias and Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who is Chairman of the Standing Com-mittee on Energy. Sources said that the usually outspoken Elias had been tipped off that he was to be removed from the Petrotrin Board, and that a note was being prepared for Cabinet on the matter. Ironically, the Petrotrin Board had only recently documented in its Board minutes what was described as the “sterling performance” by Elias. The Board praised his contribution to their work

The two other Petrotrin Board members who have been removed are Helena Inniss-King and Farad Chan.  The source would not reveal the nature of the falling out between Elias and the Prime Minister but it reported that the three have been replaced by Angela Hamel-Smith, a Human Resources specialist, Andrew Thackarie a contractor, and a senior public servant, a woman, whose name could not be confirmed yesterday.

Sources suggested that the issue could be related to questions which have been asked by UNC Leader in the Senate, Wade Mark, concerning the pay package of Jones. Jones is also the CEO of Petrotrin and is said to be in receipt of a pay package that was considerably higher than the $50,000 which was being paid to WASA’s CEO Errol Grimes, which gave rise to a great deal of controversy. Grimes’s pay has since been reverted to $36,000 a month. Mark’s questions are scheduled to be answered on Tuesday in the Senate by Minister of Energy Eric Williams. At his regular news briefing on Thursday following the weekly Cabinet meeting, Manning was at pains to point out that good managers are not easy to come by and the country has to face that reality, when he was questioned about Grimes’s salary.

Sources suggested that Manning might have been speaking ahead of revelations concerning Jones’s pay package. Elias is a very strong PNM supporter and party sources said yesterday that he had worked very hard in the last General Elections to remove the UNC which he considered a corrupt government. As former head of the JCC he campaigned strongly for an inquiry to be held into the construction of the Piarco airport by the UNC government. He was a witness before the current inquiry which is chaired by retired Chief Justice Clinton Bernard. Elias gave evidence over a period of four days.

During his testimony Elias charged that businessman Ish Galbaransingh knew in advance that his company Northern Construction Limited (NCL) would have obtained the contract for major works on the airport project. Elias said he received information from a man he identified as “deep throat”, telling him there was an attempt to suppress the true evaluation of contracts. He also accused project managers Birk Hillman Consultants (BHC) of  “corrupting the process” by giving NCL the contract.