UNC charges Govt with Petrotrin cover-up

THE OPPOSITION United National Congress (UNC) yesterday charged the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) with deliberately changing the Senate’s Order Paper to cover-up what it described as the scandalous compensation package being paid to Petrotrin Executive Chairman Malcolm Jones.

Addressing a media briefing in Parliament’s Committee Room Five, Senate Opposition Leader Wade Mark said the UNC was informed last Thursday that the no-confidence motion against Senate President Dr Linda Babool that was filed by Opposition Senator Robin Montano would be debated first instead of the position as originally stated on the Order Paper. He also claimed the order of several other motions filed by the UNC was also changed without their consultation. Mark said the decision to change the Order Paper’s format was “a unilateral decision” taken by the Government “because they had an agenda”.  That agenda, he continued, was to cover up answers posed by the Opposition about Jones’ compensation package.

Energy Minister Eric Williams told the Senate that Jones’ monthly salary was $72,000. Referring to the 22nd edition of May’s Parliamentary Practice, Mark said the manner in which the Order Paper was changed was “wrong and undemocratic” and as a result, the Opposition was not prepared to debate the no-confidence motion first. “We were never consulted,” he declared. Speaking in her capacity as a former National Petroleum chairman, Opposition Senator Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan said the salaries of energy industry executives were primarily based on the bottom lines of their companies and one could not compare Petrotrin with the Titan Methanol company, of which Jones was the former chairman. She added that while Titan was profitable, Petrotrin was clearly struggling. The Senator added that while she had no problem with any energy executive being well remunerated, it had to be done according to certain criteria.

Asked what those criteria were, Seepersad-Bachan said the bottom line was the primary guideline upon which bonuses were paid in the private sector but today, several new performance indicators were being used to guide that determination. Mark claimed former Petrotrin president Rodney Jagai was receiving a monthly salary of $45,000 and Jones’ package was nothing short of a PNM “feeding frenzy” at the Treasury. The UNC chairman said WASA CEO Errol Grimes’ salary paled in comparison to Jones’.