Lenny Saith: Prince best man for Telecom

On Monday, Prince said Saith took a note to Cabinet on December 10, 2004 which outlined the terms and conditions of his contract. He said those terms and conditions included a five-year term of office and salary for that period which was half of what would have been paid to an international consultant who was originally appointed to serve in his current post.

Prince claimed the Cabinet note said the authority initially wanted to hire him as an international consultant for a two-year period and pay him a salary of $2,147,040 over that period. Last week, Former authority chairman Dr Ralph Henry said prior to Prince’s appointment as executive director on July 1, 2004, efforts were made to source an international expert to serve as executive director during the period 2002 to 2003 and pay that individual with monies loaned from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Henry said when that expert declined the appointment and Prince was chosen, the arrangement with the IDB was no longer applicable since Prince was a public servant. He added that Saith informed the authority that it could hire Prince for the maximum period of five years allowed under the Telecommunications Act 2001 and the terms and conditions of Prince’s contract would be determined by the Public Sector Negotiating Committee.

In an interview yesterday, Saith told Newsday in the period 2002 to 2003 the authority advertised for an international expert to come to Trinidad and Tobago and train someone to fill the vacant position of executive director and that expert would have been paid with IDB funds.

Saith said no such expert was ever hired and when Prince was selected in July 2004 for the post, he (Prince) was the best person for the job. Saith explained that under those circumstances, the arrangement with the IDB was no longer applicable. Saith said he checked the details of the Cabinet note which Prince referred to and no recommendations were made by his ministry in that note about the terms and conditions of Prince’s contract as executive director. Saith said he has received no further communication from the Telecom Authority about the matter involving Prince and reiterated that he was not getting involved in that situation. In a statement last week, the authority said Prince’s contract expires on June 30, he had outstanding leave which the board requested he take and deputy director Cris Seecharan had been appointed to act for Prince effective May 31. Prince said he has documents to prove that his contract actually expires on June 30, 2009 and his lawyers were now handling this matter. Authority chairman Khalid Hassanali said Prince has not been fired as executive director and he would make no further comment on this issue since the authority’s lawyers were looking into it.