The announcement that Executive Chairman of Petrotrin Malcolm Jones makes $70,000 a month provoked a chorus of “wooooooohs” from the Opposition UNC in the Senate yesterday. But the Executive Chairman took a pay cut from $82,656 when he moved from the private sector in early 2002 to re-enter the public service, Energy Minister Eric Williams disclosed in the Senate yesterday.

Williams, in seeking to defend Jones’ pay package, said that the private market, Titan Methanol, assessed his worth as deserving of “superior” compensation. In fact when Jones left the energy company, Titan Methanol, to assume the position of President of Petrotrin, the salary cut was even sharper. His monthly income almost halved — from $82,656 to $46,200, the salary he received as President of Petrotrin between December 2001 and December 2002. But then the new PNM administration in December 2002 created the position of Executive Chairman, which was thought to be deserving of higher compensation because of the additional responsibilities, Williams said.

The salary, perquisites and allowances of both positions were based on a recommendation from the Chief Personnel Officer, the Minister disclosed. Williams said the CPO’s rationale was premised on the Gas, Oil and Utilities Sector of the HRC Associates 2001 Compensation Report. He said consideration was also given to the fact that Petrotrin was the only integrated oil and gas company in Trinidad and Tobago. He said while no data was available from the private and public sectors in respect of the position of Executive Chairman, the HRC Report revealed that the average base salary for CEOs in the gas, oil and utilities sector was $44,520, while CEOs at the higher end of the spectrum got around $73,210 a month. He noted that it appeared that the inclusion of data from the Utilities had resulted in a lower average base salary.

“Consequently, in view of the salaries payable in the relevant sector to the position of CEO and given that the position of Executive Chairman is ranked higher than that of CEO because of additional Board duties,  for which a non Executive Chairman would normally be paid a Board fee amounting to $11,000 per month, the CPO considers that a salary of between $65,000 and $70,000 per month would not be unreasonable,” Williams said. Jones, whose contract is for a three year period, would receive, in addition to his $70,000 salary, a performance bonus of 16 percent of annual income; a fully maintained company vehicle with the option to purchase the vehicle at the depreciated value at the end of the contract period; a fully maintained and furnished company house; full participation in the company’s medical plan; 25 working days vacation per year of contract and a gratuity of 30 percent of his basic salary payable on satisfactory completion of the contractual period.

Williams concluded that it should be noted that packages for persons in comparable positions in the private sectors are superior to the remuneration given to the Executive Chairman of Petrotrin. Nevertheless Williams strong defence of the compensation package failed to convince Independent Senator Professor Ken Ramchand. Ramchand asked if Williams was aware that over 80 percent of the workforce in this country earns less than $4,000 a month. “Can the Minister say how in all conscience anybody can approve the exploitation of the people of Trinidad and Tobago that he has just described?” he asked. Williams mumbled that he was not aware of the details and statistics of salaries in Trinidad and Tobago. He said while he was “painfully aware” of what some, like MPs who offer themselves for public service, he couldn’t answer Ramchand’s question. Mark asked whether Williams knew that this “scandalous package” caused a “revolt” at the level of the Board and the resignation of three members, Williams said he was neither aware of any scandal or revolt.

TWO of the victims of last Monday’s horrendous road accident at Mausica that claimed five lives, were firefighters from Venezuela who were on a visit to Trinidad.

An aircraft of the Venezuelan Air Force will be arriving this afternoon to take the bodies of Andres Hugo Jimenez and Carolina Norluskus Perdomo who were a couple back to Venezuela for funeral services. The other people who died in the crash at the Mausica intersection of the Churchill Roosevelt Highway were another couple, John Romel Solomon Jr., 25, and Venezuelan Christina Sanchez Solorzano, 19, who were due to be married shortly and WASA employee Natasha Marcano, 43. Jimenez and Perdomo, both 28, had degrees in chemistry and tourism respectively. They were due to return to Venezuela today (WED).

An official of the Venezuelan Embassy told Newsday that Venezuela’s Chief Fire Department have arranged a plane from the Venezuelan Air Force to land at Piarco International Airport sometime this afternoon. This was supposed to have occurred yesterday, but because post mortems on the five bodies ended late at the Mount Hope mortuary, it could not. The autopsies done by Dr A V Rao, revealed that the five died from head, chest and other injuries consistent with a vehicular accident. The official said that Jiminez and Perdomo were firefigters at the State of Anzoategue, and were studying English at Ambi’s Career Institute, Hollis Avenue, Arima. They registered with the consulate in September of last year.

While the bodies of Jimenez and Perdomo will be flown home for burial, their compatriot, Solorzano, will be buried here with her fianc?. Solomon’s mother, Jean, mother of five said Solorzano’s parents made the decision because the couple had planned to get married on August 16. Solorzano has only one sister, 19. Solorzano’s relatives are scheduled to land at Piarco International Airport around 11.30am today on board a Rutaca flight. Solorzano and Solomon are expected to be buried on Friday, Jean Solomon said.  Marcano’s common-law-husband Gerard Richardson, also a WASA employee, said Marcano is also likely to be buried on Friday.

The five were killed in a vehicular accident around 10am Monday after an empty six-wheel dump truck ploughed into three vehicles at the Mausica intersection. The truck, driven by Longdenville resident Wiltshire Modeste, is owned by Home Construction Limited. Yesterday, Lisa Ghany, the housing company’s corporate communications manager told Newsday they were in touch with the police and are assisting with the investigations. Describing the incident as a tragedy, Ghany said a company representative visited Modeste while he was hospitalised at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital Monday. “He (Modeste) is traumatised and shaken-up by the accident,” Ghany said. Police officers said the investigations are continuing and Assistant Commissioner of Police (Mobile) Deochan Gosine said a decision regarding what action the police might take will be made by the end of the week. Sgt Godson Andrews of the Maloney Police Post is continuing investigations.

NORTHERN Division police and Homicide Bureau detectives were late last night still on the scene of what they believe to be the country’s latest homicide, after the partially decomposed, bloodstained body of a man was found in a drain in Arouca.

Newsday understands that residents of NUGFW Drive, Arouca were attracted to the scent of rotting flesh and on checking around, discovered the corpse lying in a drain. Up to news time last night, investigators at the scene could not say what sex the victim was because of the state of decomposition. Arima CID officers under Insp Peter Grant and Homicide Bureau detectives.

A SAN JUAN pensioner, described by police and neighbours as a former outpatient of the St Ann’s Hospital, died in a fire which destroyed his small concrete home yesterday morning.

Police and fire officers on the scene narrowly escaped serious injury or possible death when as they moved away from the ruins a strong wind sent a wall crashing to the ground. Investigators were up to last night trying to locate relatives of Melville Welch, who police believe was in his mid to late seventies and who lived alone.

According to reports, at around 10.30 am Susan Charles spotted smoke billowing from Welch’s home which is perched on a hill off Pleasant Ville Terrace, Febeau Village, Laventille Road, San Juan. She telephoned the fire and police departments. However, although San Juan firemen under Sub FFSO Marcelle arrived promptly, they could do nothing to save the house since strong winds caused the blaze to sweep through the small concrete and wood structure, reducing it to smouldering rubble. When the firemen searched the ruins, they discovered Welch’s body in the ashes near the frame of a door at the front of the house.

A MIDNIGHT trip to fill water from a stand-pipe near his home early yesterday morning proved fatal for a 23-year-old Long-denville joiner as he was ambushed and murdered by a lone gunman.

Regel Seepaul, of Lawrence Wong Road, was shot several times in his chest as his older brother, Sonil, 35, looked on helplessly.  Within hours of the incident, police picked up a 38-year-old man, also of Longdenville, for questioning. Yesterday, Regel’s family were trying to make sense of the incident. His father, Bernard, said he heard the gunshots but didn’t realise they were being fired at his son. “My boys are good quiet boys. I never thought something happened to one of them,” the grieving man said as he looked at the spot where his son’s body fell just a few feet away from the stand-pipe. He said Regel had planned to get married and had purchased everything needed for a home although a date for his wedding had not yet been set.

Regel’s sister, Lisa, described him as a quiet and a shy person who did not smoke or drink. According to Lisa, it was Regel who looked after their mother at their home. His teenaged sister, Anisha, added: “He used to only work and work and work.” Police yesterday said they had no motive for the murder and were investigating an alleged land dispute. Investigators said threats were made to the family after a dispute erupted over a drain dug at the back of their house last week.  Yesterday, recalling Regel’s last moments, his sister-in-law, Michelle, told Newsday she and her husband, Sonil, lived at the back of the house Regel shared with his mother. She said that around 12.30 am when Sonil was going to the stand pipe on Pokhor Road, just a few metres from their house, Regel said he would go as well.

She added that Sonil stood only a few feet away and watched as his brother approached the stand-pipe. As Regel reached within a foot or two of the stand-pipe, a man appeared out of a clump of bushes approximately six feet away and fired several shots in his direction. A car that had been waiting on one of the streets at the intersection of Lawrence Wong and Pokhor Roads pulled alongside the stand pipe and picked up the gunman then sped away. Sonil screamed out to relatives saying: “Look they shoot Regel.” With assistance from his wife and a relative, Sonil placed his bleeding brother in the back seat of a car and rushed him to the Chaguanas District Health Facility where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The body was later transferred to the Forensic Sciences Centre where an autopsy was performed yesterday.  Sgt Loomy of the Cunupia Police Station is continuing investigations.

TWO TEENAGERS who stabbed a Trinidadian student to death last year were jailed at the Old Bailey in London yesterday.

Kelvin Henry was described as an evil young killer who stabbed a complete stranger through the heart with a hunting knife. He was jailed for at least seven years and 10 months. Henry, who was just 16 years old at the time of the murder, was told by Judge Gerald Gordon QC that he would not be considered for parole until the end of this term.  Paul Robinson, also 16 when he passed Henry the eight-inch murder weapon, was sentenced to six and a half years for manslaughter and trying to dispose of the knife. Adrian Worrell, a 19-year-old student and an only child, was knifed to death for no reason and without warning at Vauxhall’s New Covent Garden Market in February last year. Henry and Robinson laughed as they fled the scene and later boasted of what they had done while washing blood from the knife.

In passing sentence, Judge Gordon told Henry: “As a result of your deliberate and evil act, a young life was lost. You stabbed him through the heart with a knife, which you obtained very shortly before you used it. What is clear is that when you used it you intended to cause really serious harm.” To Robinson, the judge said: “You went out with a knife which you had no justification to have had.  If you had nost handed the knife over, the victim would be alive today.”  When convicted, Henry — the product of a troubled childhood —broke down and sobbed in the dock: “Sorry mum, sorry.”  But Adrian’s mother Tracey Worrell, a 39-year-old social services worker, said: “It’s me he should have said sorry to. He stabbed my only child in the heart. He didn’t have a chance in hell of  surviving.”  The stabbing punctured Adrian’s lung, main artery and heart and he bled to death at the scene.

THE HIGH court trial into the murder of former deputy speaker Roy Richardson is expected to begin tomorrow in the San Fernando High Court before Justice Paula Mae Weeks.

Richardson, a former Member of Parliament for Point Fortin and a former Junior Minister of Finance, was found dead at his Point Fortin home. It it believed he was killed between May 31 and June 3, 2001. On trial for Richardson’s murder are Rocky Mohammed, 21, and Estina Bedassie, 20, both of Point Fortin. Appearing for the State are attorneys Jerron Joseph and Chris Seelochan. Mohammed and Bedassie will be represented by attorneys Prakash Ramadhar and Gilbert Peterson.

The UNC yesterday found itself wiping egg from all over its face as its attempt to embarrass Senate President Linda Baboolal came to grief.

In fact, the motion of censure against Baboolal, which was filed by Senator Robin Montano virtually ricocheted, with the Opposition falling right into their own trap. The normally garrulous Montano did not show up to pilot his own motion. According to Leader of Opposition Business Wade Mark, he was sick. But it became clear that the UNC was neither anxious or ready to debate their own motion. Vice-President of the Senate Rawle Titus, as he noted Montano’s absence, pointed out that under the Standing Orders, someone else could proceed with the matter. Was the UNC  “ready to go”, he asked. Mark, who like Montano, is always primed for a debate,  couldn’t give a straight answer. “I would like to make a statement…to put a perspective… on the sequence of events…” he began.

The Vice-President wanted a clear answer.“Would you proceed?” Titus asked.  To which Mark repeated: “I have a statement to make sir! This is a democracy, and I am the Leader of Opposition Business and….” The President and Mark continued like this for some time. Then Mark made the bitter complaint. “At no point in time the mover of the motion requested or sought to have the motion moved from No 9 to No 1. We are not prepared to cede our right to consultation,” he said heatedly. They continued like this until Independent Senator Eastlyn McKenzie intervened. “I imagine that Senator Montano would have had his cup full and running over under the Presidency of Linda Baboolal and hence he could stand it no more and brought this motion. “I think it would have pleased the Honourable Senator to have it discussed as early as possible,” she said to loud desk-thumping from the Independent and Government benches. “If I were he, I would have been happy to have my motion debated and not sit here under a President in whom I have no confidence,” she said.

McKenzie explained that from her own reading, the practice all over the Commonwealth, was to have a motion of censure against a Presiding Officer dealt with as expeditiously as possible. To sustained supportive table-thumping, she said it could not be that the Opposition was asking the Parliament to allow the President to continue coming to the chamber with the motion like that on the Order Paper: “If I were the President, I would feel very uncomfortable to preside over people who have  no confidence in me. Let’s get over it. Either strike it off or somebody else move it.” Mark said “common courtesy” and “parliamentary etiquette” required that the mover of motion and the Opposition in general be consulted, prior to any attempt to bring the motion forward. “This debate would deal with sensitive matters which have far-reaching consequences and would require research.

Only yesterday the mover of the motion advised the Clerk of the Senate that he was not prepared to move forward because of “sensitive and potentially explosive information about the conduct of the President”. But Government Leader Lenny Saith rose to say that the innuendo from Mark that there was a “dangerous expose” to come about the President was an abuse of the Parliament. There was desk-thumping from his colleagues and the Independent Senators. Titus then told Mark that he had tried to be as tolerant as possible, but he had gone “into an avenue that was entirely unnecessary”. At this point, he again asked if Mark was ready. Mark said the UNC wasn’t ready, and Titus struck it off the Order Paper.

Newsday was told that it was the UNC which first asked Independent Senator Kenneth Ramchand to allow the motion to be brought forward and to be debated before his, in keeping with standard parliamentary practice. The motion, which had to be on the Order Paper for a minimum of 14 days in order to qualify for discussion, asked the Parliament to declare its lack of confidence in Baboolal.

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’.