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Dizzy28 wrote:Pep a better opposition the actual opposition atm
All in time,The_Honourable wrote:Dizzy28 wrote:Pep a better opposition the actual opposition atm
I agree.
UNC too soft atm. Devant trying on social media but meh...
NP loses US$500,000 in bad deal
by
Renuka Singh
10 hours ago
Mon Jan 20 2020
Renuka Singh
State-owned National Petroleum Marketing Company Limited (NP) lost over US$500,000 in a bad deal on the sale of bunker fuel on the international market.
There are very few details of this deal available in the public domain, but Guardian Media understands that NP was dealing with a company named Black Gold on an international deal which soured and NP was left nursing a million dollar loss.
The deal was the subject of an internal audit which named operatives within NP as culpable but according to one NP insider, it appeared to have been swept under the carpet.
The limited information on the deal is contained in an internal “goodbye” email written by the outgoing chief executive officer at NP, Bernard Mitchell.
The email was sent to staff of January 14, one day before Mitchell’s tenure ended.
The email listed a series of questionable decisions taken at the State organisation and seemed to infer that the board was aware of the growing discord within the company.
Mitchell’s email to his former staff was entitled “until we meet again” and in that email, he outlined the “Black Gold fiasco” that cost the company over US$500,000 but which was never properly addressed by the board.
“The lack of sanction/accountability for the Black Gold fiasco which resulted in a loss of over US$500,000 for the company, although clear culpability could be determined from the Audit Report and General information known among staff,” Mitchell wrote.
While the letter did not say much more on that matter, NP insiders told Guardian Media that there was no proper due diligence conducted before NP decided to pursue the Black Gold matter.
“The requisite Board approvals were not obtained and that they could not find the principals of the company initially engaged,” the insider said.
“Our finance and legal staff were totally against the transaction but were directed to participate but this did not come out in the audit,” the source said.
“What is required is a forensic audit. There was also a report on this recently completed by the Ministry of Finance,” the insider said.
Mitchell’s letter also said that there was a “unsubstantiated delay” for over 10 months in hiring a chief procurement officer.
“Given that the shortlist of candidates to be interviewed was finalised in February 2019 and which is now impacting the company’s state of readiness and ability to adopt and comply with the requirements of the procurement legislation,” Mitchell said.
He also questioned the executive decision to replace three directors “for no plausible reason” and the unilateral suspension of Board and Committee meetings for over three months from May to August 2019.
“Despite having a fully and duly constituted board of directors, this delaying decisions and the progress of the company,” Mitchell said in the letter.
Under the heading “exposures”, Mitchell listed three main concerns including the limited progress of the company Capital Projects, delays in executing key projects and initiatives and NP’s inability to enhance operating efficiencies.
Mitchell said that NP was unable to execute its capital projects because it lacked engineers. He said NP failed to execute the key projects because it lacked a Project Management office.
“I championed this with limited success because of the restrictions in hiring the required quality resources,” he said.
“My concern is that the real losers in this debacle are NP, the employees of NP and the stakeholders by extension,” Mitchell wrote.
“The work to ensure the long-term survival of the company had now started to gain momentum and the skills required to see it through are not available in abundance,” he said.
“If not properly addressed NP will become just another casualty enterprise that we read about daily,” Mitchell wrote.
Guardian Media contacted Mitchell yesterday on the matter of the email, but while he confirmed that it was his email to staff, he declined to comment further.
Guardian Media also contacted NP chairman Sahid Hosein who also declined to comment.
Hosein said he would address internal matters at NP at a later date.
Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP) leader Phillip Alexander has rubbished a defamation lawsuit threatened against him by the Urban Development Company of T&T (Udecott).
In a press release issued yesterday, Alexander questioned the decision of the State project management company to sue him over his allegations on the $89 million renovations to President's House.
"It would be interesting to see how the court determines the State's right to refuse accounting or to muzzle citizens questioning their activities," Alexander said.
Alexander also criticised the decision of Udecott's lawyer Deborah Peake, SC, to cite a case in which High Court Judge Carol Gobin made strong statements on Alexander's conduct as she ordered him to pay businessman Andrew Gabriel $775,000 in compensation for defamation. The case is currently before the Court of Appeal.
"I would remind Ms Peake that T&T is still a democracy and freedom of speech is alive and well, regardless of whether she wears silk, satin, or polyester cotton to work," Alexander said.
Peake's letter stemmed from a video posted on the party's social media accounts on January 3.
In the video, titled "A PEP Special Investigation into the cost of President's House Part 1", Alexander and a guest identified as Stephan Reis discussed the renovations performed on the building for approximately one hour and two minutes.
Peake said: "Notably, throughout the video you made it clear that you were speaking from a lack of knowledge and did not even know the size of President's House but nevertheless proceeded to make a number of false, ill-informed statement concerning the project and my client's handling of same."
Peake stated that the "egregious allegations" were wholly unjustified and malicious.
Peake gave Alexander until this morning to officially respond to the letter before filing the lawsuit.
Shortly after Alexander issued his release, Udecott's Corporate Communications Manager Roxanne Stapleton-Whyms issued a release to the media stating that Udecott's chairman Noel Garcia has threatened to sue Alexander in her personal capacity.
“I feel very aggrieved. I am paying this for myself. Not a cent of tax-payers dollars is being used for my legal action. I wish to protect my name and 39 years of unblemished national public service, having served on at least 10 Boards,” Garcia said, in a direct quote in Stapleton-Whyms' email.
VexXx Dogg wrote:How much time he will "resign"?
Dizzy28 wrote:VexXx Dogg wrote:How much time he will "resign"?
Probably as much times as Marlene get fired
Dizzy28 wrote:UdecoTT should just release the actual spend and shut him up. State enterprises expenses/contracts are not state secrets anyhows so they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by actually being transparent.
That is unless they really covering up something.
K74T wrote:reboot2020 can you tell us about Expo 2000 and Phillip Edward Alexander
T&T position changes on global Corruption Perception Index
JOEL JULIEN
Trinidad and Tobago has placed 85 out of 183 countries in the latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI), chairman of Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute, Dion Abdool, has revealed.
Abdool made the statement this morning at the launch of the 2019 CPI, at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business in Mt Hope.
The average score for the CPI this year was 43.
T&T scored 40.
In the 2018 CPI, T&T received a score of 41 and was ranked 78.
The index ranks countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and business people.
It uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
More than two-thirds of countries score below 50 on this year’s CPI, with an average score of just 43. Similar to previous years, the data shows that despite some progress, a majority of countries are still failing to tackle public sector corruption effectively.
According to the CPI, the top countries are New Zealand and Denmark, with scores of 87 each, followed by Finland (86), Singapore (85), Sweden (85) and Switzerland (85).
The bottom countries are Somalia, South Sudan and Syria with scores of 9, 12 and 13, respectively
Once you look injun (not in a suit) you are corruptedmaj. tom wrote:Them TV poll doh mean nothing. The people who voting PNM this year obviously feel that corruption was less over the last 5 years than under the UNC. Once dey own ppl in power it doh matter. They are the ones who feeling national Pride.
1.Awaits Marlene verdictrspann wrote:Rowley gov't not corrupt. He say so himself.
. Dat doh mean nutting elitecorolla will still vote PNMDe Dragon wrote:Love how Noel Garcia seems to believe that:
1) His public service is unblemished.
2) The millions he stole from taxpayers is "paying this for myself"
Yeah and?j.o.e wrote:https://trinidadexpress.com/news/local/query-over-3m-account/article_e3f935d6-a2e1-11ea-98b7-13a9a1f66a74.html
A WOMAN dear to Princes Town Member of Parliament Barry Padarath is being investigated by police in connection with a bank account with close to $3 million in deposits.
A Sunday Express investigation which commenced last year has revealed that the personal account of the close relative, who is a housewife, was reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit of T&T (FIU) by a banking institution.
An intelligence report was then prepared by the FIU and submitted to the Financial Investigations Branch (FIB) of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) to conduct an investigation.
The FIU does not have investigative powers.
A criminal investigation has since been launched into the source of the money and officers have compiled a list of contractors who they believe could assist in their investigations.
The Sunday Express has confirmed that police officers have visited the Office of the Prime Minister for material that could possibly help them during the period Padarath (B) was employed by then-prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar as her adviser.
While employed in that position, Padarath’s job specifications included assisting the PM with the planning and organising of policy and other related duties.
He received a salary of $18,000 a month, plus a $2,500 transport allowance.
PNM made up crimes supported by a bias 1% media and PNM police leads knowhere. Look at the timing.j.o.e wrote:Barry’s response (it’s in the full article if you follow the link) doesn’t sound like a man who is confident he is being victimized. It’s much easier to answer questions directly than beat around the bush when you’re innocent. Time will tell
That's the typical idiot response you will expect from these lowly educated folk.The_Honourable wrote:Pnmites saying that is why he duck out the country before the borders closed.
Then don't post trash leave that for elitej.o.e wrote:This is why Trinidad can’t get anywhere. All I do is post the article.
If a UNC being investigated is PNM propaganda if a PNM being investigated is UNC propaganda..... whole of tuner is same sheit. That’s why both sides screwing all of us over.
zoom rader wrote:Yeah and?j.o.e wrote:https://trinidadexpress.com/news/local/query-over-3m-account/article_e3f935d6-a2e1-11ea-98b7-13a9a1f66a74.html
A WOMAN dear to Princes Town Member of Parliament Barry Padarath is being investigated by police in connection with a bank account with close to $3 million in deposits.
A Sunday Express investigation which commenced last year has revealed that the personal account of the close relative, who is a housewife, was reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit of T&T (FIU) by a banking institution.
An intelligence report was then prepared by the FIU and submitted to the Financial Investigations Branch (FIB) of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) to conduct an investigation.
The FIU does not have investigative powers.
A criminal investigation has since been launched into the source of the money and officers have compiled a list of contractors who they believe could assist in their investigations.
The Sunday Express has confirmed that police officers have visited the Office of the Prime Minister for material that could possibly help them during the period Padarath (B) was employed by then-prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar as her adviser.
While employed in that position, Padarath’s job specifications included assisting the PM with the planning and organising of policy and other related duties.
He received a salary of $18,000 a month, plus a $2,500 transport allowance.
Sounds like a move to hype up PNM idiots just like they did with voter padding and Cocaine and bombs in a water tank.
If other can't see this as harassment then they real idiots
