Terrence Lalla, the owner of Super Industrial Services Limited (SIS), has denied that his company is funding the Prime Minister’s million dollar Christmas toy drive, whilst benefitting from lucrative contracts from Government.
The toy distribution, which culminates this weekend in the Prime Minister’s Siparia constituency, has been criticised by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley, Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner and former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, all of whom have called on Persad-Bissessar to explain who funded the drive.
In an interview yesterday, Warner alleged that nine 40-foot containers belonginging to SIS were recently cleared at the Point Lisas port. Workers at the company have reportedly been offloading toys for children at the company’s base at Brechin Castle, 23 Rivulet Road, Couva, he added. He said he also had information that the toys, which he alleged were never checked by Customs and Excise, were being stored at a Port-of-Spain hotel before being distributed.
“It is obscene and wrong. The Prime Minister cannot say that she does not know where the money comes from. She does not know whether it is coming from drug cartels or financiers and this is unacceptable,” Warner said. Maharaj said Persad-Bissessar had a duty to disclose to the population who donated the toys. “If Government did not purchase these toys, the country needs to know if contractors who are getting contracts from Government are in breach of procurement procedures,” Maharaj said.
What PM said
On Thursday, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she did not know who were the sponsors of the toy drive. She said a committee headed by vice president of the Tunapuna Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Peter Kanhai, was in charge of the toy sponsorship. Kanhai, in an earlier interview, said as far as he was aware, no Government contractors had been sourced to sponsor the toy drive.
Kanhai said the drive had sponsors such as Kiss Baking, Holiday Foods, Universal Foods, Bermudez and Coca Cola, who often provided items free of charge or gave significant discounts of up to 60 per cent.
Little information
Contacted on his cellular phone yesterday, Lalla appeared surprised when asked whether SIS had funded the PM’s toy drive. “Who made that statement?” he asked. He later advised that questions be referred to his public relations department.
Asked what was the cost of the toys and whether nine containers had been brought in, Lalla said he had no information. Pressed further as to why he, as owner of SIS, did not know the cost of the toy drive, Lalla said, “The amount of things that go on at SIS, I don’t know quarter of it. I will have to ask the marketing people about those things.” Told that he was the owner and should know, Lalla replied, “Not really.”
When told of Warner’s allegations, Lalla said, “This is interesting. No comment.” On allegations that SIS was defrauding the government of millions of dollars in taxes, Lalla responded, “OK, that is news to me.” Asked whether allegations that workers were not paying NIS or health surcharge, Lalla said: “Why, you think we don’t pay NIS? Most or 99 things in the media is hot air. “Those allegations are inaccurate. You can pull all the NIS records and it is there. All our workers pay NIS and Health surcharge.”