The Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) stepped up its call for an investigation into allegations of criminal activity relating to the South West Soldado Development project at Petrotrin when it met with members of the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau in Port-of-Spain yesterday.
In March, the union wrote to acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams requesting that he launch an investigation into allegations.
But having apparently acquired more information on the matter since then, OWTU president-general Ancel Roget said they felt it was necessary to meet with the bureau to highlight their concern in the matter.
“We are not going to let this issue die there. We are going to furnish the Anti-Corruption Bureau with additional information.
“We are going to request that they have a forensic expert, not just the police, to get involved in this matter to follow the trail of the money and to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Roget said, adding they met with Supt John Fredericks.
He said if the police did not have the necessary resources then the National Security Ministry should intervene.
What transpired with the project, Roget added, not only reflected massive wrongdoing but also robbed the country of billions of revenue.
“It is not just the money involved but as a consequence of not being able to provide the facility this country lost from 2012 to now the opportunity to gain daily some 3,000 additional barrels of crude. When you multiply that by an average of $80 per barrel it runs into billions of dollars,” Roget said.
Claiming that top Petrotrin officials were responsible he urged that a criminal investigation begin immediately. Roget also alleged that key documentational evidence was also being shredded.
“We want the police to be decisive and expeditious in handling this very important affair. This is criminal wrong doing and somebody must be held to account,” Roget added.
Asked to provide dates and times of when the alleged shredding took place, he said: “We have our sources and we are not going to be naming those sources.”
The letter written to Williams was also copied to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, the Integrity Commission’s registrar, Martin Farrell, and director of the Financial Intelligence Unit Susan Francois.
Attached to the letter were three documents, including the findings of the auditor’s report, information on some contractors and correspondence leading up to the auditor’s report.
It is alleged that Petrotrin breached its own rules and contract requirements on the project and paid an upfront commissioning fee of US$1.25 million (TT$7.94 million) to Mexican shipping firm Maritima de Ecologia SA de CV (also known as Marecsa).
A senior Petrotrin official is alleged to have pushed through the deal and within weeks of the disputed August 29, 2012, Petrotrin payout, US$750,000 of the US$1.25 million upfront commission was paid into a Houston bank account in Texas, USA, in the name of Membersource Credit Union and was allegedly transferred to two private bank accounts at the Ellerslie Plaza branch of Scotiabank.