TSTT denies ‘spending’ over $400,000 on retreat

The Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed (TSTT) has de­nied spend­ing more than $400,000 on a cor­po­rate re­treat in To­ba­go, re­spond­ing to a Sun­day Guardian in­ves­ti­ga­tion which re­vealed that the com­pa­ny had been in­voiced $436,081.78 for the event held in Jan­u­ary.

In a state­ment is­sued on Mon­day evening, the state-owned telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions provider sought to clar­i­fy the fi­nances as­so­ci­at­ed with the re­treat, stress­ing that the amount re­port­ed rep­re­sent­ed was not what was ul­ti­mate­ly spent.

The Sun­day Guardian ar­ti­cle did not re­port on what was even­tu­al­ly spent, how­ev­er, but was clear on the in­voic­es as­so­ci­at­ed with the event, in­di­cat­ing that TSTT had been billed $436,081.78.

Ac­cord­ing to TSTT, pri­or to pub­li­ca­tion the re­porter had con­tact­ed the com­pa­ny ref­er­enc­ing the al­leged in­voic­es, but the re­quest for con­fir­ma­tion was de­clined.

“TSTT ad­vised the re­porter that the fig­ures ref­er­enced were sig­nif­i­cant­ly over­stat­ed. Fur­ther, no pay­ments had been made for the re­treat at the time of the in­quiry,” the com­pa­ny said in its state­ment.

The com­pa­ny added that an in­ter­nal re­view of the doc­u­ments ref­er­enced in the ar­ti­cle in­di­cat­ed that the fig­ures cit­ed were in­flat­ed.

“Fol­low­ing its own in­ter­nal re­view of the doc­u­men­ta­tion ref­er­enced, TSTT can con­firm that the amounts cit­ed in the ar­ti­cle are over­stat­ed by ap­prox­i­mate­ly 60 per cent and there­fore do not ac­cu­rate­ly rep­re­sent the ac­tu­al cost of the event,” the state­ment said.

TSTT ex­plained that the re­treat in­clud­ed strate­gic plan­ning ses­sions, lead­er­ship align­ment dis­cus­sions and op­er­a­tional meet­ings. The pro­gramme al­so in­volved en­gage­ments with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) and pub­lic-fac­ing brand ac­tiv­i­ties.

“These ses­sions were de­signed to strength­en in­ter­nal col­lab­o­ra­tion, re­fine strate­gic pri­or­i­ties and sup­port the con­tin­ued de­vel­op­ment of the com­pa­ny’s busi­ness ser­vices and cus­tomer en­gage­ment ini­tia­tives,” the com­pa­ny said.

It added that the de­ci­sion was made to host the re­treat lo­cal­ly in To­ba­go rather than over­seas in or­der to man­age costs and re­duce for­eign ex­change ex­pen­di­ture.

How­ev­er, a three-page in­voice ob­tained by Guardian Me­dia pro­vides a de­tailed break­down of the costs as­so­ci­at­ed with the event.

The in­voice, dat­ed Jan­u­ary 20, 2026, shows that TSTT was billed $38,704 for brand­ed to­kens, $203,265 for event pro­duc­tion, $72,167 for ho­tel ac­com­mo­da­tion and $73,492.25 for su­per­vi­sion and co­or­di­na­tion.

These four items to­talled $387,628.25 be­fore the ad­di­tion of 12.5 per cent Val­ue Added Tax (VAT), which brought the over­all billed fig­ure to $436,081.78.

The ser­vices list­ed in­clud­ed tours and ex­pe­ri­ences, re­treat co­or­di­na­tion, lo­gis­tics and on-call ser­vices, in­fra­struc­ture and event set­up, brand­ing, labour and trans­porta­tion.

An ad­di­tion­al in­voice from To­ba­go-based Stage So­lu­tions Ltd, dat­ed Jan­u­ary 17, 2026, was sent to the ad­ver­tis­ing agency in­volved in or­gan­is­ing the event.

That doc­u­ment itemised 32 ser­vices for the re­treat, to­talling $180,680. When VAT was ap­plied, the amount in­creased to $203,265.

The in­voice de­tailed sev­er­al ac­tiv­i­ties and ser­vices, in­clud­ing four boat-re­lat­ed ser­vices cost­ing $57,500. Among them were a $15,000 bar ser­vice on a tour boat and at No Man’s Land, a $15,000 cater­ing ser­vice at the same lo­ca­tion, a $12,500 sin­gle-boat char­ter on Jan­u­ary 16 and 17 and a reef boat char­ter priced at $15,000.

Oth­er items list­ed in­clud­ed a $6,500 is­land tour with a guide and re­fresh­ments, $9,000 for 12 good­ie bags, $10,500 for pan­nists, drum­mers and dancers, $2,500 for recre­ation­al games and a $3,600 bon­fire.

The in­voice al­so in­clud­ed $4,800 for golf­ing at the Mag­dale­na Grand, $15,000 for re­treat co­or­di­na­tion and lo­gis­tics ser­vices, $3,600 for am­bi­ent light­ing for both boat and land ac­tiv­i­ties, $5,000 for trans­porta­tion be­tween Jan­u­ary 16 and 18 and $15,000 for ex­ec­u­tive concierge ser­vices over the same pe­ri­od.

Brand­ing and event in­fra­struc­ture costs were al­so list­ed, in­clud­ing a $5,000 20-foot bmo­bile arch in­stalled at No Man’s Land, $2,000 for grass turf, a $3,500 bmo­bile back­drop and $4,500 for brand­ing in­stal­la­tion at the Com­fort Inn and No Man’s Land.

Ad­di­tion­al charges in­clud­ed $12,500 for din­ner reser­va­tions and pay­ment fa­cil­i­ta­tion at the Sea­horse Inn, $3,000 for pre- and post-clean­ing of No Man’s Land and $7,500 for labour.

Oth­er in­voic­es re­lat­ed to ac­com­mo­da­tion con­tributed to the over­all billed fig­ure of $436,081.78.