Closed companies cost State $60M in Budget 2027

In the past 25 years, dif­fer­ent ad­min­is­tra­tions in Gov­ern­ment have set up spe­cial pur­pose com­pa­nies- ac­cord­ing to their state­ments- to shut­ter debt, to fa­cil­i­tate and fast-track in­vest­ment or to cre­ate ve­hi­cles for de­liv­ery dur­ing their tenure.

But sev­er­al have been closed, and some sad­dled with bil­lions in debt be­cause of cor­rup­tion and mis­man­age­ment, in ad­di­tion to as­so­ci­at­ed costs of au­dits, le­gal fees and liq­ui­da­tion.

Tax­pay­ers have borne the cost and debt of these ven­tures and the state still pays loans tied to some.

Af­ter decades of be­ing on the bud­get books, some still re­quire state funds for lega­cy is­sues.

Asha Javeed

Con­tribut­ing Writer

[email protected]

For fis­cal 2027, Ca­roni (1975) Lim­it­ed was al­lo­cat­ed a lit­tle over $14 mil­lion for set­tle­ment of claims and sums to its pen­sion plans.

In fis­cal 2026, that al­lo­ca­tion was $2.2 mil­lion.

Yet, the com­pa­ny has been closed for the past 23 years. And ac­cord­ing to the State En­ter­prise In­vest­ment Pro­gramme 2027 doc­u­ment, it’s un­der­go­ing pre-liq­ui­da­tion ac­tiv­i­ties.

In 2019, for­mer Ca­roni (1975) chair­man Jer­ry Hospedales had said that since the state-owned com­pa­ny closed down in 2003, the gov­ern­ment has spent $10 bil­lion in “wrap­ping” it up.

Hospedales had said that a large chunk of this mon­ey was spent on pen­sions, train­ing cours­es, mon­e­tary ben­e­fits and res­i­den­tial and agri­cul­tur­al lands for for­mer em­ploy­ees. Its suc­ces­sor, the Sug­ar Man­u­fac­tur­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed, has been al­lo­cat­ed $3,816,400 for fis­cal 2027.

So why is it tak­ing the State more than 23 years to wind up the com­pa­ny and set­tle out­stand­ing land is­sues with for­mer work­ers?

Ca­roni is not an iso­lat­ed case.

The sum of $450,000 was al­lo­cat­ed to British West In­dies Air­ways (BWIA) for fis­cal 2027.

BWIA was shut down in 2016 and CAL was cre­at­ed and be­gan op­er­a­tions in 2017. This sum for BWIA is sep­a­rate from sums al­lo­cat­ed to its suc­ces­sor, Caribbean Air­lines (CAL), to main­tain for fis­cal 2027.

CAL is ex­pect­ed to re­ceive a sub­ven­tion of $75,618,581 from the Min­istry of Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion for the fis­cal year, and around $236 mil­lion to cov­er two loan pay­ments- $165.5 mil­lion as a prin­ci­pal re­pay­ment and $72 mil­lion as an in­ter­est pay­ment.

State en­ter­pris­es were closed for in­ef­fi­cien­cies, with the com­mon theme among them that, in­stead of gen­er­at­ing prof­its and con­tribut­ing to the coun­try’s cof­fers with tax­es, they were a drain on the Trea­sury.

In 2024, two years af­ter it was es­tab­lished, the Dr Kei­th Row­ley ad­min­is­tra­tion took the de­ci­sion to shut down the Sec­ondary Roads Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and Im­prove­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (SR­RIC). The gov­ern­ment fired the ex­ist­ing board and ap­point­ed pub­lic ser­vants from the Min­istry of Fi­nance.

SR­RIC, es­tab­lished in June 2022 with a $100 mil­lion cap­i­tal­i­sa­tion, was first placed un­der the Min­istry of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment and then moved to the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port (MOWT) and fi­nal­ly un­der the Min­istry of Fi­nance for wind­ing up.

Its clo­sure fol­lowed the res­ig­na­tion of for­mer chair­man Her­bert George, two au­dits be­ing con­duct­ed in­to the com­pa­ny amid ten­sions be­tween its chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer An­to­nio Ross and MOWT and a com­plaint lodged to the Of­fice of the Pro­cure­ment Reg­u­la­tor (OPR) on al­le­ga­tions of col­lu­sion, price-fix­ing and bid-rig­ging.

There was lit­tle pub­lic ac­count­abil­i­ty for the sum spent apart from a hear­ing by Par­lia­ment’s Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC), chaired by for­mer Speak­er of the House Bridgid An­nisette-George.

In the case of Petrotrin, the Gov­ern­ment fol­lowed the route it had tak­en with BWIA, to close it down and re-op­er­a­tionalise it in­to three com­pa­nies with new bal­ance sheets.

It cost just un­der $2 bil­lion to close its re­fin­ery. The bulk of that sum, es­ti­mat­ed at over $1.8 bil­lion, went to sev­er­ance pack­ages for its 2,500 per­ma­nent em­ploy­ees. That cost ex­clud­ed the $12 bil­lion bond pay­ment guar­an­teed by the Gov­ern­ment and $3 bil­lion in tax­es and roy­al­ties owed to the state over the years. The Gov­ern­ment still has to ser­vice the bond pay­ments.

For fis­cal 2027, the Gov­ern­ment has al­lo­cat­ed $7 mil­lion for CEPEP.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty (TTRA) was scrapped by the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Gov­ern­ment last year af­ter more than $10 mil­lion was spent to op­er­a­tionalise it. The top man­age­ment posts were al­so filled. The TTRA nev­er start­ed op­er­a­tions. The for­mer ad­min­is­tra­tion said it had spent close to a decade of tech­ni­cal work and stake­hold­er con­sul­ta­tions be­fore the pas­sage of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty Act in 2021.

In the past 25 years, sev­er­al state en­ter­pris­es have been closed down- Ca­roni Green, Gov­ern­ment In­for­ma­tion Ser­vices (GISL), the Ed­u­ca­tion Fa­cil­i­ties Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (EF­CL) and in 2024, the Sec­ondary Roads Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and Im­prove­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (SR­RIC) while oth­ers such as SportTT and the Es­tate Man­age­ment Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (EM­BD) haem­or­rhaged mil­lions in bad in­vest­ments.

The State En­ter­prise In­vest­ment Pro­gramme 2027 iden­ti­fied 20 com­pa­nies in dif­fer­ent states of dis­so­lu­tion, with four be­ing dis­solved.

And ac­cord­ing to the Draft Es­ti­mates of Re­cur­rent Ex­pen­di­ture for fis­cal 2027, sums have been ear­marked for state en­ti­ties that have been wind­ing down for years:

For fis­cal 2027, the Gov­ern­ment will spend about $60 mil­lion on state en­ter­pris­es which have al­ready been closed:

1. Alutrint, which is un­der­go­ing pre-liq­ui­da­tion ac­tiv­i­ties, has been al­lo­cat­ed a sum of $20,950,000.

2. The Trinidad and To­ba­go Oil Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (a lega­cy com­pa­ny) has al­so been al­lo­cat­ed $450,000.

3. The Tourism and In­dus­tri­al De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (TID­CO), which was closed in 2005, was al­lo­cat­ed a sum of $200,000.

4. The sum of $400,000 has been al­lo­cat­ed to the Com­mu­ni­ty Im­prove­ment Ser­vices Lim­it­ed (CISL). The State com­pa­ny was closed in 2017. In fis­cal 2025, it was al­so al­lo­cat­ed $34.4 mil­lion.

5. The Gov­ern­ment In­for­ma­tion Ser­vices Lim­it­ed (GISL), which was closed in 2017, has been al­lo­cat­ed the sum of $1.5 mil­lion in fis­cal 2027 af­ter re­ceiv­ing no trans­fer or al­lo­ca­tion in fis­cal 2025.

In ad­di­tion to mak­ing trans­fers to for­mer state en­ter­pris­es to meet lega­cy is­sues, the Gov­ern­ment has al­so been ser­vic­ing debt for loans that en­ti­ties would have tak­en out dur­ing their op­er­a­tions.

The Gold­en Grove- Buc­coo Lim­it­ed, which was set up to fa­cil­i­tate the San­dals re­sort in To­ba­go but has re­mained fair­ly in­ac­tive, was al­lo­cat­ed $1.2 mil­lion.

Sev­er­al en­ti­ties es­tab­lished, such as the Trinidad and To­ba­go Up­stream Down­stream En­er­gy Op­er­a­tions Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed, in the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries are still op­er­a­tional on pa­per be­cause of on­go­ing lit­i­ga­tion with Ni­Quan.

Last week, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced her Gov­ern­ment’s plan to di­vest Na­tion­al Quar­ries Lim­it­ed, the Hilton Trinidad Lim­it­ed, the Mag­dale­na Grand Beach in To­ba­go, Lake As­phalt and the La Brea In­dus­tri­al De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (Labid­co).

In the face of crit­i­cism, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said that pub­lic funds should be di­rect­ed to­wards im­prov­ing cit­i­zens’ lives rather than sus­tain­ing busi­ness­es that con­sis­tent­ly in­cur loss­es.

Dis­so­lu­tion of Com­pa­nies

The fol­low­ing com­pa­nies have ceased op­er­a­tions and are at var­i­ous stages of be­ing wound up:

1. Alutrint Lim­it­ed (ma­jor­i­ty-owned joint ven­ture) – un­der­go­ing pre-liq­ui­da­tion ac­tiv­i­ties;

2. Ca­roni (1975) Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – un­der­go­ing pre-liq­ui­da­tion ac­tiv­i­ties;

3. Ca­roni GREEN Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – a liq­uida­tor was ap­point­ed;

4. Com­mu­ni­ty Im­prove­ment Ser­vices Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – a liq­uida­tor was ap­point­ed;

5. Cli­co Trust Cor­po­ra­tion Lim­it­ed (Cli­co In­vest­ment Fund) (whol­ly owned) – un­der­go­ing pre-liq­ui­da­tion ac­tiv­i­ties;

6. Ed­u­ca­tion Fa­cil­i­ties Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – The Chief State So­lic­i­tor was ap­point­ed Of­fi­cial Re­ceiv­er by the High Court;

7. Gov­ern­ment Hu­man Re­source Ser­vices Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – a new liq­uida­tor is to be ap­point­ed;

8. Gov­ern­ment In­for­ma­tion Ser­vices Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – un­der­go­ing pre-liq­ui­da­tion ac­tiv­i­ties;

9. Port­fo­lio Man­age­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – a liq­uida­tor was ap­point­ed;

10. Sec­ondary Road Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and Im­prove­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – a liq­uida­tor was ap­point­ed;

11. Sug­ar Man­u­fac­tur­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – un­der­go­ing pre-liq­ui­da­tion ac­tiv­i­ties;

12. Tau­rus Ser­vices Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – un­der­go­ing pre-liq­ui­da­tion ac­tiv­i­ties;

13. The CEPEP Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed – pre-liq­ui­da­tion ac­tiv­i­ties to com­mence;

14. Tourism De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – a liq­uida­tor was ap­point­ed;

15. Tourism and In­dus­tri­al De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – un­der­go­ing pre-liq­ui­da­tion ac­tiv­i­ties;

16. Trinidad and To­ba­go Free Zones Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – un­der­go­ing pre-liq­ui­da­tion ac­tiv­i­ties;

17. Trinidad and To­ba­go Oil Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – un­der­go­ing pre-liq­ui­da­tion ac­tiv­i­ties;

18. Trinidad and To­ba­go Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – un­der­go­ing pre-liq­ui­da­tion ac­tiv­i­ties;

19. Trinidad and To­ba­go Tourism Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – un­der­go­ing pre-liq­ui­da­tion ac­tiv­i­ties; and

20. Union Es­tate Elec­tric­i­ty Gen­er­a­tion Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (whol­ly owned) – a liq­uida­tor was ap­point­ed.

The Liq­ui­da­tion of the fol­low­ing non-op­er­a­tional State En­ter­pris­es was com­plet­ed and the Min­istry of Fi­nance is await­ing Dis­so­lu­tion Cer­tifi­cates from the Com­pa­nies Reg­istry:

1. Seafood In­dus­try De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed;

2. Trinidad and To­ba­go Ex­port Trad­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed;

3. Trinidad and To­ba­go For­est Prod­ucts Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed; and

4. Hu­man Cap­i­tal De­vel­op­ment Fa­cil­i­ta­tion Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed.