Persad-Bissessar: CAL in the red

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says Caribbean Air­lines (CAL) is in the red and the pre­vi­ous board had been ly­ing to the coun­try about its eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion.

She made the com­ment dur­ing yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing, where she an­nounced new boards had been ap­point­ed at CAL and the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA).

“They were in a lot of prob­lems. Caribbean Air­lines took a loan for $260 mil­lion, a loan that has been rolled over year af­ter year af­ter year. To­day, we had to agree to roll over this loan. Not a cent has been paid on this loan,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

“Caribbean Air­lines is in the red but every time they speak they’re talk­ing about the great gains they’re mak­ing, the prof­it they’re mak­ing; none of that is true. These boards have to go.”

She men­tioned uni­form pro­cure­ment as one of sev­er­al is­sues raised and ac­cused un­named peo­ple of “jumbieing” the Gov­ern­ment.

“They say if we don’t pay mil­lions, the air­line will col­lapse,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced that at­tor­ney Rey­na Kow­lessar, cur­rent­ly the com­pa­ny sec­re­tary at the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Prop­er­ty De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (NIPDEC), was the new CAL chair. Videsh Praim, Dar­ren Ali, Lau­ren Perth and re­tired lec­tur­er Sel­wyn Cud­joe were the oth­er board mem­bers.

She al­so in­sist­ed that all mem­bers of An­gos­tu­ra’s board had to re­sign be­cause they were “po­lit­i­cal ap­pointees.” She said Gov­ern­ment would fol­low the law in the ap­point­ment of all boards.

The Prime Min­is­ter dou­bled down on her de­ci­sion to re­place the An­gos­tu­ra board, whose en­tire mem­ber­ship re­signed ear­li­er this week.

“Every one of those per­sons are po­lit­i­cal ap­pointees,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

“They did not ap­ply; they were ap­point­ed by the po­lit­i­cal di­rec­torate. When that di­rec­torate changes, they change.”

She dis­missed con­cerns that the res­ig­na­tions could trig­ger manda­to­ry re­port­ing to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Se­cu­ri­ties and Ex­change Com­mis­sion (TTSEC), de­spite An­gos­tu­ra not be­ing ma­jor­i­ty-owned by the State.

“If they don’t re­port to­day, what hap­pens? What would pre­vent them from re­port­ing to­mor­row? We will put the boards in place. We will fix it. We will fix it.”

But the way the res­ig­na­tions un­fold­ed has al­so drawn scruti­ny. On so­cial me­dia, re­ports cir­cu­lat­ed about doxxing and cy­ber­bul­ly­ing.

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing, Anil Roberts, ac­cused the board on­line of try­ing to “hold on with toe­nails and fin­ger­nails.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar has re­peat­ed­ly said she tells her Cab­i­net min­is­ters to “stay in their lane or stay in their sec­tion.”

When it was point­ed out that An­gos­tu­ra does not fall un­der the Min­istry of Hous­ing, where Roberts is as­signed, she was asked whether she ap­proved of his con­duct.

“If I say yes, if I say no, I’m in a trap there,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

“From time to time, we have to call them in and say, rein in and stay in your sec­tion. It hap­pens.”

She did not say whether Roberts had been or would be rep­ri­mand­ed.

Mean­while, ques­tions have arisen about one of the WASA board mem­bers - Tawari To­ta-Ma­haraj.

Ac­cord­ing to his LinkedIn pro­file, To­ta-Ma­haraj is cur­rent­ly a chief en­gi­neer at the De­sali­na­tion Com­pa­ny of T&T (De­sal­cott). His ap­point­ment has raised con­flict of in­ter­est con­cerns, since De­sal­cott is a con­trac­tor and sup­pli­er to WASA.

When asked about this yes­ter­day, Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Bar­ry Padarath said: “I’m ad­vised that the per­son is an ex-em­ploy­ee of De­sal­cott, so un­less we can sub­stan­ti­ate oth­er­wise, then we’ll take steps to deal with that.”