Rowley posts electricity bill; denies T&TEC list

For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has post­ed what he said was his lat­est elec­tric­i­ty bill as he con­tin­ued to re­ject claims that he ben­e­fit­ed from spe­cial treat­ment at the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC).

In a Face­book post to­day, Row­ley shared a copy of the bill and point­ed to what he said was ev­i­dence that his ac­count was up to date.

“For the ben­e­fit of those who have been mis­led by your leader, I hope you can read what I said and al­so de­ci­pher the TTEC bill with par­tic­u­lar ref­er­ence to Pay­ment of April 15 and Net Ar­rears of 0.00,” Row­ley wrote.

He al­so re­it­er­at­ed his de­nial of any knowl­edge of a list al­leged­ly used to shield cer­tain cus­tomers from dis­con­nec­tion.

“I re­peat: I am UN­AWARE of any list. For those who take that as proof then please ac­cept my sym­pa­thy.”

The post fol­lowed al­le­ga­tions made by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar dur­ing her con­tri­bu­tion to the Mid-Year Bud­get Re­view in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day.

Dur­ing her pre­sen­ta­tion, Per­sad-Bisses­sar named sev­er­al peo­ple and en­ti­ties she claimed were linked to the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), in­clud­ing Row­ley and his wife, Sharon Row­ley. She al­leged they were on a list of cus­tomers whom T&TEC could not dis­con­nect, even if they were in de­fault of bill pay­ments.

Hours lat­er, Row­ley re­spond­ed on so­cial me­dia, say­ing he was un­aware of any such list and in­sist­ing that both he and his wife paid their elec­tric­i­ty bills when due.

“I am un­aware of be­ing on any list at TTEC. I pay all my elec­tric­i­ty bills as and when they be­come due at prop­er­ties in Trinidad and To­ba­go. That holds good for my wife as well,” Row­ley wrote.

He added: “I have nev­er re­quest­ed nor was of­fered any pro­tec­tion from TTEC billing op­er­a­tions.”

Row­ley al­so crit­i­cised the Prime Min­is­ter over the al­le­ga­tions.

“For all those who think we have a Prime Min­is­ter look­ing af­ter the se­ri­ous busi­ness of man­ag­ing the coun­try’s af­fairs, I have al­ready ad­vised you that what we have is a hate­ful, dic­ta­to­r­i­al jam­mette who wish­es to be feared like her men­tor,” he wrote.