T&TEC appoints two new managers same day as executive dismissals

JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

[email protected]

The day two man­agers at the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) were dis­missed, the util­i­ty com­pa­ny an­nounced the ap­point­ment of two new man­agers.

In an in­ter­nal memo dat­ed June 30, T&TEC an­nounced the ex­ec­u­tive ap­point­ments.

Aniel Jairam, an in­ter­nal au­dit man­ag­er, as­sumed his po­si­tion the fol­low­ing day, while Bis­nath Ma­haraj, the head of se­cu­ri­ty, will take up his post on Au­gust 1.

Ac­cord­ing to the memo, Jairam is an in­ter­nal au­dit pro­fes­sion­al with more than 17 years of pro­gres­sive ex­pe­ri­ence across both the pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tors.

"He be­gan his ca­reer at PWC Trinidad and To­ba­go and has held se­nior in­ter­nal au­dit roles across di­verse in­dus­tries, in­clud­ing man­u­fac­tur­ing, health­care ser­vices, fi­nan­cial ser­vices, in­for­ma­tion and telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions, util­i­ties, and hous­ing."

The memo stat­ed that Ma­haraj be­gan his ca­reer in polic­ing and has more than 35 years of ex­pe­ri­ence across law en­force­ment, ex­ec­u­tive lead­er­ship, se­cu­ri­ty man­age­ment and the le­gal pro­fes­sion.

The memo, signed by Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Ian Ram­rat­tan, con­grat­u­lat­ed the men on their ap­point­ments and wished them every suc­cess in their new roles.

"Em­ploy­ees are en­cour­aged to ex­tend their full sup­port and co­op­er­a­tion as they as­sume their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties," he stat­ed in the memo.

The ap­point­ments came on the same day that at least two se­nior man­agers were dis­missed with im­me­di­ate ef­fect. A ter­mi­na­tion let­ter post­ed on so­cial me­dia by for­mer pub­lic util­i­ties min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les showed that one of the af­fect­ed em­ploy­ees had more than 23 years of ser­vice with the com­mis­sion.

The June 30 let­ter stat­ed that the em­ploy­ee's dis­missal was made pur­suant to Clause 2 of the Terms and Con­di­tions of Ex­ec­u­tive Staff and pro­vid­ed for two months' salary, pay­ment for ac­crued but un­used an­nu­al leave, and pen­sion and em­ploy­ee sav­ings plan ben­e­fits in ac­cor­dance with the ap­plic­a­ble rules.

The let­ter, signed by T&TEC chair­man Anil Ka­mal and copied to Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Ram­rat­tan, thanked the em­ploy­ee for their "more than twen­ty-three (23) years of ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice and con­tri­bu­tion" and wished them suc­cess in the fu­ture.

In a so­cial me­dia post, Gon­za­les con­demned the dis­missal, de­scrib­ing it as a "vi­cious dis­crim­i­na­to­ry po­lit­i­cal at­tack."

"It is al­so very cu­ri­ous that the Chair­man of the Board (Anil Ka­mal), who is a po­lit­i­cal ap­pointee of this UNC Gov­ern­ment, signed the let­ters of ter­mi­na­tion and copied same to the Gen­er­al Man­ag­er. This is a fla­grant breach of sound cor­po­rate gov­er­nance and re­quires im­me­di­ate and ur­gent in­ves­ti­ga­tions. The UNC has now em­barked up­on a full-blown politi­ci­sa­tion of T&TEC and they will de­stroy this es­teemed util­i­ty Com­mis­sion in the same way they have de­stroyed WASA in 3 months."

He called on Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Bar­ry Padarath and Ka­mal to ex­plain "this nasty and vi­cious po­lit­i­cal at­tack against the ex­ec­u­tive man­age­ment of T&TEC."

He added that the unions rep­re­sent­ing T&TEC work­ers and man­agers "can­not re­main silent even if they feel com­pro­mised and com­plic­it in the cir­cum­stances."

Guardian Me­dia re­port­ed on the dis­missals yes­ter­day and, when con­tact­ed, the Oil­field Work­ers' Trade Union said it had not been ful­ly briefed on the mat­ter and could not com­ment.

Padarath and his co-min­is­ter, Clyde El­der, were sent Gon­za­les' Face­book post for com­ment. Guardian Me­dia is await­ing a re­sponse.