Rosemarie Sant
GML ENTERPRISE DESK
“I did absolutely nothing wrong. It was in the best interest of the company, Petrotrin, and the country. But if I had to, I would do it all over again.”
These are the words of former Petrotrin chairman Malcom Jones as he responded briefly to the state’s decision to drop a US$109 million case against him. The legal action was initiated by former attorney general Anand Ramlogan in 2013. The then People’s Partnership government accused Jones of breach of his fiduciary duty and alleged mismanagement in the construction of the World Gas to Liquid Plant (WGTL) at Petrotrin’s Pointe-a-Pierre site.
The decision to drop the case means that the State has to pay Jones’ legal costs amounting to $3.1 million dollars.
Jones did not comment extensively on the allegations made against him, only telling the GML Enterprise Desk, “There was a rationale for the plant. Nobody wanted to know, nobody asked a question.” He said he had been in the business 45 years and knew what was needed. “There was a need for it,” he insisted. Asked about that need, he said. “I will not get into that. At some time in the future I will talk. I know why it was done. When people passing their remarks nobody saw it fit to ask me anything.” Jones stressed it was not a business decision. He described the headline in a daily newspaper “Mercy for Jones” as “demeaning.” He said, “It should never have occurred, so there is no mercy.” Asked whether he was politically victimised, Jones said, “I don’t want to go there, whether I was politically victimised, I am not a politician.”
Jones said, “My job was to do what I had to do. I thought I did a fair amount to the best of my ability.” Jones was appointed in October last year to the government’s Energy Steering Committee.
On Monday, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said the case against Jones for breach of fiduciary duty, arising out of the failed GTL project, which had been brought under the People’s Partnership government, had collapsed before it had been heard in court.
The State withdrew the US$109 million lawsuit against Jones.
The legal fees in the GTL/ Jones matter amounted to around $45 million. Al-Rawi has made it clear that there was no political favouritism behind the decision to drop the lawsuit against Jones.
The United National Congress has expressed concern about the decision to discontinue the case, saying it was filed after extensive forensic investigations and called on Al-Rawi to make a “full and frank disclosure of the government’s true intention about the future conduct of these cases so that the public can judge whether there was more in the mortar than just the pestle.”
In 2013, former attorney general Anand Ramlogan brought the suit against Jones. Last October, the People’s National Movement-led government appointed Jones as part of a Cabinet-appointed standing committee on energy.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
In September 2005, Petrotrin entered into a project agreement with World GTL (WGTL) to build and operate a gas-to-liquid plant on Petrotrin’s refinery compound at Pointe-a-Pierre. WGTL Trinidad was incorporated as the project company which entered into a credit agreement with Credit Suisse for a loan.
Petrotrin was claiming that there was a breach of fiduciary duty in the management of the construction of the GTL plant at Pointe-a-Pierre, which was contracted to be built at a cost of $2.7 billion to convert natural gas into a more ozone-friendly liquified form of diesel.
United States-based World GTL Inc was contracted to equip the plant with the necessary technology and make it operational. Though completed, the plant remained non-functional due to the lack of the appropriate technology and it has since been deemed scrap iron. Petrotrin initiated arbitration proceedings against the company which it eventually won.
The lawsuit against Jones alleged mismanagement by the payment of US$190.4 million (TT$1.12 billion) towards construction of the plant, in excess of the cost of its construction. It claimed that despite concerns raised in some quarters Petrotrin went ahead with the project.