The State has been ordered to pay former Petrotrin executive president Malcolm Jones almost $2.2 million for his legal costs in defending a lawsuit over a failed gas to liquid plant constructed during his tenure.
High Court Judge Ricky Rahim ordered the costs during a hearing in the Port-of-Spain High Court yesterday, almost one week after the company decided to withdraw its case against Jones.
The T&T Guardian understands Jones’ legal team was initially seeking more than $3 million in legal costs but agreed to accept 75 per cent of the claimed sum.
Efforts to reach Jones yesterday for a comment on the judgment were unsuccessful as calls to his cellphone went straight to voice mail.
Speaking at a news conference last week, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi claimed that his office and the company were forced to take the decision after their legal team was advised that Jones had a good chance of defending the lawsuit, which was filed under the tenure of Al-Rawi’s predecessor Anand Ramlogan and was set to go to trial.
Al-Rawi explained that the State’s legal team, led by Queen’s Counsel Vincent Nelson, gave the advice after Jones’ attorneys made an application for disclosure of documents related to Petrotrin’s arbitration with World GTL Inc, the company it had contracted for the plant.
“I understand the witnesses were very convincing at the arbitration proceedings and there is no reason why in the circumstances there is a reasonable likelihood that a judge would be persuaded that this was a bad business decision but not negligence,” Nelson said in written advice sent to Petrotrin and the Office of the AG in October last year that was quoted directly by Al-Rawi.
He noted that Nelson had not seen the evidence when he advised that there was a prima facie case against Jones in 2011 and was only made aware of it when Jones’ attorneys filed their application last year.
In 2013, the Office of the Attorney General filed a $2 billion lawsuit arising out of a forensic report into the construction of the failed Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) plant at State-owned Petrotrin’s operations in Pointe-a-Pierre.
The plant was one of many mega projects undertaken by the previous People’s National Movement (PNM) government.
Petrotrin was claiming there was a breach of fiduciary duty in the management of the construction of the GTL plant at Pointe-a-Pierre, which had been 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 had been contracted to equip the plant with the necessary technology and make it operational.
Although eventually completed, the plant remained non-functional due to the lack of 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.
In October last year, with the trial of the case still pending, Cabinet appointed Jones as a member of its Standing Committee on Energy.
Jones’ legal team was led by John Jeremie, SC. Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General Stuart Young was on Jones’ legal team before assuming office. The State was also represented by Gerald Ramdeen and Varun Debideen.