A detailed report regarding the Malcolm Jones matter has been requested by Joint Select Committee (JSC) members from the Petroleum Company of T&T (Petrotrin) as questions arose whether chairman Andrew Jupiter was a board member when the decision was taken to discontinue the case against Jones.
The question was asked by Senator Wade Mark from the committee, chaired by Independent Senator David Small.
Jones, the company former executive director, was accused of a breach of fiduciary duty and alleged mismanagement in 2013 for the construction of the GTL plant at Petrotrin’s Pointe-a-Pierre site, which was scheduled to be built at a cost of $2.7 billion to convert natural gas to diesel but instead cost an extra $1.12 billion in addition to the original estimate.
At yesterday’s JSC meeting Jupiter, who denied having any knowledge of this, said: " I was not present when the board took the decision, I recuse myself. I would like the entire public to know that.
"The decision of the World GTL started in January 2005 or around that time. I became a member of the board in June 2006. Other decisions took place after 2006 but the decision of World GTL was before I became a member of the board," Jupiter said.
Mark then asked whether it was a known practice for a board to "unilaterally take upon itself" to withdraw a matter before the court or whether there was any discussions between Petrotrin and the executive arm of the State.
Jupiter said since he was not part of the discussion he was unable to comment.
Mark asked who among the Petrotrin members could comment following which the company's general counsel Sharon Morris-Cummings said:
"The decision was taken by the board after it received legal advice. I would not say there is a practice of just discontinuing matters but the matter was handled by the AG's office and then new advice came to the attention of the board and the decision was made.
"The counsel comprised Vincent Nelson QC, Varun Debideen and Gerald Ramdeen who came off the record,” she said.
Mark also requested a detailed listing filed before the Equal Opportunity Commission by employees of Petrotrin.
The committee also heard of several worrying challenges facing the State entity, including aging infrastructure, asset integrity which posed risks to the environment and human health and safety and inadequate succession planning.
"Our current reality is we lack the required number and quality in most of the key competencies necessary for our continued survival and sustainability.
“These include geological, geophysical and petroleum engineering, process engineering, reliability engineering, project management and finance," Jupiter said.
In addition Petrotrin racked up an annual wage bill of $1.8 billion for just over 5,000 employees, including 3,962 permanent workers and 114 contact workers.
Neil Derrick, acting vice-president human resources, said there was a "sweep" of employees who left to work at similar companies.
Asked if the company had worked out a plan to deal with project management, Petrotrin's president Fitzroy Harewood said the company needed to strengthen its project management team, adding that close to 900 workers were expected to leave within the next five years due to attrition.
We have a standard recruitment audit to see where there are gaps and this has not been completed. The audit was not initiated with the intention of getting rid of anybody," Derrick said.
On an average between 14 to 25 per cent of graduates were retained by the company, the committee heard.
On claims that only a specific group of contractors are employed by the company Harewood said there was a "wide base of vendors" adding that work was done via competitive tendering.
"Once we have accomplished that we basically have a pool of people who we use from time to time," Harewood added.
Regarding the current pricing structure for the sale of refined products within Caricom counties which were reported to be too highly priced Harewood said the pricing market has been traditionally competitive.
Given the current economic challenge, he said, Petrotrin had been focusing more on its short-term financing rather than longer or medium-term arrangements.
Small said from Petrotrin's report submitted to the committee it was disturbing to see the company's operational cost as opposed to its revenue over the past five years showed a steady increase.
"If this trend continues the company will find itself in dire straits. There is deep underlying cost issues which the company has not found a way to fix," Small added.
Millions lost
Some TT$3.19 billion has been spent on an ultra low sulphur diesel plant which has been 98 per cent complete but due to serious structural flaws, including bent beams, this project was yet to get off the ground.
The committee heard the plant had been some seven years behind completion.
Jonathan Barden, the company’s vice-president of refining, said the project started in 2009 with an anticipated completion date of 2012. The contractor was Samsung Engineering which was awarded a US$220 million contract,
However, there was an extensive delay by labour matters which pushed the completion date to 2013.
Barden said when the plant was 98 per cent complete, during a 2013 routine pre-commissioning activity one of the beams was discovered bent. Other similar beams were also discovered, including some 200 which are under strength.
The contractor was terminated and the matter is before the court.
But MP Fazal Karim said Petrotrin was also to be blamed due to it poor selection.
While the plant is expected to be opened by next year, the committee heard there was no guarantee of that.
Millions lost
Some TT$3.19 billion has been spent on an ultra low sulphur diesel plant which has been 98 per cent complete but due to serious structural flaws, including bent beams, this project was yet to get off the ground.
The committee heard the plant had been some seven years behind completion.
Jonathan Barden, the company’s vice-president of refining, said the project started in 2009 with an anticipated completion date of 2012. The contractor was Samsung Engineering which was awarded a US$220 million contract,
However, there was an extensive delay by labour matters which pushed the completion date to 2013.
Barden said when the plant was 98 per cent complete, during a 2013 routine pre-commissioning activity one of the beams was discovered bent. Other similar beams were also discovered, including some 200 which are under strength.
The contractor was terminated and the matter is before the court.
But MP Fazal Karim said Petrotrin was also to be blamed due to it poor selection.
While the plant is expected to be opened by next year, the committee heard there was no guarantee of that.