Former education minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh has described Monday’s firing of five Education Facilities Company Ltd (EFCL) as a “witch-hunt, political viciousness and outright victimisation.”
He was responding to the axing of managers Veda Ramnath, Ria Narinesingh, Frank Mahabir, Surendra Balgobin and Deva Sharma by the EFCL board, led by chairman Arnold Piggott.
The managers were terminated following the completion of two forensic audits into the EFCL’s operations which showed there were irregularities.
The terminations came seven months after a secret “contract millhouse” was discovered at the EFCL’s head office in Maraval, which resulted in armed guards being called in to secure a mountain of potentially-damning evidence which pointed to the illegal manufacturing of backdated tender documents worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Yesterday, in defending the five, Gopeesingh insisted that was another prevailing instance of “political viciousness and outright victimisation” at the hands of the ruling People’s National Movement Government against those who worked under the People’s Partnership adminstration.
“Where is Dr Rowley when he said he was going to govern T&T for all the people? This is in direct contrast to his words so it is not surprising they would have been dismissed.
“All that is a lot of hogwash. They are trying to find something where there is nothing to find,” he added.
Gopeesingh said the manner in which the five managers, including EFCL’s CEO Sharma Maharaj and chief operations officer Kiran Shah, who were unceremoniously fired in February, the “EFCL may have to pay millions of dollars for wrongful dismissal.”
He also denied knowledge of a “contract millhouse.”
“There was no ‘contract millhouse’ that I know of. There will always be people who would try to make mischief. They are grasping at straws now.”
Having worked with the seven managers, Gopeesingh said they all operated in accordance with the EFCL’s board.
“All the managers reported directly to the board while the board reported to the ministry’s permanent secretary.”
Gopeesingh said he was not involved in the day-to-day affairs of the EFCL.
“There is nothing untoward as far as I am concerned that occurred under my watch and whoever is setting up that mischief is deliberate in its attempt.
“They are on a witch-hunt.”
Gopeesingh said of the 60 ECC centres constructed under the PP, 53 were governed under the guidelines of the Inter-American Development Bank.
He said 38 contractors were involved in the construction of the Early Childhood Care and Education Centres while 28 contractors were responsible for building 40 primary schools.
“Some of those contractors lost monies on the job because they built schools for $700 a square foot, when it was priced between $1,500 to $2,000 a square foot in other areas.”
Questioned if $90 million allocated by the State to pay contractors was instead used by EFCL to pay favoured contractored, Gopeesingh said that was a matter for the board since everything had to go through rigorous checks and balances by the ministry before the Minister of Finance signed off.
Pressed further about the audit which discovered that a cache of almost $35 million in prepared and signed cheques which were withheld from the contractor, Gopeesingh said he knew nothing about that.
Gopeesingh said the PNM was focused on cutting jobs and undertaking forensic audits rather than dealing with issues affecting citizens.