“Grasping at straws.”
This is how Energy Minister Franklin Khan described allegations made by the Opposition Leader that his wife’s company was the recipient of $55 million in contracts from the Housing Development Corporation (HDC).
UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar made the allegations while speaking at the party’s local government meeting at the Kanhai South Presbyterian School on Friday night.
This latest allegation comes four days after she made claims at another meeting that the wife of Finance Minister Colm Imbert was the recipient of a millions in contract from HDC.
Referencing Gregory Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Kamla Persad-Bissessar said ministers are hiding behind their wives to collect money from the Government.
“Chaucer wrote ‘Wives Tale’ and in Trinidad we have the club of wives,” she said. “I spoke on Monday about the wife of the Finance Minister receiving contracts from HDC, tonight I’m going to tell you about another wife receiving contracts. It leads you to ask are the ministers hiding behind their wives?
“So you have the wife of a government minister receiving $13 million and now I will tell you about another company, the wife of another government minister is a shareholder—shareholder Laura Khan and Vidara Enterprise Ltd, shareholder and director.”
Persad-Bissessar said she has documents to support her statements and was willing to give a copy to anyone who wanted to examine it.
The T&T Guardian requested a copy and Persad-Bissessar’s assistant said the document would be sent to media houses via email. However, up until 3 pm yesterday, no email was sent to this reporter.
Persad-Bissessar also said two other relatives of newly appointed Minister of Energy Franklin Khan are shareholders in the company.
“There are two other shareholders with the same surname Khan and I hope this present Minister of Energy will not disown his children like Faris (Al-Rawi ) did.”
Persad-Bissessar said the monies were paid for remedial works to areas where Vidara had constructed houses.
“So they paid Vidara Enterprises Ltd to repair the same things they had built!”
Khan: My wife has been receiving contracts from HDC since 2002
In a telephone interview yesterday, Khan said it was true that his wife’s company had been receiving contracts from the HDC.
“My wife does own a company by the name of Vidara Enterprises Ltd and since 2005 she has been receiving contracts from the HDC,” Khan said. “But she has not been the recipient of contracts from the HDC in quite some time. She (Persad-Bissessar) is grasping at straws here.”
Asked when was the last time his wife was contracted by the HDC, Khan replied, “I believe it was in 2011 that my wife last did any work for the HDC.”
Asked to comment on Persad-Bissessar’s statement that ministers are hiding behind their wives, he said, “I won’t comment on that...but I can tell you I don’t hide behind my wife. My wife is a legitimate businesswoman in her own right.”
Also speaking at the meeting, Naparima MP Rodney Charles launched an attack on Finance Minister Colm Imbert, calling for his resignation. Charles said Imbert’s apology for statements made about citizens failing to riot in the face of rising prices is not sincere.
He said he would accept nothing less than Imbert’s resignation.
Men in PNM T-shirts make a cook nearby
Whilst Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar was addressing UNC supporters at the Kanhai South Presbyterian School on Friday night, a group of men wearing PNM T-shirts gathered a short distance away, cooking and liming.
The group of about 20 men gathered in a bus shed on the corner of Kanhai South Road, Barrackpore, under the watchful eyes of police officers.
When a T&T Guardian photographer stopped to take pictures of them, he was approached and told by one man that the gathering was because Barrackpore has ‘gone red.’
The man said the group was made up of people who did not support Persad-Bissessar and who felt she should not be speaking in the area.