Chairman of the Couva Tabaquite Talparo Regional Corporation (CTTRC) Henry Awong is building a ‘Awong Dynasty’ within the corporation, giving jobs and lucrative contracts only to his family and close friends.
So claimed Independent Liberal Party’s (ILP) candidate for Couva North, Sunil Ramjitsingh, at the party’s meeting in La Rouche Trace, Tabaquite, on Thursday night. Ramjitsingh is also alleging that $200,000 in material from the corporation was missing.
“Checks in the corporation revealed there is an Awong Dynasty being built in the corporation, the number of Awongs working in the corporation,” Ramjitsingh said. “Mickela Awong, is a checker. I am told that is his daughter.
“They say she doesn’t want to work and if they tell her anything, she threatening them, she going and tell Daddy.”
He alleged that $200,000 in material had gone missing from the corporation.
He added: “There is one set of people that getting everything.
“There was one vacancy in the (corporation) office out the road and he hired Sharon Badal Ayue. She has a business, a mini-mart.
“He could have given it to someone who not is working.”
Ramjitsingh called out cheque numbers and details he said were written on behalf of the CTTRC to the minimart.
“The CTTRC give out hampers for Christmas and Divali, they chose who they giving the hampers to and who they taking it from.
“These are cheques written in CTTRC, on December 9, 2013, a cheque in favour of Henry Awong to Sharon’s Exclusive Mini Mart for the purchase of 25 hampers at a cost of $10,000.”
“Again on December 5, 2014, $10,000 to Sharon’s for 30 hampers in favour of Henry Awong. Another on the same day for entertainment for Tabaquite for Christmas for $15,000.”
He said those three cheques were just the beginning but he did not have time get all the cheques in order.
“We didn’t have time to pull all, but is one set of people getting everything. Sharon’s husband working in the corporation, she working in the corporation, they have a business and everything going to them,” he claimed.
Awong responds
Responding to Ramjitsingh’s claims that material was missing from the corporation’s stockpile, chairman Henry Awong labelled it ‘foolishness.’
“That is too much of foolishness, there was an issue between WASA and CTTRC where material was used from the CTTRC’s stockpile to fix some road that WASA ran lines on,” said Awong.
He said WASA had indicated to the CTTRC at the time that they did not have the material to repair the road right away and residents had begun to complain.
“Residents were complaining about dust and WASA indicated that they did not have material, so they used ours. The quantity has not been determined yet.”
Awong said the corporation’s chief executive officer has written a letter to WASA officials for reimbursement for the material and to find out how much material was taken.
Asked about Ramjitsingh’s allegations that his daughter was employed by the corporation and was receiving special treatment, Awong said: “I don’t even want to respond to that,. She is entitled as anyone else to a job within the CTTRC and I have no dealing with her work matters.”
Asked about allegations that a number of his family members were employed with the CTTRC, he said: “There other families that work with the CTTRC, if you check you will see all of them were working there long before I was ever chairman.”
“My position as chairman has no bearing on their employment.”
He said Ramjitsingh’s statement about the cheques paid to Sharon’s Exclusive Mini Mart were true.
“What is wrong with that? She is entitled as everyone else to get business from CTTRC. We always try to give business to people in the community.”