Although it was Sports Minister Darryl Smith who prompted the forensic audit into the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SporTT), when he returns home from China he himself will face some questioning of his own.
Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi says Smith will be asked to provide an explanation on allegations, which are now in the public domain, about a monetary donation allegedly made by the Shanghai Construction Group to a foundation in his name.
The allegation was made on the CNC3 Morning Brew yesterday by Dane Wilson, who was identified as a People’s National Movement (PNM) activist.
Asked whether he was concerned about the issue, Al-Rawi said he was “not aware of the information, but from what was reported it seems to me these are separate issues (from the forensic audit) and when Minister Smith returns no doubt a proper explanation will be required to be given and we await that.”
It was Smith, according to Al-Rawi, who on the basis of information prompted the forensic audit at the Sports Company.
“This form of intervention originated with the Minister of Sport,” he said.
“The Minister of Sport, in conjunction with the Office of the AG and certain aspects of the Sports Company, collaborated on information which came to their attention and based on the information we felt it warranted a forensic audit.” (See page A8)
For the purpose of allowing the audit to proceed, he said “action was taken to send home some members of the administrative staff to ensure there is no allegation of interference.” He did not want to go into particulars on the audit, but said “Government is insistent that there is propriety in all state enterprises and holds this Government and all of its agencies to a very high standard.”
Al-Rawi said “if any wrong doing is discovered both in respect of civil or criminal matters, then the appropriate recommendations and actions will follow.”
A member of the board of SporTT told the T&T Guardian “there have been a lot of strange activities at the company and the only way to get to the bottom of it was through a forensic audit.”
Acting Sports Minister Nyan Gadsby Dolly, on her way to Cabinet on Thursday, said, “The situation is very sensitive and is being handled by the Office of the Attorney General.”
Questions are being asked about the one and a half million-dollar maintenance contract which the Shanghai Construction Group received from SporTT, which according to well-placed sources was not brought to the former board for ratification. The contract, according to SporTT insiders, was signed at a time when the company was already in the red financially and was “barely receiving enough money to meet its wage bill.”
Scores of employees of the Shanghai Group retained to fulfil the maintenance contract are now living on the compound of the Aquatic Centre in Couva. Asked why this was allowed, a member of the board said, “We have been asking questions about this and have been unable to get answers. These are the Shanghai people but no one seems to know how that arrangement of them living on the compound came to be.”
The source said there was no evidence of anything in the agreement with SCG to provide accommodation for the workers.
The T&T Guardian tried without success to contact SporTT chairman Dinanath Ramnarine yesterday.
Efforts to contact Michael Zhang, of the Shanghai Group, were also unsuccessful while Smith is still out of the country and unavailable for comment.