Vidya Deokiesingh, against whom allegations were made in Petrotrin’s internal audit report on the “fake oil” matter, is expected to submit his resignation from the Lake Asphalt Board shortly.
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley confirmed this yesterday in Parliament while replying to Opposition MPs - led by MP Roodal Moonilal - who grilled him on various aspects of the Petrotrin issue.
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar last weekend revealed the details of Petrotrin internal audit report of August 17, 2017, on alleged volume discrepancies over January to June 2017.
This stemmed from alleged fraudulent activity by an operator in collusion with a Petrotrin employee.
Petrotrin’s probe of the matter was completed this week and a report was given to the Energy Minister on Thursday.
Yesterday, Rowley said Deokiesingh was appointed to Lake Asphalt’s board in December 2015.
“Given the fact he’s now implicated in this investigation, my information is he intends to resign from the board. I expect that resignation in a short while,” the PM said.
Rowley also confirmed that in the last seven years he’d been to the home of A&V Drilling owner Nazim Baksh about five or six times .
“...Which is a whole lot less than the number of times spent by the last Prime Minister in Gopaul house,” he added.
He was alluding to claims Persad-Bissessar, soon after being elected into government in 2010, spent “in transit” time at a Tunapuna home owned by family friends - the Gopauls - while the Prime Minister’s official residence was being prepared for her.
On whether a Government senator was a shareholder and/or director of A&V Drilling, Rowley said ,”I don’t have that information and I have no such knowledge.”
He also refused to answer queries on if such a senator was a shareholder, whether they’d be in receipt of monies of alleged fraudulent arrangements.
Rowley also said he had no information “with me” on whether A&V Drilling had bid for a three-year contract to replace the Super Fast Galicia ferry.
“If you put that question to the Minister or Port, you’ll get an extensive answer and very accurate one -
I don’t want to speculate on that,” he said.
Energy Minister Franklin Khan also described what he said were antiquated systems to measure daily oil production figures.
He said the current volume discrepancy matter “shows we need more reliable systems.” He advocated a digital system which didn’t fall under one person.