State-owned Petrotrin has retained the services of an independent foreign forensic investigator to probe the so-called fake oil scandal. The decision was taken more than six weeks after an internal audit report painted a damning picture of collusion involving an employee and a contractor who supplied crude oil to the company, resulting in an overpayment of close to TT$80 million.
Petrotrin said yesterday that four companies were invited to submit proposals to conduct the forensic audit and after looking at all the proposals the board’s Audit Committee chose Kroll Consulting Canada.
Petrotrin’s internal audit committee first raised the red flag about the close to $80 million over-payment in its report dated August 17 and which was subsequently made public by Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
The matter is now the subject of litigation after A&V Oil and Gas owner Nazim Baksh initiated legal action against Persad-Bissessar for making the contents of the interim report public. The company also took issue with public statements by Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet.
Guardian Media and One Caribbean personnel who visited A&V’s San Francique compound while covering the story were also attacked. That matter is now in the hands of the police.
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, who admits Baksh is his “friend” and that he called him when the report was made public, subsequently condemned the attack on media, but was highly critical of Persad-Bissessar for trying to link him to the issue.
The Petrotrin audit committee found that crude oil supplies from the Catshill Field spiked by over 150 per cent in a ten-month period and that they paid for oil which was never received. It identified an employee who was involved in the process. The employee is now on leave and has since resigned his post as a director of a state board.
The audit report, which has been questioned by the contractor, has been the subject of internal investigations by the company and a report was submitted to Energy Minister Franklin Khan with findings and recommendations.
On Tuesday, the Petrotrin board is reported to have met and discussed the issue.
The T&T Guardian was told by well placed sources that there was concern the internal report had been turned into a “political football” and had become “mired” in what was described by one director as “a political mess.”
It was eventually felt that an external investigator would bring some semblance of “cleanness” to the process and the board accepted the recommendation of its audit committee to engage Kroll to conduct a forensic investigation into the internal audit report of overage/shortage of crude oil volumes from its Exploration and Production Division to the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery.
Kroll will begin its work on Monday and will report to the board’s Audit Committee on all aspects of its investigation.
The Canadian team has been mandated to conduct a forensic audit into the audit report; find and verify the facts in relation to the report and depending on its findings, is being asked to “identify any relevant parties or entities from the standpoints of accountability and culpability.”
Based on its findings, Kroll is being asked to “identify any systemic inadequacies or short comings which may have contributed to the findings.”