Port Authority of T&T acting chief executive officer/general manager Charmaine Lewis returned to work yesterday and the computer seized when she was abroad on vacation was returned to the office she Lewis occupies.
The T&T Guardian understands that the lock on Lewis’ office door, which was changed last week, was restored to the original lock prior to her return. Staffers also said the computer, which was seized last Tuesday, was returned to Lewis’ office just before three yesterday afternoon.
Lewis remained unavailable for comment for most of the day and when the T&T Guardian finally contacted her she offered a brief “no comment” when asked whether she was called to a meeting with PATT chairman Allison Lewis on her return to office.
Asked whether she was being relieved of her post, Lewis again declined comment, saying: “I have to seek advice.”
But well-placed PATT sources said Lewis and the board’s legal representative, Brandon Primus, were at the Port “early” and met with the Acting CEO/GM to discuss managerial and other issues. The Port’s Legal Officer was also at the meeting.
Only recently, Lewis and the Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan locked horns over her testimony to the Joint Select Committee of Parliament looking into the sea bridge issues, with Sinanan accusing her of “telling blatant lies” to the commission following her statements about his involvement in the procurement of the Trinity Transporter barge.
Sinanan also told the T&T Guardian he had nothing to do with the seizure of Lewis’ computer, adding “the Port has a board that is running and there is an investigation going on. I am not involved. “
Asked last Thursday whether she felt there was a plot to get rid of her, Lewis said: “I don’t know. But it is extremely curious that all of this taking place on the heels of the joint select committee and other utterances made public by the Minister and reported in the press.”
Lewis said she found it curious that six weeks after the JSC began public hearings, “you find cause to seize my computer.”
What made it more curious, she said then, is that “they had already taken copies of the entire data base on the port with e mails, they had it in possession six weeks ago so they would have seen what e mails would have passed.”
Efforts to contact Port chairman Allison Lewis were unsuccessful yesterday as she did not answer calls to her cellphone.