Former senator Allyson Baksh says she resigned from the Senate because of “family commitments,” but declined to answer any more questions on the issue.
“That is all I am prepared to say,” Baksh told the T&T Guardian yesterday.
Baksh tendered her resignation to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on Monday. Rowley accepted it and thanked her for her service and contribution to the Senate.
Baksh was appointed shortly after the September 2015 general election and was a member of the Joint Select Committee on State Enterprises.
Her replacement in the Senate, Ronald Huggins, is also her replacement on the JSC. Among the state enterprises which fall under the ambit of the committee is Petrotrin.
Baksh sat in at a meeting of the committee in 2016, when Petrotrin officials appeared to answer questions.
Baksh is the daughter of Haniff Nazim Baksh, the owner A and V Oil and Gas Drilling, which has the contract to supply oil to Petrotrin from the Catshill Field.
An internal audit report at the state oil company showed that for the period January to June this year Petrotrin overpaid the company to the tune of $80 million for oil which it did not receive.
The findings of the internal audit have since been confirmed by Canadian Forensic Audit Consultant Kroll.
International oil and gas Consultant Gaffney Cline also confirmed that the field in question did not have the capacity to supply the amount of oil which it was alleged had been supplied and which Petrotrin paid for.
Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who had made the Petrotrin internal audit report into the sale of oil by A&V to Petrotrin public in August, had called on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to remove Baksh from the Senate. Last weekend, Persad-Bissessar renewed her call for Baksh to go.
But during the third ‘Conversations with the Prime Minister’ in September, Rowley had defended Baksh in the wake of calls for her to go at the height of the fake oil scandal.
But well-placed sources told the T&T Guardian yesterday that shortly after both Nazim Baksh and his son in law, Corporal Billy Ramsundar, appeared in court on November 10, charged with an incident involving T&T Guardian photographer Kristian de Silva, Rowley, who had previously admitted to being a close friend of Baksh, decided that there was need to act.
The T&T Guardian was told a member of Cabinet with close ties to the Baksh family was directed to have a discussion with her to get her to tender her resignation. She initially refused. But the resignation letter was subsequently sent to Rowley on November 27.
Government officials yesterday told the T&T Guardian they had “no comment” on the resignation, saying “that was a call for the leader, he appoints and none of us know when it will be taken away.”
Opposition Senator Gerald Ramdeen on Tuesday expressed concern that Petrotrin also appeared to be taking “too long” to deal with the matter.
Yesterday, however, Petrotrin chairman Wilson Espinet told the Guardian the board was not going to sweep anything under the carpet.
He said: “We are mindful of the fact that process is more important in this case than being right or wrong. You will appreciate while this may have public interest. My bigger interest in Petrotrin is to ensure that we don’t lose money.”