Public Utilities Minister Fitzgerald Hinds says the Telecommunications services company of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) is an example of how a state run company can be run efficiently. He made that declaration at the announcement yesterday of the company's $3.7 billion, five year plan.
"$3.7 billion is very significant for any entity to invest in T&T, particularly in the current economic circumstances," Hinds said.
"It says that, when other people are pulling back because things are bad, TSTT still has the confidence to invest. I asked the CEO what was the staff compliment for TSTT and he told me the figure. That is one third of another fully owned state which sustains losses and has three times the number of employees."
The strategic plan unveiled by TSTT yesterday is one of the largest investments ever made by a company in the T&T economy.
The telecommunications company signed an agreement with Republic Bank Limited yesterday for partial financing of the plan totalling almost $2 billion.
The minister, who called for the cutting out of waste and corruption in the private and public sectors, said: "These two phenomena are very prevalent across T&T. I have been told by TSTT's chairman a lot has been done in that regard and there was a lot of wastage."
TSTT CEO Dr. Ronald Walcott said the company had made progress over the last year in rebranding and overhauling its operations.
"We looked at our brand and we felt that one of the issues that we needed to deal with was brand confusion and a proliferation of different ideas," he said.
"We took a position to re-align. Our plan is $3.7 billion investment five year plan. We are going to transform ourselves from being a 20th century traditional telecom to being a 21st century agile, broadband telecommunications company. Several months into the plan we have made significant strides," he said.
Walcott said TSTT needed financing for the plan
"Our internally generated funds would not have supported the plan so we had to go out and find the money. We were happy to partner with T&T's financial giant, Republic Bank. After much discussion we were able to arrive at a position," he said.
He said next week, TSTT will publish their half year financial results which would detail how their plan is evolving. TSTT will retain its name and brand and all of its corporate social responsibility will be under the Bmobile Foundation.
"This is simply not a brand refresh for us, we are making a public statement that we are in a transformation and we will improve our services." Walcott said.
TSTT chairman Emile Elias said he is satisfied with the performance of the board which was appointed one year ago. He spoke about the importance of state run companies using each other's services rather than competing private sector companies.
"Too many times I get complaints that state agencies are giving preference to our competition. Minister Hinds, I want you to remind your Cabinet colleagues, there is a state enterprise manual and it does tell you cannot do that and you must give preference to TSTT," he said.
