Yvonne Ba­boolal

De­bate on Tesoro cor­rup­tion scan­dal

The Tesoro cor­rup­tion scan­dal was be­ing de­bat­ed in Par­lia­ment when Mus­limeen in­sur­gents stormed the Red House on Ju­ly 27, 1990. For­mer Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion min­is­ter Joseph Toney told the com­mis­sion of en­quiry in­to the coup d'etat yes­ter­day it was al­leged that in the pur­chase of shares at Tesoro, cer­tain peo­ple paid bribes to get them at a cer­tain price. He said for­mer PNM gov­ern­ment min­is­ter, John­ny O'Hal­lo­ran, was im­pli­cat­ed in the mat­ter. Toney said then na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter, Sel­wyn Richard­son, pur­sued the al­le­ga­tions dogged­ly, even go­ing to an Amer­i­can court.

Tesoro even­tu­al­ly con­ced­ed there was im­prop­er con­duct in the pur­chase of the shares and award­ed mon­ey to the T&T gov­ern­ment. Toney said then PNM sup­port­ers would have nev­er want­ed this scan­dal ex­posed at all. He said PNM sup­port­ers al­so played a part in mas­sive re­sis­tance to the NAR gov­ern­ment in 1990. He said late PNM gov­ern­ment min­is­ter, Mor­ris Mar­shall, was at the fore­front of march­es or­gan­ised by the Sum­mit of the Peo­ple's Or­gan­i­sa­tion, an amal­ga­ma­tion of trade unions and ac­tivists. He said for­mer op­po­si­tion leader, Bas­deo Pan­day, who was ex­pelled from the NAR gov­ern­ment, al­so felt Robin­son should have shared pow­er with him.