President of Oilfields Workers Trade Unions (OWTU) Ancel Roget, centre, addresses members of the media yesterday at the OWTU head office, San Fernando. At left is Estate Police Association general secretary David Webber and OWTU vice president Peter Burk, right. Photo: Tony Howell

President general of the Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU) Ancel Roget yesterday demanded that Utilities Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid ensure the resignation of T&TEC’s general manager Indarjit Singh. Failure to do so would result in protest action, Roget warned at a news conference at OWTU’s San Fernando headquarters yesterday. Flanked by officials from the Estate Police Association (EPA), representing T&TEC estate police, Roget also said they intended to take their documentation about alleged corrupt activities at T&TEC to the doorsteps of Attorney General John Jeremie demanding that he launch a forensic audit.

When the wrongdoers were identified, he said they must be taken before the court. “They must be jailed,” he added. Roget recalled that Singh had resigned as T&TEC chairman in September 2008 under numerous allegations of corruption. He served as a consultant for T&TEC, Roget said, before being hired on a one-year contract to serve as general manager. “We are demanding of the minister (Abdul-Hamid) to do the honest things in the interest of consumers, in the interest of transparency, in the interest of the country to return Indarjit Singh back from whence he came,” Roget said. Roget warned: “We are very upset about that and we are going to take action. We want to warn the public that the action that we take will be in defence of an efficient T&TEC.” He said customers would benefit from the move.

He said OWTU would be supporting workers if they decided to take “whatever means necessary” to ensure Singh’s resignation. Roget noted that there were many other employees in T&TEC capable of filling that post. “When he was chairman he had the worse record of industrial relations,” he said. Roget said they believed that Singh was brought back to cover up the wrongdoings at the public authority. He also called on Abdul-Hamid to lay in Parliament the findings of a audit into T&TEC conducted by the Ministry of Finance, so the public would know what’s happening in the company.

Sharing similar views were OWTU vice president Peter Burke and EPA general secretary David Webber. Contacted for a comment, T&TEC Corporate Communications Manager Annabelle Brasnell said she would return the call in 15 minutes. There was no response and subsequent attempts to contact her were unsuccessful.