Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley's Gov­ern­ment to halt any busi­ness plans it has for the Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny un­til af­ter the gen­er­al elec­tion next year.

Speak­ing at the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress' Mon­day Night Fo­rum at the El Do­ra­do West Sec­ondary school, the Siparia MP said con­flict­ing mes­sages were be­ing sent about the com­pa­ny and the way for­ward for the closed down Petrotrin re­fin­ery as­sets.

"(Wil­fred) Es­pinet says it’s for sale, Franklyn Khan to­day says it’s not for sale. Who is telling the truth? I put to you tonight that it seems that the Gov­ern­ment does not have any idea what they are do­ing with Petrotrin," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She was re­fer­ring to En­er­gy Min­is­ter Franklin Khan’s de­nial of yes­ter­day de­nial of Trinidad Pe­tro­le­um Hold­ings chair­man Wil­fred Es­pinet’s claim that Paria Fu­el is to be sold. Es­pinet had made the claim over the week­end but Khan on Mon­day de­nied this, say­ing he want­ed to “make it clear that the di­vest­ment of Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny is not with­in the cur­rent man­date giv­en by the Gov­ern­ment to Trinidad Pe­tro­le­um Hold­ings Lim­it­ed.”

How­ev­er, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said this de­ci­sion should not be in hands of for­mer Petrotrin di­rec­tor Es­pinet but rather the peo­ple.

"Less than six months af­ter this new com­pa­ny was formed, Es­pinet claims that Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny can­not be prof­itable and there is no need to re­main in the busi­ness," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She ques­tioned Es­pinet's ra­tio­nale for the sale and asked if such a de­ci­sion would af­fect the coun­try's abil­i­ty to im­port fu­el. As such, she said any such ac­tion should be put on pause im­me­di­ate­ly.

"Tonight, I am call­ing on the Prime Min­is­ter to halt the sale of the re­fin­ery and Paria Fu­el Trad­ing un­til af­ter the gen­er­al elec­tion is held. Don’t give away our na­tion’s pat­ri­mo­ny. Don’t sell at base­ment bar­gain prices," she said.

Ear­li­er, Per­sad-Bisses­sar once again raised ques­tions about At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi's con­nec­tion to a prop­er­ty on Alexan­dra Street, Port-of-Spain. She claimed that a Feb­ru­ary cab­i­net note was ap­proved to al­low the lease of of­fice build­ing at num­ber 3 Alexan­dra Street, St Clair.

"Ac­cord­ing to these doc­u­ments, the Cab­i­net led by the Prime Min­is­ter agreed to lease this prop­er­ty known as No. 3 Alexan­der Street, St Clair for the price of $644,000 per month for three years. That is $575,000.00 plus VAT. $644,000," said Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who claimed the agree­ment would see $23,184.000 paid out by the Gov­ern­ment over three years.

The of­fice build­ing has been list­ed on a re­al es­tate web­site as a rental prop­er­ty at the month­ly cost of $923,436. The AG, she said, need­ed to an­swer ques­tions over whether the build­ing was owned by a com­pa­ny of his rel­a­tives. The Op­po­si­tion Leader asked if this new agree­ment could there­fore rep­re­sent a con­flict of in­ter­est.

The AG had pre­vi­ous­ly been ques­tioned about the rental agree­ment of One Alexan­dra Place, which was owned by his wife and fa­ther in law.