Senior Investigative Reporter
joshua.seemungal@guardian.co.tt
Links Limited, a company owned by Point Fortin Mayor Clyde James and his relatives, earned more than $2 million from the State in Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP) contracts between 2021 and 2025, a Guardian Media investigation has discovered.
Between August 2023 and 2025, while James served as mayor, Links Limited earned more than $900,000.
Links Limited’s annual CEPEP earnings
2021 – $437,300
2022 – $405,600
2023 – $469,300
2024 – $437,900
2025 – $299,500
Three of the four listed directors of the company give Point Fortin as their address, while the company’s registered office is located along the Point Fortin Main Road.
According to a December 2024 Gazette notice published on the Integrity Commission’s website, Mayor James did not file declarations of income, assets and liabilities, or statements of registrable interests in 2023. Attempts to verify whether he later complied were unsuccessful.
Under Section 11(1) of the Integrity in Public Life Act, all persons in public life are required to file these declarations.
The act states: “A person shall, within three months of becoming a person in public life, complete and file with the Commission in the prescribed form a declaration of his income, assets and liabilities that exceed ten thousand dollars in value in respect of the previous year and, thereafter, on 31st May in each succeeding year that he is a person in public life, he shall file further declarations of his income, assets and liabilities.”
James was appointed in August 2023.
When contacted, the Point Fortin Borough Corporation told Guardian Media to email questions for the mayor. However, receipt of the email was not acknowledged, and the questions were not answered.
A borough corporation, among other things, is responsible for environmental services such as sanitation, waste management, and public health. Designated staff are tasked with cutting vacant lots, cleaning and maintaining drains, garbage collection, and helping to control mosquitoes.
A CEPEP contractor is responsible for managing a crew of workers hired to perform similar environmental duties—grass cutting, tree trimming, waste collection, and management.
Earlier this week, Guardian Media’s Investigations Desk revealed that a company owned by PNM MP for Laventille West, Kareem Marcelle, and two relatives, collected close to $2 million in CEPEP payments between 2021 and 2025.
Marcelle served as a Port-of-Spain City Corporation alderman in 2024, before becoming Laventille West MP a year later.
Shiatsu General Contractors, owned by San Fernando Deputy Mayor Patricia Alexis and her relatives, earned around $2 million in CEPEP contracts.
Kudos Kleening, owned by San Fernando City Corporation councillor Nigel Couttier and his relatives, was awarded two contracts valued at approximately $3.7 million. The first was a one-year contract between February 2022 and February 2023. The second, a six-year contract, was signed in March 2023 and remains valid until February 2029. As of January 2025, Couttier was no longer listed as a company director but remained one of two shareholders. The other is a close female relative residing at the same address.
Marryshow Maintenance Limited, owned by former San Fernando councillor Jennifer Marryshow and her daughter, received two contracts worth about $6.7 million. The first was awarded for three years between March 2020 and March 2023, and later renewed for six years until March 2029.
That contract was approved despite the company having been struck off the online company registry after failing to file annual returns for several years.
$2 million – Gillian Lewis Construction (Gillian Lewis, Malabar/Mausica constituency chair)
$2 million – Danavin Company (Alvin Reeves, former San Fernando councillor)
$2 million – Dios Contracting Services (Marilyn Lewis-Tobias, Vice Chair, PNM Women’s League)
$1.9 million – Trinbago Landscape Maintenance (Curtis Shade, former Tabaquite constituency chairman)
$1.9 million – Zorina’s Maintenance and Landscaping (Alvin Mohammed, former San Fernando West constituency chair)
$1.7 million – Debros Marketing and Services (Nigel Cleghorn, PNM Vice Chair, San Fernando West)
$1.3 million – Luju’s Maintenance Company (June Christopher, former PNM St. Madeleine area manager)
Former CEPEP chairman Joel Edwards, who oversaw the state company between 2023 and early 2025, said he believed there was no possible conflict of interest in a current or former city corporation councillor being awarded a CEPEP contract.
He said he was confident that any contracts awarded would have gone through proper procurement and bidding processes.
However, Guardian Media’s Investigations Desk has confirmed that CEPEP audits have not been submitted to Parliament since 2014, as required by law.
Edwards said the company’s audits for fiscal years 2015 to 2017 were submitted to the Finance Ministry “some time ago.”
He added: “2018 is currently being finalised by the auditors, 2019 is in the process of being audited, and the (UNC) MoF just recently gave approval for PKF to continue with 2020 to 2024.”
Between 2009 and 2023, more than $6.5 billion was allocated to CEPEP.
Last week, during the Government’s 2026 Budget presentation, it was announced that both CEPEP and the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) would be shut down following an audit.
In June 2025, the Government terminated contracts for more than 300 CEPEP contractors, leaving an estimated 10,000 workers unemployed. It has promised to replace the lost jobs with full-time positions.
The Opposition has since criticised the decision, describing it as political victimisation.
