Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les says by the end of this week, a nine-mem­ber board will be ap­point­ed to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC).

Gon­za­les was an­swer­ing ques­tions in the Sen­ate from Wade Mark, who said the Gov­ern­ment had failed in its du­ty to ap­point boards to crit­i­cal state en­ter­pris­es, in­clud­ing T&TEC, Pow­er­Gen, Trinidad Gen­er­a­tion Un­lim­it­ed and Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TSTT).

Gon­za­les was not fazed by the al­le­ga­tions and ac­cused Mark of “miss­ing the mark” in his mo­tion.

“Every time I come to this au­gust cham­ber to re­spond to Sen­a­tor Mark, it is al­ways quite clear to me that the word­ing of his mo­tion and the ar­gu­ments that he ad­vanced in sup­port of his mo­tion, they some­how do not co­op­er­ate. They’re some­how miss­ing the mark,” Gon­za­les said.

He said the boards of TSTT and TGU have both been ful­ly con­sti­tut­ed.

Gon­za­les said in ap­point­ing state boards, there were min­i­mum and max­i­mum re­quire­ments for the num­ber of mem­bers of the board.

“With re­spect to the Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TSTT), the by­law pro­vides for a max­i­mum of nine di­rec­tors and a min­i­mum of three. Cur­rent­ly, there are six di­rec­tors on the board of TSTT and there­fore TSTT has a du­ly con­sti­tut­ed board. With re­spect to the Trinidad Gen­er­a­tion Un­lim­it­ed, TGU, the by­laws pro­vide for a max­i­mum of sev­en di­rec­tors and a min­i­mum of two di­rec­tors. Cur­rent­ly, there are five di­rec­tors, this board is du­ly con­sti­tut­ed,” Gon­za­les said.

He said the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion Act pro­vides for the com­mis­sion to have no few­er than five mem­bers and no more than nine, all ap­point­ed by the Pres­i­dent.

“On March 24, 2022, Cab­i­net agreed to the ap­point­ment of a new board of com­mis­sion­ers for T&TEC com­pris­ing of nine mem­bers, the in­stru­ments of ap­point­ments for the pres­i­dent who re­cent­ly re­ceived by Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties and would be de­liv­ered to the mem­bers of the board lat­er this week,” Gon­za­les said.

He said T&TEC holds all the Class A shares in Pow­er­Gen, giv­ing the com­mis­sion the pow­er to ap­point five di­rec­tors. Gon­za­les said with the ap­point­ment of T&TEC’s board im­mi­nent, Pow­er­Gen’s board will be ap­point­ed in due course. —Shar­lene Ram­per­sad

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