Workers still awaiting promised…
Senior Investigative Reporter
Shaliza.hassanali@guardian.co.tt
When Balram Ramsaran received his two-acre plot of land in 2010 following the closure of Caroni (1975) Ltd in Waterloo, he was overjoyed. Ramsaran, 63, had worked at Caroni for 26 years as a boiler/operator. His joy soon turned to sorrow when he realised the land was underdeveloped and lacked irrigation.
“The Government promised to dig ponds for us. But this never happened,” Ramsaran said in an interview with the Sunday Guardian.
The father of three spent a significant portion of his Voluntary Separation of Employment (VSEP) money to fill and develop the land to earn a livelihood.
However, after cultivating his first crop, thieves swooped down on his farm and carted away his produce.
“The bandits always stealing the majority of my crops,” he complained.
Ramsaran has suffered tremendous losses with praedial larceny. Last year, his earnings were a mere $3,000. This year, his profit so far was $1,500.
He admitted to fighting tooth and nail to survive. To compound matters, Ramsaran is yet to receive his residential lot at Caroni Savannah Road, which he wanted to give to his son, who is renting.
“The wait is frustrating. I am feeling betrayed. To me, the workers were taken for a ride.”
Ramsaran said many of his neighbours and friends who worked at Caroni have died waiting for their lands. “The stress and uncertainty killed them.”
Looking dazed and confused, Michael Marshall, 73, recounted how a residential lot was promised to him at Kumarsingh Avenue, Waterloo. His wait seems never-ending. “It has been more than 15 years, and ah can’t get my lot yet. I might die before I get it,” said Marshall, who worked with Caroni as a mechanic.
On the sprawling land, a house was under construction. There are electricity poles and pipeline connections in the area. Marshall said people have been encroaching on the land even though it is overgrown with bushes and grass. “People are grabbing the land because it has been abandoned for so long.”
Marshall was also allocated a two-acre plot in another location in Waterloo, which he said was riddled with issues.
He had hoped to cultivate the land to generate an income. This never materialised. Marshall admitted that he has to stretch his monthly pension “like elastic” to buy groceries, pay his bills, and visit his doctor.
He said his patience is running thin. “All we have been getting is a set ah run around. When will the games stop?”
Rawlin Ragoonath, who laboured for 26 years with Caroni as a field officer, said he has not been able to utilise his two acres in Reform due to poor land conditions, while he is still awaiting his residential lot at Caroni Savannah Road.
“I see this delay as a criminal offence.”
He said the hold-up was “beyond hurtful” to the former workers who gave their blood, sweat, and tears to Caroni and were not adequately compensated for their years of service.
“It’s disappointing that the people who we put to run the affairs of the country are treating the citizens like this. It just cannot be right. Just imagine that 21 years have passed, and you are still waiting for your land.”
Ragoonath admitted that the former workers have been seeing hell.
Siew Nagessar called on the Government to give the former workers what is rightfully due. He said it was “distasteful” to have the workers begging for their lands.
“We feel deceived. I feel politics is the main cause for lands not being handed out.”
Although Nagessar has been cultivating his two-acre plot in Edinburgh, he said thieves have been raiding his farm. “I planting and they reaping. That is a regular occurrence. I reach the stage where I am fed up.”
Rakeeb Mohammed, former president of the Sugar Boilers’ Association, said from his calculations more than 3,000 residential lots still have to be handed out. Mohammed worked at Caroni for 23 years as a sugar boiler.
Many of the sites, he said, were completed for distribution, but due to the EMBD and the contractors’ ongoing legal battle, everything was put on hold.
“There are 204 lots of residential lands in Exchange Two in Couva to be given out. But the delay is payments … money. These workers did not ask to go home.”
He said some workers who received tickets for their lands don’t know where their agricultural plots are. Others have a lease, but they can’t access their land. Mohammed said at least 65 per cent of the workers who accepted VSEP received less than $50,000.
“It was next to nothing they got.”
Plots sold
Land consultant and former EMBD director Stephen Ramkissoon told the Sunday Guardian that approximately 30 per cent of Caroni workers passed away while waiting for their lands, and their beneficiaries have been trying to find out their entitlements.
Ramkissoon also worked as a team leader at Caroni’s lands and legal department for over two decades.
While the former workers have been waiting patiently for their lands, Ramkissoon said, large acreages were given out to businesses and individuals to utilise.
In 2014, the then People’s Partnership government agreed to transfer the lands, meaning a worker could have sold their lot or plot. Depending on the location, one lot of land could have fetched upwards of $500,000, while a two-acre parcel of agriculture land could have fetched more than $140,000.
Mohammed said several workers sold their lands as they had nothing to fall back on after being sent home.
“The Government is violating the law by failing to give the ex-workers their lands. Most of these developments are racketed with corruption. It is full of corruption and that is the reason why Caroni workers have to suffer today.”
Mohammed said this confusion with the lands has led to turmoil and tears for many families.
“I know of workers whose marriages were shattered after losing their jobs at Caroni. Some are squatting. Others are renting the little they can afford. Quite a few are living on the streets because they did not get the land they were promised. The politicians did the most heinous things to these former workers. We were betrayed by both the PNM and People’s Partnership governments.”
The promised land
The two-acre agricultural plots and residential lots were promised to them by the People’s National Movement (PNM) Government following the closure of the State’s sugar company in 2003.
A portion of Caroni’s 77, 000 acres was offered to 7,866 daily paid workers and 1,154 monthly paid employees as part of their voluntary separation of employment (VSEP) packages when the Couva-based company shut down its operations after racking up mounting debts and had huge operational costs.
More than two decades later, scores of frustrated workers are yet to be allocated their lands following three successive governments.
Last November, Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture Avinash Singh disclosed that a total of 11,151 residential deeds and agricultural leases have been distributed to former Caroni 1975 Limited workers, but a total of 4,526 leases are still to be delivered due to various reasons, including incorrect contact information submitted or the inability to communicate with some recipients.
Singh said the distribution of leases falls under the ambit of the following agencies: Caroni 1975 Limited which is responsible for the distribution of all residential deeds, and the Estate Management and Business Development Company Ltd (EMBD), which was charged with the distribution of two-acre agricultural leases in seven agricultural estates, while the Commissioner of State Lands has been spearheading the distribution of two-acre agricultural leases in ten agricultural sites in Central and South.
The prolonged delay in handing over the lands by past and current governments has left thousands of former workers in limbo.
Hundreds of these former workers have gone to their graves without receiving what was owed to them. Others have been living on the streets, squatting and struggling to survive, having fallen on hard times.
According to the Draft Expenditure of Recurrent Expenditure for Fiscal 2024, the sum of $2,037,200 has been allocated to Caroni (1975) for the settlement of claims for Caroni’s pension plan.
In 2019, Caroni (1975) chairman Jerry Hospedales revealed yesterday that since the state-owned company closed down in 2003, the government has spent $10 billion “wrapping” it up.
Hospedales had said that a large chunk of this money was spent on pensions, training courses, monetary benefits, and residential and agricultural lands for former employees.
Legal challenges delay delivery
A Public Accounts Enterprises Committee (PAEC) report into the examination of the audited financial statements of Caroni (1975) Ltd for the years 2010 to 2018 stated that “the stalling of the development of the residential estates and the reduction in transaction activities relating to those estates is due to the litigation issues between the EMBD and several contractors who were engaged in developing 14 sites.”
It stated that 17 agricultural estates were identified and developed for delivery to 7,119 eligible beneficiaries. Caroni was mandated to provide 8,855 beneficiaries with residential service lots.
The 108-page report further revealed that had Caroni 1975 Ltd continued its operation to December 31, 2018, it would have incurred an operational loss of $19.6 billion.
In 2015, a multi-million dollar cartel case was brought by the EMBD against a group of contractors, former officials, and former housing minister Dr Roodal Moonilal.
The substantive lawsuit centres around 12 contracts for the rehabilitation of roads and infrastructure granted to five contractors before the September 2015 general election.
Contractors TN Ramnauth, Mootilal Ramhit and Sons Contracting Ltd and Kall Company Ltd (Kallco) initiated the proceedings against the state-owned special purpose company for the almost $200 million balance owed on their respective contracts.
The EMBD countersued the contractors, claiming that they, as well as contractors Fides and Namalco, conspired together with Moonilal, former EMBD CEO Gary Parmassar, former divisional manager Madhoo Balroop, and engineer Andrew Walker to corruptly obtain the contracts.
It also claimed the parties agreed to facilitate the contractors receiving preliminary payments for the work, which was allegedly overpriced and substandard.
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