SPORTT VS BOARD DIRECTORS COURT MATTERAccounting expert Rodriguez-Seijas testifies

A senior accounting professional has been quizzed over his role in an ongoing case brought by the Sports Company of T&T Limited (SporTT) against its former board members in relation to a failed $34 million contract for the controversial Life Sport programme.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) assurance partner Dwayne Rodriguez-Seijas was interrogated by attorneys Jagdeo Singh and Anil Maharaj, who are representing four of the ex-directors, as he took the witness stand before Justice Ricky Rahim at Waterfront Judicial Centre in Port-of-Spain, Thursday morning.

In his testimony and cross-examination which lasted just over an hour, Rodriguez-Seijas was questioned over his expert report on reviewing and interpreting the State company’s financial records between 2007 and 2015.

Rodriguez-Seijas noted that SporTT was not a “for-profit” company and had no losses or profits during the period.

He also accepted that it was funded through government subventions and had loan facilities.

“My understanding is that expenses born by the company are funded by direct financing or government grants,” he said.

Rodriguez-Seijas admitted that the financial statements provided little details on two $17 million payments made by the company to cover the controversial contract. He accepted that he did not independently verify the source of funds for the payments.

“I did review the source documents included in the witness statements shared with me. I do not know if the money was paid out of a loan, or general subvention to the company,” he said.

He accepted that if the government acted as guarantor for loans taken by the company, it (the company) had to abide by conditions set by the government for utilisation of the funds obtained.

Rodriguez-Seijas admitted that his report could have changed if he had access to supporting source documents but claimed that he had to rely on the information provided to him.

“Further information could have led me to a further conclusion,” he said.

In the lawsuit, the company is claiming that its former board acted negligently and breached its fiduciary duty when it entered into the deal with eBeam Interact Limited to administer the numeracy and literacy, and the interactive technology components of the occupational skills training aspect of the programme.

The contract was eventually terminated after eBeam allegedly failed to meet its obligations under it.

The defendants in the case are former chief executive John Mollenthiel, and ex-directors Sebastian Paddington, Chela Lamsee-Ebanks, Reynold Bala, Norris Blanc, Nisa Dass, Anyl Gopeesingh, Sabrenah Khayyam, Cheemattee Martin, Matthew Quamina, Annan Ramnanansingh, Kent Samlal, Harnarine Seeram Singh, and Milton Siboo.

They have denied any wrongdoing as they claimed that they acted on the instructions of the Ministry of Sport and with the approval of the Ministry of Finance.

On August 22, High Court Judge Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell rejected SporTT’s breach of contract case against eBeam but ordered it to pay $30 million in restitution as she ruled that it was unjustly enriched for services it did not provide.

While SporTT was seeking the entire value of the contract, Justice Donaldson-Honeywell deducted $4 million, which represented the nominal services inclusive of the procurement of equipment provided by eBeam.

“It would be legally unjust for the Defendant to retain the benefit of $34 million when only minimum value, unrelated to any substantial delivery of the bargained for services, was received by the Claimant under the contract,” Justice Donaldson-Honeywell said.

“The minimal services provided by the Defendant did not meaningfully meet the benefit which was intended by the parties to be delivered to the Claimant,” she added.

eBeam still has the option to appeal the outcome.

SporTT has contended that the case against eBeam has no bearing on the parallel litigation against the group.

The defendants are expected to begin to take the witness stand and be cross-examined when the case continues today.

Colin Kangaloo, SC, John Lee and Stephanie Moe are representing SporTT.

The group’s lawyers include Fyard Hosein, SC, Anthony Vieira, SC, Rishi Dass, SC, Shiv Sharma, Karina Singh, Keston Lewis, Roger Kawalsingh, Ravi Mungalsingh, Tara Bhariosingh, Nicole de Verteuil-Milne, Adrian Ramoutar, Sushma Gopeesingh, Kamini Persaud-Maraj, Neil Bisnath, Lydia Mendonca, Richard Jagai, Andrea Bhagwandeen, and Dharmendra Punwassee.

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