UNC wants DPP, TTPS to probe award of Allan Warner’s mining licence
Senior Reporter
United National Congress’ (UNC) lawyers will be writing a formal complaint to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the T&T Police Service’s White-collar Crime Unit requesting an investigation into the Energy Ministry’s granting of a mining licence to businessman Keon Warner in 13 days.
UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar revealed this at the party’s Monday night meeting at the party’s Chaguanas headquarters.
Saying another of the Prime Minister’s “best friends” is in trouble, Persad-Bissessar cited newspaper reports that the High Court had frozen two companies of businessman Allan Warner’s group in a quarrying probe.
Persad-Bissessar noted that the report stated that even as Warner was before the court on a criminal charge, the Energy Ministry granted the Warner family a temporary mining operating licence on June 18. The application for the licence was reportedly made on June 5, she said, more than a month after the police shut down the mining plant.
Persad-Bissessar questioned how the mining licence was granted in 13 days.
“Did a high official message someone to grant this licence? This mining licence approval reeks of corruption. I’ve instructed our lawyers to file a Freedom of Information request for documentation and find out the process undertaken to grant this licence in 13 days,” she said.
“I’ve also instructed our lawyers to write a formal complaint to the DPP and the white-collar crime unit of the TTPS requesting an investigation into the granting of this licence.”
Persad-Bissessar said UNC MP Roodal Moonilal had also questioned if the dredging of the Sea Lots Basin was done to benefit Allan Warner.
“After 15 years, the Energy Ministry suddenly decided to dredge that area. … I’ve instructed our lawyers to file a FOIA on the National Energy Corporation requesting documents for this dredging, including the costs and the bathymetric surveys of the seabed in the Sea Lots Basin before and after the dredging …”
Young: Sea Lots dredging a completely false narrative
In a response on his Facebook page yesterday, Energy Minister Stuart Young said Persad-Bissessar’s claim was one of the most “reprehensible attacks” on the Warner family.
He said it was a “false narrative” that the Government dredged the channel to somehow facilitate Mr Warner and/or his businesses in Sea Lots.
“Such attacks are defamatory and vile,” he said.
“The facts are that it was the UNC government in 2014, via Cabinet Minute 1597 dated June 5, 2014, that agreed that the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs (as it then was), enter into a contract with the National Infrastructure Development Company (NIDCO) for the procurement of a contractor to undertake the dredging of the Sea Lots Main Channel and Turning Basin (the channel).
“This work was necessary since 2014, as failure to dredge the channel had resulted in a reduction of the maximum allowable draft of loaded vessels and increased operational costs due to higher freight cost associated with smaller loads.
“Seventy-five per cent (75 per cent) of National Petroleum Marketing Company’s (NPMC) fuel demand is facilitated out of its Sea Lots terminal. A discontinuation in supply to Sea Lots for any reason will result in a shortfall of fuel in North and Central Trinidad and in Tobago.”
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