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Offline Bourbon

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Allegations of improper conduct:
« on: July 22, 2012, 12:31:53 PM »
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/CISL_board_members_resigned_over_inaction-163313726.html



The entire board of directors of the State-owned Community Improvement Services Ltd (CISL), including chairman Dr Rai Ragbir, and former line minister Chandresh Sharma had direct knowledge of allegations of improper conduct made against the government-backed chief executive officer, Ramchand Rampersad.

Continuing Sunday Express investigations into governance issues at the State-subsidised special purpose company suggest that chairman Ragbir, a medical doctor by profession, and the former local government minister made no effort to act on information they received that Rampersad had acted improperly.

From all accounts, chairman Ragbir fought against the efforts of some of his directors, two of whom have since resigned, to make Rampersad accountable for alleged wrongdoing.

He failed to respond to urgent e-mail calls from directors on his board for an emergency board meeting and was hostile to questions put to him by this newspaper on July 12.


E-mail correspondence obtained by the Sunday Express show Dr Ragbir being briefed on a list of concerns, chief among them, a $2,500 a-month life insurance claim for which Rampersad was not entitled and his decision to push through the purchase of a company vehicle which exceeded the price limit of the issued- guidelines of the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

Director Asha Sooknanan, in e-mail correspondence, dated June 14 and sent under cover of strict confidentiality to eight members of the CISL board, including the chairman, provided directors with a brief of a special meeting of the heads of the various sub-committees of the board held earlier that day.

Among the issues flagged at the June 14 meeting was the salary overpayment of the CEO, the acquisition of a vehicle in excess of the stipulated MOF limit and questionable tendering practices.

Another director, attorney Anuradha Ramdath, who resigned with immediate effect on June 25, in a June 15 e-mail to the board, including chairman Ragbir, urged that a detailed investigation into all of the allegations of wrongdoing be conducted.

Deputy chairman and director Malcolm Reid, who also resigned on June 25 with immediate effect, in response to fellow director Edison Hoolasie, in a June 21 e-mail, copied to the board, expressed his deep discomfort and frustration that nothing was being done to deal with the very serious governance issues raised.

He said the board would be guilty of complicity if it failed to act on the allegations of wrongdoing involving the company's CEO.

Sooknanan, in a June 20 e-mail sent to minister Sharma and to the CISL board, including chairman Ragbir, provided detailed documentation related to some of the governance issues under scrutiny.

Sharma, who is said to have played a pivotal role in catapulting the former CISL director into the executive suite in an acting CEO position in the first instance, yesterday, refused comment on his failure to investigate the allegations of wrongdoing.

"I am no longer the minister," he said, making clear he was not prepared to answer anything related to his former portfolio as local government minister.

"I am the ex-minister," he said, accusing this reporter of changing the rules of engagement.

Told that we were merely trying to get some answers about something that happened on his watch as the local government minister, Sharma, who was reassigned to the Transport Ministry on June 22, said: "That might work for you but it doesn't operate so in government."

He suggested instead that this newspaper continue its conversation with new Local Government Minister Dr Surujrattan Rambachan.

"Anything prior to my appointment as Minister of Transport I will not respond," he told the Sunday Express.


Rambachan, who last week promised to look into the governance issues at CISL, admitted there were breaches related to the acquisition of a Toyota Fortuner, the insurance benefit of $2,500 a month and Rampersad's private job to short-list prospective candidates for the CEO's position at State-owned National Flour Mills (NFM).

Rampersad's private company, Perfect World Human Resources and Management Services, which was incorporated in January this year, was contracted to draw up a short list of candidates for the top executive job at NFM in an apparent conflict of interest with his other public job as chairman of the state funded and managed corporation, Government Human Resources Co Ltd (GHRS).

The company was set up to service the HR needs of the state sector.

As reported in last Sunday's Express, Rampersad refused to say how much his private company was paid for the NFM job.

A tough talking Minister Rambachan, who made clear he was not going to tolerate wrongdoing on his watch said: "Obviously there are issues of governance at CISL. If something is wrong, it must be declared wrong."

Dr Rambachan said he was awaiting a report from chairman Ragbir and would be meeting with the board of directors next week.

He also spoke about his plan to have an orientation conference for state boards which fall under his ministerial portfolio on the role and fiduciary responsibilities of directors.

He denied that his coalition government condoned wrongdoing and countered that it was a wrong perception held by some.

Asked to square his assertion with the Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) incident in which a leased luxury vehicle was provided for the non-executive chairman Rabindra Moonan, Dr Rambachan, in a short telephone interview with the Sunday Express, said if MOF or official State Enterprises regulations were breached, "then it is wrong".

Asked if it was wrong for the CAL chairman to breach the State Enterprises Performance Monitoring Manual which is clear that a non-executive chairman is not entitled to a company vehicle, Rambachan answered this way: "If according to the rules, it is wrong, then it is wrong. We must say it is wrong and let the chips fall where they may." He declined further comment.

The former line minister for CAL, now Food Production Minister, Devant Maharaj, who defended the leased luxury ride for Moonan countered that the State Enterprises Performance Monitoring Manual (SEMM) was not the law.

"What rule?" he enquired, making clear that the SEMM was not legislation but general guidelines intended "to guide" State companies.

And those guidelines, according to Maharaj's interpretation, are not set in concrete and may vary from State enterprise to State enterprise. In short, different State companies were subject to a different interpretation of official rules.

He said Moonan did not have the Toyota Prado for more than eight days and reports suggesting otherwise were wrong.


He insists that the Prado lease was a "non-issue" and pointed to other unidentified boards which provided the disputed benefit to non-executive chairmen.

"There are other boards that I know about which we inherited that has a vehicle for the chairman," he said, refusing to call names.

Insisting that the operative word was "guidelines", Maharaj said: "It is supposed to guide you. It is not a law."

He said Moonan was appointed at short notice and needed to be mobile.

Asked if chairman Moonan did not have a car before he was appointed to CAL's board, Maharaj sidestepped the question, saying the lease had to be taken in the context of the transition of a new chair to the board.


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