Seepersad-Bachan: Give Petrotrin report to DPP and CoP

Former energy and energy affairs minister Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan is urging Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to mandate Petrotrin’s board of directors to immediately forward its report dealing with the fraudulent sales of indigenous crude oil to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Commissioner of Police.

“Any further delay in submitting and dealing with the contents of the report may result in evidence tampering and give time for implicated persons to cover their tracks,” she said.

In a release, she said, the internal audit report which establishes that there are two major players, one pretending to supply and one pretending to receive giving rise to fraud, should already have been shared with these authorities.

“It is clear that criminal conduct occurred,” she said, adding, “The bigger issue is the number of players involved.”

The issue of fraud, she said, should not be confused with poor management and lack of due care and diligence, which provided the opportunity to commit this crime.

Given its current financial crisis, she said, Petrotrin cannot continue to court these types of disasters.

Poor management practices allegedly allowed an employee to capitalise on procedural deficiencies and weak controls to perpetrate this crime.

In this regard, the board of Petrotrin should already have taken appropriate action against those who facilitated the offence, she said.