Ag Port CEO ‘hurt’ over raid

Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Port Authority Charmaine Lewis said yesterday the seizure of her computer on the instructions of the Board of the Port Authority and others, will not achieve anything because what is contained in her computer, is the same information on a server which was seized six weeks ago.

Lewis, who is out of the country and will return on Monday, has already contacted her lawyer for advice on the way forward as she believes she is being targeted. “I am expecting nothing and everything. I am not predicting what will happen but I imagine I will find out when I reach there. You could never tell if people want to follow proper process, I can’t see how it can come to that type of conclusion, but then you never know. They had more than six weeks, so I do not understand,” Lewis said.

“I feel hurt. I have given all my service to the Port Authority for the past 30 years, starting as a clerk and moving up to General Manager.” Lewis also revealed she has been doing two jobs on behalf of the Port Authority but feels she is being punished for her statements made at a Joint Select Committee of Parliament recently.

Lewis maintains that she stands by everything she said at the JSC hearing which examined the operations of the seabridge and the procurement of the Cabo Star and Ocean Flower II. On Wednesday, Port Authority Police along with an IT expert went to Lewis’ office in the Port Authority, broke a lock and removed a computer.

Lewis, informed of the incident by co-workers, believes it is a deliberate attempt to embarrass her. Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan, who has been at loggerheads with Lewis, has stated publicly that he never gave instruction for her computer to be seized. The port police along with the port authority board is reportedly involved in an internal investigation to find out who leaked information about the Procurement of the two vessels to the media.