Obika: Reveal Petrotrin pay packages

OPPOSITION Senator Taharqa Obika says there is a “wall of silence” at state-owned Petrotrin and the public needs to know the pay packages of the board and transition team. He raised the issue as a motion on the adjournment in the Senate on Tuesday night.

He recalled an article in Newsday on March 15, in which chairman Wilfred Espinet was asked about the compensation packages for executives and remuneration for new members of the transition team, but said he was limited by the Freedom of Information Act from divulging specifics on personal agreements.

“We are not taking that. That is by no means an excuse for the wholly unreasonable explanation. Taxpayers need to know what they are being paid, just as you know what is being paid to the head of WASA, to the different institutions of State.” He stressed Petrotrin was a state-owned enterprise and the population must know.

Obika said there was a failure of Government to establish the appropriate mechanisms to ensure the separation of the board oversight function from that of executive management in Petrotrin. He also said there seemed to be a wall of silence at Petrotrin that was evolving into a wall of shame, which was against the grain of transparency.

Obika explained the matter at the heart of the issue was the appointment of executive board members where there is no distinction between oversight function and the role of the executive. The wall of silence, he said, will erode the checks and balances needed to prevent corruption. “The old vintage of PNM corruption is now packaged in a new vintage under this Rowley-led PNM.”

He said according to Energy Minister Franklin Khan the interim board was appointed as a transition team for a maximum period of six months, while Espinet, in the Newsday article, said the team in charge of finance administration, exploration and production and emergency response would be in place for two years.

“Which is correct? Is it the Government’s position or the chairman of Petrotrin’s position?” He said at Petrotrin there was an absence of checks and balances because all the institutions of the board and executive management subsumed into individuals who report “himself to himself.”

Khan, in response, said he was not comfortable with the board holding executive power, but made an exception in this case owing to extenuating circumstances. He said he wanted to assure the nation the arrangement was temporary and would last six months and not two years.

He reported Government has to go on an international recruiting exercise to get state-of-the-art, best-in-class managers, and the recruitment exercise was being carried out with Solomon and Associates and McKinsey, two of the premium energy consultants dealing with issues facing oil companies.