When crime pays

THE EDITOR: A lot is being said about the Petrotrin refinery: close it down, keep it open, sell it, don’t sell it, rent it, don’t rent it.

This has the country with mixed reactions and various expressed options. The one part of this whole exercise which seems to have little attention paid to is: how did we really get to this stage with such high debt?

I seem to recall the chairman recently saying that bleeding of the company, by various people from different administrations over a number of years, added to what has landed the company in the position it find’s itself in today.

For the chairman to make such a remark, sends a signal that there is evidence of suck action. If this is so and not an off the cuff remark, as a taxpayer I would like to find out, as I’m sure so many other tax payers would also, “What is being done about it and how soon?”

If millions or billions have in fact been taken from Petrotrin, then there must be a way of going after these people. Those who have died no doubt left estates; and those who are still alive should be held accountable.

Other countries go back many years to track down people who have “ripped off” tax payers and by so doing, send a clear signal that crime does not or should pay.

C Peters via e-mail