Martin George resigns as Chamber vice chairman

Martin George has resigned as vice-chairman of the Tobago Division of the TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

George’s resignation comes as the TT Chamber consulted its lawyers on reports that Chairman of the Tobago Division, has had his role usurped as head of the organisation following a meeting of the Chamber’s management committee on September 17 when a decision was taken George will assume Benoit’s role and functions.

George had confirmed the management committee’s decision, telling Newsday Tobago: “The decision of the management committee of the Tobago Division … going forward for the remainder of the current Chairman’s tenure, that the Vice Chairman shall assume all authority and control for operational and management issues, has been communicated to the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber and also to the current Chairman himself, as a means of ensuring that the work and business of the Tobago Division continues uninterrupted.”

Benoit, who is the Managing Director of Trico Industries, which manages Channel 5, was voted in to the position in March of this year with George as the vice chairman.

Asked to respond to on this decision Benoit told Newsday Tobago on September 28 that he was “awaiting a decision from the headquarters’ lawyers before the next step is taken… The bottom line is that it doesn’t look good.” He didn’t elaborate.

Benoit said then that he had returned to Tobago on September 18 from vacation, the day after the management committee’s decision, and was hearing certain reports whichhe had to check out. He said usually once he was unavailable for whatever reason, “the vice chairman does those duties and he has the power to do everything that the chairman can.”

On Tuesday night, via a statement on his Facebook page on Tuesday night, George said he had submitted his resignation to the Tobago Chamber with immediate effect.

“Regretfully, the demands of my office dictate that I will not be able to devote the time required to continue with this, which appears to be rather cyclical and in my respectful view, counter-productive instead of being forward-moving and progressive and I hereby relinquish the portfolio of vice-chairman with immediate effect,” the statement read.

George said he would continue to work along with Tobagonians to serve Tobago and advocate for the needs of the island as he had done for decades through his 10 years as a newspaper columnist and through hundreds of appearances on various talk shows on television, radio, lecture halls and cottage and town meetings.

“Once you have a genuine passion and commitment to serve people and to be pro-active about it, you can do so wherever you are and whoever you are; and I will continue to do so,” he said.

On Wednesday, Chairman of the TT Chamber, Gabriel Faria, confirmed that Benoit remains as Chairman of the Tobago Division.

Benoit could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.