Roget asks nation to rally round Patriotic

President general of the OWTU Ancel Roget.
President general of the OWTU Ancel Roget.

OWTU president general Ancel Roget has once again called on the nation to rally behind the union’s Patriotic Energies and Technologies Co. Ltd and its bid for the assets of defunct oil company Petrotrin. Roget says foreign exchange would once again flow back into the country.In a TV6 Morning Edition interview on Tuesday, Roget said other benefits included the reintroduction of regular gasoline for fisherfolk and an opportunity for institutions and individuals to invest in the new company.Asked why the public should rally around the OWTU, Roget, who spoke by phone while the union’s chief research and education officer Ozzi Warwick was in the studio, said under the present arrangement the country is losing “precious foreign exchange” on a daily basis. With the shutdown of the refinery last November, TT has had to import fuel (gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel) from other oil-producing countries.“This is an opportunity for us to retake and get back foreign exchange into the economy. You will not get it now, because it is very limited.”Another advantage is the opportunity to invest in Patriotic Energies.“Once there is a clean, efficient operating company with new work cultures – we are going to offer to all the institutions share ownership in this company, also offer IPOs and apprenticeship programmes, which were abandoned. The fishermen who today do not get regular gasoline, they will be the first beneficiary.”Meanwhile, Warwick, who is a director of Patriotic Energies, said the country will benefit as the refinery will remain in local hands with no political interference in its management.Roget also addressed concerns in several quarters about the lack of transparency in the bidding process, saying one requirement was confidentiality.“We were part of an international bidding process, and that process carried certain requirements. One of the requirements of the process was for all of the parties, not just OWTU, to sign non-disclosure agreements.“Had we broken that, we would have been thrown out of the process. As a matter of fact, somewhere along the way of that process, I made a comment – a comment not directly dealing with the issue, but trying to bring clarity to some question a reporter was asking, and we were written to by the people who were in charge of the process.

"But rest assured, when this process is completed and we would have responded to the Ministry of Finance and the Minister of Finance and the government for having won the bid, we will make every single item – all of the information – we will make it public.”Roget was asked whether this meant that the OWTU was now “neutered” and would not criticise any decision by the government.“You are asking if we have been neutered, and I am saying to you, we will never be neutered. We have a track record of demonstrations, we have a track record of voicing for the voiceless. We at the OWTU have always spoken out against injustices. We have done so for 83 years and we will continue to do so for another 83 years.” Roget said the union’s international consortium had begun arriving in the country in preparation for a meeting on Friday at the Ministry of Finance.

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"Roget asks nation to rally round Patriotic"

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