Cummings: Caroni land deal above board ­–IT'S MY FAMILY'S BUSINESS

YOUTH Development and National Service Minister Foster Cummings says he has relinquished ties to a private company carrying out commercial activities on state-owned Caroni (1975) Ltd land in Couva.

Speaking after a sod-turning ceremony for the restoration of the Persto Praesto Youth Development and Apprenticeship Centre in Freeport on Tuesday, Cummings admitted that the company in question – Pical Services Ltd – is indeed owned by his family and which he operated at one time, but had left when he decided to enter active politics.

At the UNC's virtual platform on Monday, the party's political leader and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar called on Cummings and the government to clear the air on whether or not he was a director and shareholder in Pical Services Ltd.

The company is involved in the construction business and had been awarded the contract to demolish the old Besson Street Police Station in 2019.

During the political meeting, videos were shown and Persad-Bissessar also displayed photographs of a concrete wall surrounding a piece of land. On the land, were several trucks and backhoes and a black Range Rover. Persad-Bissessar asked if the Range Rover was used by Cummings to come to the Parliament.

She claimed all of these were the evidence the Prime Minister had called for to show wrongdoing regarding state lands.

“I call again for answers on what business does Pical Services and Foster Cummings have with that piece of land belonging to Caroni at Exchange in Couva?

“Give us the answers. Don’t tell me to mind my business, because this is my business! This is the people’s business. I have not yet received answers to those questions,” Persad-Bissessar said on Monday.

But speaking after the sod-turning ceremony on Tuesday in Freeport, Cummings, who is also the MP for La Horquetta/Talparo and general secretary of the PNM, insisted there was no conflict of interest and that everything was above board.

He said that upon the closure of Caroni (1975) Ltd, the company decided to create additional employment and thereby absorb those who would have been out of a job as a result of the restructuring arrangement.

An offer was made by Caroni, he said, to utilise some of its property to assist businesses within various communities in expanding their operations.

To this end, he said, in Waterloo, the Sand Blasting Company was established. In Campden, Briko Air Services, which was already there, was expanded.

In Milton, Envirotech Ltd was created; in Esperanza, Service Master; in the Sugar Cane House in California, Gopaul and Co Ltd; at Forres Park, Junior Sammy Contractors and in Exchange, Couva – Pical Services Ltd, a general contracting company, run by his family, was formed.

“So, there is nothing or any arrangement as is being suggested that involves any matter that is not above board.

“I came into politics as an established businessman and I gave up that career (in Pical) to give of my time to the development of young people which is important and critical,” Cummings said.

He said he had no idea why the Opposition Leader chose to mislead the country with such allegations.

“There was no conflict of interest. At the time, I was not involved in politics. I was a businessman just like the other upstanding businessmen who benefited from this arrangement (with Caroni (1975) Ltd).

At the UNC meeting on Monday night, Persad-Bissessar also alleged that Cummings had other questions to answer including his involvement in the so-called Drugs Sou-Sou (DSS) scheme.

"Did you work with the DSS in the 2020 general elections to induce voters? Was your life threatened by the same persons who worked with you to get votes in that election, after they lost all their money? Do you now have to walk with security in your own constituency because you are afraid?” she asked.

Responding to the DSS claims, Cummings said since the PNM put a general election licking on the UNC, that party and its leaders have been trying to pin that programme on him, as MP for La Horquetta/Talparo.

He reminded that a former police commissioner had said that no MP was under investigation regarding the DSS. Cummings made no mention of Persad-Bissessar's Pical Ltd claims when he spoke on Tuesday evening at the PNM's public meeting in Diego Martin.