MSJ calls for transparency in Clico divestment, Patriotic exclusion from refinery shortlist

A call is being made for transparency in the proposed divestment of government’s 49 per cent shareholding in Clico and in the omission of Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Ltd (Patriotic) from being shortlisted as a potential operator of the mothballed Pointe-a-Pierre refinery.

Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) leader David Abdulah stated his intention to oppose the divestment of these assets especially if the plan is to facilitate acquisition by another “big insurance company” or by foreign interest.

This would be done on the basis of the original concept of Clico’s founder Cyril Duprey, that it remain in national hands, he said..

In his $59.7 billion budget presentation, on September 30, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the government intends to embark on a number of special projects to generate much-needed revenue and to create jobs by divesting state assets he feels are better managed by the private sector.

He spoke of the divestment of the Magdalena hotel in Tobago, either for sale or lease, to encourage direct foreign investment, and local investment, especially in the tourism sector.

At the same time, Imbert spelled out government’s proposal to develop a new five-star resort hotel on the government-owned Buccoo estate in Tobago, which should be on the scale of the previous attempt of the proposed Sandals hotel.

Another measure that is anticipated to place several much needed billions in the country’s coffers, he said, is the sale of the government’s 49 per cent shareholding in Clico (Colonial Life Insurance Company).

He said government is still owed $13 billion from the Clico/CL Financial bailout.

Abdulah said Clico is a very valuable company which has significant shareholding in other institutions such as Republic Bank and Angostura, and it would be unforgivable should these assets end up in the wrong hands.

On the issue of the former Petrotrin refinery, Abdulah was aghast that government for another time, has rejected Patriotic as a potential owner/operator of this asset.

Ancel Roget, president general of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) which owns Patriotic, did not answer calls or questions about this latest blow to the union, opting to address the issue at the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) media briefing at BIGWU’s headquarters, Barataria, on October 3.

In 2022, when its bid to acquire the assets and put the refinery back into operation were again rejected, Roget said the union was treated with disrespect and called on government to spell out the key factors which prevented the deal from happening. Abdulah repeated that call for the criteria used in the evaluation process be made public. A Petrotrin retiree, Abdulah said little is known about the shortlisted companies and the local consortium does not seem to have any track record of being involved in refinery operation.

“We demand transparency, that the criteria used to evaluate be publicly disclosed along with the ranking of all ten submissions. Why Patriotic was excluded needs to be clarified,” he said.

Addressing the proposed sale or lease of the refinery, Imbert said three companies out of 10 which submitted proposals, were shortlisted for consideration to restart the refinery once there was no burden on the treasury.

The shortlisted companies are the TT-based CRO Consortium, comprising DR Commodities Ltd, Chemie-Tech and Ocala, the US-based INCA Energy LLC, and Oando PLC, of Nigeria.

The proposals were invited in February 2024 after two unsuccessful attempts to sell or lease the refinery because the preferred bidders were unable to show any tangible evidence of their ability to raise the necessary capital to reopen and operate the refinery, Imbert explained.

Imbert said Trinidad Petroleum Company (TPHL), the holding company that owns the assets of Petrotrin, started the third procurement process with expressions of interest from new bidders and the parties that participated in the previous attempts. Patriotic would have been one previous bidder.

Scotia Capital (USA) Inc (Scotia) was hired to manage third procurement process, with an evaluation committee of experts from the public and private sectors.

The bidders were asked to address a number of items in their expressions of interest: identification of the offerer (acquirer, lessee or joint venture partner), refinery restart and operational plans; transaction structure and key commercial terms, use of logistics assets (Paria), proof of qualification to own/operate the refining assets, and a description of the financing plan and potential sources of financing.

“It must be stressed that in this process, the government has no intention of exposing taxpayers to the recurring billion-dollar losses that occurred previously in the operation of the refinery, and the success of this venture is predicated on the principle that it be at no cost to the taxpayer,” Imbert said.