CEPEP chairman: Cro Cro a good worker

CHAIRMAN of the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP) Ashton Ford says he will host a press conference on Tuesday at his office in Ste Madeleine to address the controversy involving former calypso monarch, Weston Rawlins, calypsonian Cro Cro.

Ford said investigations are continuing into the incident after which Cro Cro was suspended as the result of the release of a video showing him using obscene language while on the job as a regional co-ordinator with the state-owned company.

“The investigators will submit reports on Monday, after which management of CEPEP will sit and consider before making a decision on Cro Cro’s position with the company,” Ford said.

From the monthly reports by supervisors at CEPEP, he said, it appears Cro Cro is a good worker.

“Given the fact that he is a calypsonian, he is the grassroot kind of person and he knows how to interact with workers,” Ford said.

The CEPEP boss says he cannot pre-judge Cro Cro and is awaiting information from investigations to put forward a decision.

In a previous report, Ford said the views, information or opinions expressed in the recent video of an employee using offensive language belong solely to the individual and did not in any way whatsoever represent those of CEPEP. The company apologised for any distress caused by the individual’s utterances and said necessary measures would be put in place to avoid any similar occurrences.

In the 41-second video posted on social media on Tuesday, Cro Cro was shouting and cursing another driver while driving a CEPEP pick-up van.

In his defence Cro Cro told the media the person who recorded him made racist remarks and he retaliated. The man involved in the altercation with Cro Cro denied using a racist slur at the calypsonian. On Friday, the man told Newsday he and his wife were driving to Port of Spain from Couva, at around 1.30 pm, and were behind Cro Cro in Chase Village when they noticed him driving carelessly while speaking on the phone.

The man said he did not know it was Cro Cro in the Mercedes-Benz E350, owned by CEPEP.

“My wife wanted to show how careless the driver was and she began taping him,” the man said. The video posted on social media was a recording of the entire incident, he said.

“We don’t want any more bacchanal to come from this, which is part of the reason why I don’t want to give my name. I don’t wish him bad or want him to lose his job.

“But he has to know that he was in the wrong and if we were slower to react, we could have been in a bad accident or worse yet, dead.”

On Friday, Princes Town MP Barry Padarath questioned Cro Cro’s position at CEPEP, saying he intends to write to the Equal Opportunity Commission with a freedom of information request on CEPEP’s recruitment terms and conditions. Padarath said CEPEP should have fired Rawlins and he believes the singer owes the people of this country an apology for his obscene behaviour.