Hinds slams ‘no show’ at PAEC meeting

The chairman and some board members of the Education Facilities Co Ltd (EFCL) were chided for  failing to appear at yesterday’s Public Accounts (Enterprises) Committee (PAEC) meeting held in Parliament. The committee’s chairman, Opposition senator Fitzgerald Hinds, noted that the EFCL’s chairman Ronald Phillip was absent, as he was in Haiti on business.

“Based on the dictates of the Constitution and the standing orders, we would expect persons we invite to make themselves present, and, if not, demonstrate very good reason,” Hinds said. He also cited a written request the EFCL sent to the committee on Monday, asking whether some board members could sit in the public gallery.

“Let me state that when we invite someone to this committee, it is not for that person to merely sit in the public gallery,” Hinds said. “We invite that person to be before us for good and specific reasons.” The majority of the discussion, which lasted just over a half a hour, was spent deliberating the letter, the chairman’s absence and Hinds repeatedly pointing out that the committee had the powers to summon “persons, papers and records.”

The examination of the audited accounts for 2008 to 2010 had to be postponed. Hinds also questioned the status of the 2011 financial accounts. Carmen Aquan, divisional manager of finance, said the EFCL had a first draft and was expected to be completed within two weeks.

She added that the company’s financial year concluded in September 2010. Questioned afterwards, Kiran Shah, the EFCL’s acting CEO, assured that all projects were on stream, but did not rule out the possibility that the ongoing strike at Trinidad Cement Ltd could negatively affect targeted schedules.