Independent Senator David Small yesterday read the Riot Act to directors of the Education Facilities Company Ltd (EFCL) who failed to show up for a Joint Select Committee (JSC) meeting in Parliament, accusing them of absconding and threatening to have them summoned to the next sitting.
“The EFCL board members seem to have gone into hiding. But they can run but they can’t hide,” Small, the JSC chairman, warned.
The JSC had called EFCL and other government officials to explore the efficiency and effectiveness of the State-owned company, which is responsible for construction, maintenance, repair, outfitting and furnishing of schools and for the textbook rental programme.
The board was installed by the People’s National Movement (PNM) after it came into Government in September 2015. The old board was fired following allegations of corruption. But the new board has also been under fire for similar allegations, including the awarding of multiple contracts to various entities under one parent company and having a board director award tenders to a company he has links with.
Small minced no words as he chastised the absent board members, saying their no show was gross disrespect and will not be tolerated. They thumbed their noses at the people of T&T, he said.
He said the committee was left extremely dissatisfied, disappointed and in despair. He said board members wanted to be in charge of State companies but did not want to be accountable to the public, but those in charge of State resources must be accountable.
EFCL chairman Arnold Piggott, who resigned last Friday to protect his reputation and family’s name, he said, was absent.
“The chairman decided to move on,” Small said, apparently forgiving his absence.
But Small had a major problem with the no show of EFCL vice-chairman, Ricardo Vasquez, and members Indu Sharma, Christopher Braithwaite, Anthony Bisnath, Jeffrey Julien-Francis, Dean Burgen and Steven Samlalsingh. He repeated their names at the start and end of the meeting.
“The vice-chairman decided not to be present for personal reasons. It seems he has more pressing things to attend to than account to the people. The committee takes serious umbrage to that.”
Small praised lone director Clyde Permell for turning up, saying his mother had taught him manners.
To compound the situation, the JSC heard board members were summoned to a mandatory meeting with Education Minister Anthony Garcia at 2 pm yesterday.
EFCL directors, if they had attended, would have had to rush from the JSC, which usually ends at 12.30 pm, to the 2 pm meeting with Garcia.
Small said the JSC is not judge and jury, but any attempt to stymie its work will be met with the stiffest resistance.
Addressing EFCL directors who may have been watching the JSC sitting via its live stream, he drew their attention to Standing Orders of Parliament that give the committee power to issue summons to make people attend meetings. He said his committee was giving this option “active consideration,” since they plan to call the EFCL to a second hearing and this time there will be no “wiggle room.
“They have to understand that when they are summoned they have to appear. The marshal of Parliament can summon them but I don’t want to go that way.”
Small said JSC members had many questions to ask the EFCL about the allegations swirling around it but its directors were not there to answer them.
