Annisette on 6 state boards and Senate

Independent Senator and trade unionist Michael Annisette is a director of at least six state companies, a report in the Trinidad Guardian stated Tuesday. It added that Annisette will likely chair the board of Nipdec.

Annisette is also a member of the UDeCOTT board and has been a staunch supporter of Calder Hart, who quite as UDeCOTT executive chairman last week and left the country.

He and other UDeCOTT directors are under pressure to resign as well but the Senator has insisted that there is no reason for him to leave.

The Guardian said it made checks on the websites of state-owned special purpose companies and discovered that Annisette is listed as a director:

• UDeCOTT
• The National Insurance Board (NIB)
• The National Insurance Property Development Company (Nipdec)
• Trinidad and Tobago Mortgage Finance (TTMF)
• Home Mortgage Bank (HMB)
• Port Authority.

TTMF is jointly owned by the NIB and the Government in a 51/49 per cent ratio.

the paper says Annisette receives thousands of dollars a month to serve as a director on the six boards in addition to his Parliamentary salary.

Hart was chairman of five of those companies—Udecott, NIB, Nipdec, TTMF and HMB—until his resignation on Saturday.

The Guardian said 19 people serve on the five state boards boards that Hart headed. Annisette is the only one, apart from Hart, who is a director on all five boards, it said.

Independent Senators are reported to be trying to arrange a meeting with President Richards to discuss Annisette’s status in the upper chamber. They are uncomfortable with his stand on the UDeCOTT issue, especially his staunch defence of Hart, which they say compromises his independence.