Warner stumbles on corrupt practices at Lake Asphalt

Jack take a bite. "Hmmm. Wonder how this pitch tastes?"

Jack Warner stumbled on some irregularities Monday when he made a visit to the state-owned Trinidad Lake Asphalt company.

The Works and Infrastructure minister learned that the company cannot account for millions of gallons of asphalt and bitumen. 

Warner had arranged a meeting with company officials to discuss complaints by contractors about difficulty in obtaining bitumen to complete projects.

However during a presentation by CEO Deonarine Sarabjit the minister heard about corrupt practices allegedly involving contractors and Petrotrin officials.

Warner wanted to know whether the problem is similar to the diesel racket and asked for details about "where the bitumen is going and who are the culprits behind it.” 

Warner was confused that Lake Asphalt was saying the company's supply was greater than the demand for the product. The company's chairman told the minister that investigations have revealed that contractors are requesting more asphalt than required for projects. He said he cannot explain where the excess material is going.

Kuarlal Rampersad said his board implemented measures since January to deal with the problem. He noted that in one instance a contractor asked for 3.2 million barrels of bitumen to do a project, but only “one point, something” was used. 

He added that another contractor bought three million gallons to fix a road, but the company later found out that the Ministry of Works had not hired the contractors to do any jobs in the country.

“When we did our investigations we realised that certain contractors have this alliance, this relationship with Petrotrin people, so they will call and they will move in with the trucks and then they will make their demands, fill up bitumen,” he said. 

Warner wanted to know why the matter was not brought up before. Rampersad explained that his board found the irregularities three months ago following an investigation by the Ministry of Energy. Warner was not informed because he was not the line minister, he said.

Rampersad told the minister the previous Energy Minister, Carolyn Seepersad Bachan, and the current minister, Kevin Ramnarine, are aware of the situation.