BIR investigating company with PNM connections

A media report in Trinidad and Tobago states that the country's Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) is investigating all financial payments made to a private housing company reportedly owned by relatives of a former PNM minister.

The report in the NEWSDAY newspaper says the BIR has asked the state-owned Housing Development Corporation (HDC) to provide financial records of all payments made to Trinity Housing Limited for the years 2003 and also from 2006 to 2009.

The report says the HDC replied to letters from the BIR stating that it paid more than $51.8 to Trinity Housing Limited for the income years 2004/2005 for houses built for the HDC in Pleasantville and Corinth Hills in south Trinidad.

Newsday says according to its sources the BIR is seeking additional information on payments made to Broadway Properties, which is also affiliated to Trinity Housing Limited, and which was contracted by the former PNM administration to build schools.

A letter dated October 6, 2008 to Alwin Chow of Trinity Housing Limited confirmed Joint Venture Contract for the design, finance and construction of building works for the sum of $97.5 million, the paper states adding that the contract was for the La Horquetta Housing Development.

Last month, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan spoke about contracts to Trinity Housing amounting to $398 million, claiming that the PNM government's accelerated housing program “facilitated a feeding frenzy at the trough at the expense of the poor and homeless who were waiting on homes”.