THE Community Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP) board will have seven directors and headed by Dane Maharaj.
Speaking to reporters out of the Red House Port of Spain on Monday as he headed into an Extraordinary Sitting of Parliament, Minister of Public Utilities Barry Padarath said, “We will announce probably later today the names of the persons who have been appointed to the CEPEP board.”
However, during the marathon session debating the State of Emergency and its extension, neither Padarath nor his governmental colleagues addressed the CEPEP board of directors.
Before entering the Red House, Padarath was asked why there was such a wait to name the board.
Padarath said, “Well, there was no specific reason as it relates to the names from the public, but we were waiting for the board to have a full complement of members before making a formal announcement.”
He said despite having not been formally announced to the public the board was currently engaged in revamping operations of CEPEP.
Padarath said, “As I have indicated before, they have been working assiduously over the past couple of weeks, we had some additions to the board and those names will be made public.
The minister said seven persons had been appointed to board, which he confirmed was headed by Maharaj, whom he added had a background in environmental sciences and was familiar with the operations of CEPEP.
Padarath said the board, which had been in place for over a month, had been given the immediate mandate to “review the operations of CEPEP.”
He added, “As you are aware their audits are being done right now with respect to the extension of over 323 contracts as well as the operations in terms of the company itself.”
Padarath said, “One of the main things the board is looking at is the audited financial statements. CEPEP has not been audited for the last seven years, so that is one of the main things they have been mandated to focus on in terms of getting audited financial statements available to the parliament, which by law is required to be laid in the House of Representatives.”
Asked when contractors will be hired now that a board is in place, Padarath answered, “The board in of itself is making its recommendations to the government. The government is also reviewing those policies in regard to CEPEP, URP and Reforestation, so in due course we will share that with the national community in terms of what is the government’s policy and plan for these companies going ahead.”
