OPPOSITION Kamla Persad-Bissessar wants to know how a newly-formed company by the Oilfield Workers Trade Union could purchase the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery.
On Friday, Minister of Finance Colm Imbert revealed that the preferred bidder Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Limited will acquire the company at $700 million.
Persad-Bissessar said that while at face value the Opposition had no objections to the sale of the refinery to locals, there were several outstanding questions, namely:
- The Minister needs to explain how a company incorporated on December 4th2018, just about ten months ago, would be able to provide finance and expertise to secure a multibillion dollar industrial asset.
- The Minister must explain the Cabinet’s decision to sell the refinery without undertaking any due diligence on the preferred bidder. We also call upon the Minister of Finance to state urgently any and all foreign partners associated with the preferred company.
- The Government must explain under what circumstances they have taken a decision to give away a multibillion-dollar asset, without the payment of a single dollar to a company that is less than one year old.
