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OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Tuesday said the Government’s earlier rejection of a bid to buy the refinery by Patriotic Energies and Technologies Ltd was “no surprise” as the Government never had any such intent.
She said just as the Prime Minister told citizens the refinery would not be shut down, the PNM had never intended to honour its pledge to sell it to its former workers.
“Today's press conference with Minister of Finance Colm Imbert and Minister of Energy Franklin Khan only raises more questions than answers.
“If Patriotic Energies had no set means of financing, on what basis did the Government award them the refinery in the first place?”
Persad-Bissessar asked why was Finance Minister Colm Imbert so confident in October of 2019 that the refinery would be reopened in 12 months?
“It is clear now that all these promises by the Government, pre-election, to place the refinery in the hands of the citizens were just baseless election gimmicks.”
She said any serious government would have addressed the Petrotrin issue months before the 2020 general election, to ensure the refinery reopening and curb foreign exchange shortages and unemployment there.
“However, they chose to put politics above people by allowing this to become yet another failed promise.”
Persad-Bissessar hit the Government for worsening the refinery’s state by leaving it idle.
“Given that the Petrotrin refinery has been shut for almost three years now, and with ever-increasing costs to restart it, who will now want to purchase this asset?”
Referring to the embargo-hit Government of Venezuela, led by President Nicolas Maduro, she said, “We must also ask the question of whether or not the Government will allow the Maduro regime the opportunity to purchase the refinery?”
Persad-Bissessar said the destruction of Petrotrin plus an unfolding crisis at the Point Lisas Industrial Estate owing to, allegedly, bad gas negotiations, now puts TT’s energy sector in complete meltdown.
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