Talisman Appeal - Day One; Auditor General questions registrar's accounting; and...
Piarco Probe: Airport managers not qualified

By Charleen Thomas, Newsday TT

SEVERAL executive managers employed at the Airports Authority (AA) are not qualified to hold their positions, yet they continue to be employed at the authority.

Further, some of them received cash in lieu of vacation leave in 2000 and 2001, with at least two of them receiving both cash and vacation leave. Chairman of the authority Linus Rogers, continued to make disclosures about practices at the authority, when he continued his evidence at the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco airport project at the Caribbean Court of Justice, Port-of-Spain.

Rogers also spoke of a contract awarded in the sum of $4.7 million for a two year period to a St Augustine contractor, of which the "inexperienced" Corporate Secretary knows nothing about, and which because of the sum, should have been before the authority's tenders committee.

Rogers was led in his fourth day of evidence by the Commission's lead attorney, Theodore Guerra, SC.

Rogers read into the records, the CV's of several managers, including Joshey Mahabir, Manager, Finance and Administration; Ishwar Jadoonanan, Manager, Human Resources; Balliram Ramdial, Manager, Procurement and Services; Trevor Benjamin, Manager, Operations; Dennis John, Manager, Security; and Javed Khan, Corporate Secretary.

In all instances, Rogers said the men did not even have the minimum requirement for the jobs they held, which in most cases were five to seven years experience in the respective fields in addition to a degree.

In the case of Khan, a lawyer, he was admitted to the bar in October 2000, before getting the job of Corporate Secretary in 2001. In the case of Benjamin, prior to him getting the job as Operations Manager, he was a General Sciences teacher and project manager on the construction sites of Royal Palm hotel and Value Optical Ltd retail outlets.

Rogers also testified yesterday that Mahabir, Benjamin, Jadoonanan, Ramdial and John were paid cash in lieu of vacation leave ending December 31, 2000. Rogers said in the case of Mahabir and Jadoonanan, they received in addition to the cash payments for vacation, actual vacation leave.

Questioned by Commissioner Marie Ange Knights, about the general policy at the authority about vacation, Rogers said as far as he was told, there is no policy on "buy out leave" and his efforts to get copies of set policies have been without success. Rogers later disclosed that a contract for a two year period in the sum of $5 million ($207,300 a month), was given to Expert Landscaping Maintenance Services Ltd of St Augustine, owned by Ramesh Seecharan, to do grass cutting work at mainly the old terminal. He said the contract was signed on November 27, 2001 by Mahabir and Seecharan. However the authority did not see a copy of the contract until it attempted to terminate the contract by letter dated August 30, 2002.

Rogers said the authority was informed by the contractor's attorney Israel Khan, SC, that attempts by the authority to terminate the contract would result in the authority being sued, because there are expressed provisions under which the contract cannot be terminated.

Rogers also pointed out that the scope of work in the contract did not include work at the new terminal, but he found a list of the scope of services for the new terminal attached to a letter by Mahabir dated November 14, 2001.

Rogers said the Corporate Secretary, Javed Khan should have been aware of the contract, but he has said he knew nothing of it. Reading the contract into evidence, Rogers said there was also no endorsement by the parties on the pages, since the signatures agreeing to the provisions appears before the terms and conditions.

Rogers agreed that because of the sum of the contract, it should have gone to the authority's tenders committee to be awarded by competitive bidding. Rogers will continue giving evidence today.