Kamla steals Roget’s thunder

Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar contributing to the Procurement Bill debate.
Photo Courtesy: Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago
WHEN Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) president general Ancel Roget was a foreman at Trinmar Ltd, there was an incident where he “exhibited gross carelessness and negligence in the execution of his duties” and almost killed a colleague.
In an attempt to cover up the near-fatal incident, Roget sought to bribe the “injured employee to keep his mouth shut” by offering him $300.
Roget also gave “false testimony” during an investigation into the matter.
The committee which investigated the incident recommended “the maximum disciplinary action commensurate with the findings be implemented” against Roget as a result of his endangering of a colleague’s life and then trying to conceal it.
The OWTU also “pressured” those present to give false information on the event to the investigating committee.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar made these revelations during yesterday’s sitting of the House of Representatives, at Tower D, International Waterfront Centre, Port of Spain, as she read an internal audit report from Trinmar, dated November 1999.
While Persad-Bissessar was making those disclosures, Roget was leading the Joint Trade Union Movement’s (JTUM) national march against “Korruption”. Persad-Bissessar said the “massive march buss”.
“Right now, I am told that the massive march that the member for Laventille West spoke about ‘buss’. The massive march that you planned, even though your leader may have gone to join them, that has been extinguished, that march has been extinguished,” the PM added.
“And it will distinguish itself as being the most advertised march that just went totally squib and buss,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar said on Sunday, September 19, 1999, an incident occurred on Platform 22 at Trinmar where Compressor Unit #25 was restarted while a casual employee named Irvin Toolsie was in the cooler box.
Toolsie’s “right ankle and foot were injured in the process by the fan hub/rotating blades of the compressor fan”.
The compressor was on for “approximately two to three minutes before it was shut down”.Toolsie could have been killed.
Roget was the foreman on the day of the incident.
Rumours began circulating about the incident and the head of the compressor group, Servatius Johnson, approached Toolsie and asked for a statement on the issue.
On October 21, 1999, Toolsie submitted a statement.
On October 22, 1999, a committee was established to investigate the incident.
This investigation found “all four members of the repair crew initially conspired to conceal the accident”.
Roget denied the incident occurred when interviewed by the investigating committee.
The OWTU was “pressuring all the crew members to withhold the truth and encouraged them to give false information to the investigative committee”.
“This was evidenced when Abrahim Mohammed gave a false account of what happened on Platform 22 on September 19, 1999, to the committee, in which a union representative was present,” the audit stated.
“Two days later, in the presence of a commissioner of affidavits, Mr A Mohammed gave the actual account of the events surrounding the accident that occurred on Compressor Unit #25 on September 19, 1999.”
Mohammed said he was “badgered by union officials” who constantly called his home “at all hours of the night” to ensure he withheld the truth from the committee.
Trinmar requested legal advice from law firm Boynes & Co on the issue on November 22, 1999.
“In conclusion, it is open to Trinmar to take the ultimate disciplinary action of summary dismissal against Roget on the grounds of (i) negligence, (ii) failure to follow company’s procedure, (iii) giving misleading and false information to the investigative committee, the representative of management,” the advice stated.