Roodal: Why government so silent on PWC questionable action?

The Rowley regime has still not responded to my disclosure about the serious criminal activities of auditing firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) at taxpayer-owned entities.

I revealed to the House of Representatives last Friday that in December 2015 the government had facilitated PwC in several illegal functions, including gross professional misconduct.

The unlawful acts included entering the premises of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) without the consent of the Board of Directors and seizing confidential documents and other items. PwC was selected without a public tender to conduct an audit.

In addition, the Trinidad and Tobago Mortgage Finance Company Ltd., (TTMF) breached confidentiality clauses and overstepped its strict legal boundaries in providing sensitive and classified information to PwC about senior HDC officials who were arbitrarily fired by the Rowley regime.

The auditing firm by-passed the Minister of Housing and HDC’s Board of Directors and reported directly to Minister of Everything Stuart Young.

Further, at a time of a critical shortage of foreign currency, PwC was paid US $138,000 in American currency denomination.

Minister of Finance Colm Imbert, Minister of Housing Randall Mitchell and other government ministers contributed to the debate on my parliamentary motion but none responded to the expose on the misconduct of PwC.

There has also been no public statement from the government in the subsequent days.

The normally-loquacious Mr. Young has been strangely silent on these acts of lawlessness and malfeasance.

PwC has also remained curiously hushed on the major slur on the firm’s professional integrity.

I will soon take this matter to the Integrity Commission and the relevant law enforcement agencies for a full investigation.

This issue further demonstrates the unbridled lawlessness of the Rowley regime, which continues to blatantly breach laws, statutory regulations and protocol, and engage in vulgar mal-governance.

In its 26 months in national office, the government has undertaken costly and dead-end political witch-hunts, subverted and undermined independent institutions and facilitated extensive corruption and nepotism.

The Rowley regime has also shielded friends and associates who are guilty of criminal wrongdoing and has expended millions of taxpayers’ dollars to seek to persecute and oppress its critics.

The co-opting of an international auditing company in criminal transgressions is a deeply disturbing development and illustrates the lengths to which the government will go to hound and harass those who stand in opposition to the worst administration in Trinidad and Tobago’s modern history.