Businessman Emile Elias has written to the President asking Max Richards to revoke Michael Annisette's appointment as an Independent Senator. Annisette is also a director of embattled Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT).In his letter date Oct. 2 the business executive said his concern is over what he called "reckless and untrue" comments Annisette made about him. He said removing Anisette would also lead to good governance.
Elias in the executive chairman of NHIC Ltd, the construction company that won the contract for the Cleaver heights Housing development in Arima.
That's the controversial project that Prime Minister Patrick Manning referred to when he suggested that $10 million was missing and that former cabinet minister Keith Rowley should explain how that happened. Rowley was housing minister when the project started.
On Thursday Annisette attacked both Elias and Rowley when he spoke in the Senate debate on the Validation Act to give retroactive validity to the Uff Commission of Enquiry.
According to the letter, details of which are published in the Sunday Express, Elias said Annisette's behaviour in Parliament amounts to an abuse of his office.
"It is without doubt, intolerable, improper and an outright abuse of office for Independent Senator Annisette to use his constitutionally sacred office to malign me as a private citizen and wrongfully attack NHIC, a law-abiding corporate citizen, while sheltering under the cloak of parliamentary privilege," Elias wrote.
"Indeed, the disturbing conduct of Senator Annisette...ought not to be viewed in isolation. It must also be remembered that he continues to hold the position of board member of UDeCOTT, a company owned and controlled by the State which is the subject of an ongoing Commission of Enquiry set up by your Excellency at which serious allegations have been made, including allegations about the good governance and improper use of public funds.
"Further still, Senator Annisette holds the position of board member of five other state companies or entities, which, as convention shows, is often reserved for persons sympathetic to the political party in power (the PNM).
"By his conduct Senator Annisette has demonstrated that he is not an independent person and wholly unsuitable to continue to hold the high constitutional office to which you have appointed him.
"His disgraceful conduct has not only brought the independent benches into disrepute, but by extension, the entire Parliament and our national institutions have been diminished in the eyes of the public."
Annisette is the president of the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union and has been a staunch defender of UDeCOTT. In April when he first stood up for UDeCOTT amid allegations of corruption, there were several calls for Annisette's resignation on the grounds that he was aligned to the PNM and could not perform his funaction as an indpenendent member of the upper house of Parliament.
Last week he defended UDeCOTT's right to seek a constitutional review and said even the government was out of place to try to block that since the organization had every right to protect its interests.
Then he said he would seek legal advice on whether he should attend the debate of the validation act on the grounds of apparent bias because he is a member of the UDeCOTT board. However he chose to participate in the debate and went after Elias and Rowley.
In the letter to the president, Elias stated his concern about the senator's "attempt to tarnish my character and denigrate my company."
Elias quoted Annisette's remarks as recorded in the official Hansard:
"NH International Caribbean Ltd registered where? In the Cayman Islands, British West Indies? Do you know what that means? That he has gotten over a billion dollars of taxpayers' money for doing Government's work but his company is registered in a tax haven. What does that mean? Nothing comes back to Trinidad and Tobago. Dr Rowley eh talk about that. Nobody eh mention dat. No one mentioned. What is ironic? I will show you the connection."
In refuting the claim, Elias told the president: "NHIC is an international construction company, 100 per cent owned by citizens and permanent residents of Trinidad and Tobago and has operated in 11 jurisdictions over the last 12 years. NHIC has submitted tax returns to the Trinidad and Tobago Inland Revenue every single year and paid all taxes according to law."
Elias also drew a political connection between Elias and Rowley, which Elias outlined using Hansard records. In reference to Rowley, Annisette said, "Didn't Emile Elias finance you in 1996 with the People's National Movement? Yes he contributed. How much? I can't say because he has somebody in charge. I know that is not so. I could tell you de amount but I wouldn't embarrass him. Ah could tell you de amount. You want to know? $500,000...Landate Report. We are talking about corruption."
He called on the Attorney General to investigate "because it is recommended that he (Elias) be charged for larceny. Do you want me to bring it for you? We are talking about corruption and I am showing the connection. I am not worried about that."
Elias told the president, "Neither I nor any company I am associated with, ever gave a $500,000 contribution to Dr Rowley in 1996, nor since then."
He called the accusation "a gross distortion and misrepresentation" of the findings of the Landate investigation, noting that "all it effectively said was that the 'appropriate authority' should conduct an investigation to determine whether NHIC removed Nipdec material from the Scarborough Hospital site and took it to the Landate Development project and if this is so found it should take appropriate action."
Elias charged that Annisette acted irresponsibly since he made the accusations without contacting him of his company to verify whether if any of the charges or to give him a chance to comment on them, adding that "such conduct...when taken together with the nature of statements uttered by him, admits, at the very least, of a reckless predisposition to injure the reputation and character of me and my company without any regard to the consequences."
It is not the first time Elias has challenged allegations of corruption levied against him by a parliamentarian.
Earlier this year, he won a case in the courts for slander and libel against Ganga Singh, former MP for Caroni East, over similar allegations made about the Landate matter.
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