00:00From Samoa, where he is leading a delegation of the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government
00:05meeting, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has weighed in on a matter that occupied the attention
00:10of the Senate during its debate of the Appropriation Bill for the 2025 financial year.
00:16That matter is the mothballed state-owned oil refinery in Pointe-a-Pierre, which was
00:20closed down in late 2018 as part of the government restructuring of the state-owned oil company
00:27from Petrotrin into Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Limited, TPHL.
00:32Prime Minister Rowley said the PNM is quite satisfied that his administration has fixed
00:37a problem at Petrotrin and that, quote, all that was left was the retired refinery, temporary
00:43or permanent, we don't know, but what we do know is that unless there is an investor willing
00:48to fund the restart and fund a supply of crude, the refinery is not a good business for the
00:55taxpayers to re-enter, end quote.
00:58During the Senate's budget debate, the Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, Wade
01:02Mark, linked Indian businessman Naveen Jindal to one of the three companies on the Cabinet-appointed
01:08Evaluation Committee's shortlist to restart the refinery.
01:12In response to calls from Senator Mark for the process to be scrapped and a forensic
01:16audit to commence into it, Acting Prime Minister and Energy Minister Stuart Young told the
01:20Senate that the shortlist process will continue.
01:23Mr. Jindal is an MP in India's Parliament and is also the Chairman of Jindal Steel and
01:28Power Limited.
01:29In a letter to Prime Minister Rowley in August of this year, Mr. Jindal said his company
01:33withdrew its interest in the refinery due to unjust attacks and character assassination
01:39by those Mr. Jindal identified as official opposition parties in Trinidad and Tobago.
01:45The opposition UNC raised objections after the circulation on social media of a Forbes
01:50news story dated June 12, 2013, which reported that India's Central Bureau of Investigation
01:57filed a case against Mr. Jindal and a former coal minister for allegedly misallocating
02:02mining rights.
02:04TV6 News discovered that Mr. Jindal, 10 years ago, addressed that matter.
02:09Let them prove their charge because their charge is also completely bogus.
02:14I mean the company, the charges of the kickback is that one of our companies, which I have
02:20nothing to do in.
02:21I am not a director, I have no management role, I am just a shareholder in that company.
02:26That company has given loan to somebody and which loan has been recovered with interest.
02:33What that person or the company who was given loan, if they buy in some company's stocks
02:39at market prices, that is not corruption.
02:41In a Facebook post upon Samoa, Prime Minister Rowley said that at a working session on Friday
02:45afternoon, those in attendance received the report of the Secretary General of the Commonwealth.
02:50The Prime Minister said inside the back cover page of the document is a photograph which
02:54has been received without murmur by 56 Commonwealth countries represented by their Kings, Prime
03:01Ministers and other leaders.
03:02That photograph dated August 2022 shows Mr. Jindal with the caption quote, receiving Lifetime
03:08Achievement Award and Justice Medal from OP Jindal Global University New Delhi, India
03:14end quote.
03:16Dr. Rowley said, isn't it ironic that at the same time, almost to the hour that Mr. Jindal
03:21is presented to the Commonwealth in this way, he is being excoriated and slandered in the
03:26Trinidad and Tobago Parliament by the UNC.
03:29On Friday, the Prime Minister recalled that Mr. Jindal paid a courtesy call earlier this
03:33year for a few minutes and proceeded to put his technical people to work visiting the
03:38Guaracara Data Room in preparation for his group to put in a major proposal on the refinery
03:43restart operations.
03:45Prime Minister Rowley then said quote, who tell he to do that?
03:49The UNC heard about that.
03:50The last thing these miscreants want is for that refinery to be up and running.
03:55They don't want that to happen.
03:57They want to have it there in its current state so that they could try to score political
04:01points by attacking the PNM by frequently mentioning its existence, even when it doesn't
04:07make sense end quote.
04:09Prime Minister Rowley also said of the opposition, that has to be madness, but it is not before
04:13declaring it is pure, selfish, unpatriotic politics.
04:18Recalling what the Jindal group was proposing to invest, Dr. Rowley posed the question,
04:22what $500 million U.S. at point of pair would have done for thousands of people, individuals
04:27and businesses in what they call fence line communities.
04:31The Prime Minister then said in an apparent reference to the opposition, that they only
04:35care about themselves and they are only concerned about elections.
04:39The upcoming general election is due next year, 2025.
04:44Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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