00:00In October of 2022, Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited was the victim of a phishing scam
00:07in which roughly US$200,000 was paid out to a fraudulent account.
00:12While these incidents are not unheard of, the Public Accounts Committee found it difficult
00:17to accept.
00:18This is not the body that did the job, but somebody else contacted Paria and said, look,
00:29things have happened, send this money, not to the people who did the job, but to this
00:35new person.
00:36Who in Paria did that and what action was taken?
00:43Officials declined to say exactly who was involved in the transaction.
00:47In fact, they confirmed that the person is still employed at the organisation.
00:53Any disciplinary action was taken by Paria against?
00:58We had discussions with the person involved, no disciplinary actions were taken specifically.
01:06However, that person was taken through extensive training.
01:10But Committee Vice-Chairman Ruston Paria questioned how only one person could have been involved
01:15in the transaction.
01:17For a corporate organisation like Paria, which I do not believe it is a one-man operation
01:24where one man gives an instruction to send 200,000 US dollars.
01:31And in this phishing, you know, I find it hard to believe, like Chairman, that nobody
01:40got locked up as yet for that.
01:43Paria confirms, however, that the fraud squad is investigating the matter.
01:48Is the board satisfied that there was no criminal action?
01:53If you recollect, it's with the TTPS at the moment, so they would be the ones that would
01:57have to decide.
01:58So they will decide?
01:59So that is not of the board at this time?
02:00Not at all.
02:01But Paria noted that other entities around the world were also victims of the attack.
02:07I am pleased to inform you that Paria has successfully recovered approximately 75% of
02:13the losses incurred from the incident, which I consider commendable.
02:20Seeing that it was an international cyber attack.
02:23Meantime, the Parliament is still awaiting consolidated financial statements from Trinidad
02:28Petroleum Holdings Limited from as far back as 2019.
02:32TPHL explains that it is still awaiting statements from Guarkara and Petrogen pending the resolution
02:38of some auditing issues.
02:41But once received, the statements for the four subsidiaries will be consolidated and
02:46submitted.
02:47I think that transition from Petrogen into Heritage was quick.
02:53I can't think I can hide the fact that it was traumatic, and therefore it resulted in
03:02a lot of information not transferring from one entity to the next.
03:07I am more fearful of our lenders, who also are anxious to see the consolidated documents.
03:16So the point about it is that there is a lot of incentive to get this thing completed
03:22as quickly as possible.
03:23But as you know, accounting regulations are changing regularly and we are trying to meet
03:29those requirements.
03:31Heritage and TPHL reported profits of $1.4 billion and $109.3 million respectively in
03:382019.
03:39Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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