00:00Former Finance Minister Colm Imbert says government is making amateurish accusations about the refusal of board members to resign, which is consistent with the change in government.
00:12He says Plebdeco, Angostura and FCB are publicly traded companies.
00:17The directors of these companies have a fiduciary duty to serve the interests of the organization rather than their own interests.
00:26To change the board of Plebdeco, you have to have a meeting, a special meeting of shareholders.
00:35Imbert says resigning will be a breach of the Securities and Exchange Act.
00:39It will be irresponsible of the directors of Plebdeco, which is a limited liability company, so it's governed by the Companies Act and by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the rules of the stock exchange.
00:54It will be completely irresponsible of them to just resign just so.
00:58If you look at one of the articles in the newspaper this morning, you see the chairman of Plebdeco making the point.
01:06The new group of directors has not been proposed.
01:10So what you're going to do, tell them, just go and what you know, have a listed company on the stock exchange with no board.
01:16But that's why I call them amateurs.
01:20All that is required, he says, is for shareholders to come forward and ask the current board to exit and convene a meeting to change directors.
01:29Imbert says it is completely different from a wholly owned state enterprise that is not listed.
01:35These people have fiduciary responsibilities.
01:39They could be fined.
01:40They could be fined by the by the the registrar of companies.
01:43They could be fined by the SEC.
01:47They can't just resign just so.
01:50They have a responsibility.
01:52This is a listed company.
01:54You think the directors of FCB could just opt and resign just so?
01:57And decisions have to be made on a day-to-day basis in these entities.
02:02You got it?
02:03Another PNM MP criticizes what he calls the scandalizing of board members.
02:09Persons who are being scandalized, not only public servants.
02:13I want to mark this part that there are a number of employees of companies who are being targeted as well.
02:20And again, to repeat the caution, when you see the reportage that ministers of government are arriving at entities
02:29and calling for contracts and reviewing contracts themselves as ministers,
02:34that is a breach of the minister's reach.
02:37It is an action that is outside of the law.
02:41But the targeting of persons, the use of their photos and accompanying demonizing words
02:47is, according to one senator, an unlawful act.
02:51You raised a very significant issue as it relates to the posting of persons' personal information
02:58and aggressive attacks on social media.
03:03It is the quintessential definition of cyberbullying.
03:06And in Trinidad and Tobago, it is illegal.
03:10Additionally, such acts can lead to difficulties in getting the right people to serve.
03:15In time to time, in doing consultations, people making it very clear that they're not going to offer themselves to serve on boards.
03:22Because what they are seeing is that, based on the government's action,
03:30an affair is being put into the public domain.
03:34And people feel that they're going to find their pictures, probably even their personal business,
03:39on the television, on the radio, on Facebook, and social media.
03:45And as we said, particularly permanent secretaries and deputy permanent secretaries.
03:49I mean, when you have an incident like that, everybody becomes fearful that you can be the next person
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