By FRANCIS JOSEPH, Newsday/TT

ATTORNEY GENERAL Glenda Morean-Phillip brought a rowdy Opposition bench to complete silence when she announced that a former UNC Government Minister had US$130,000 (TT$800,000) transferred to his account in an offshore bank in Jersey, one of the Channel Islands off England.

Morean-Phillip also revealed that another former UNC Government Minister William Chaitan was directly involved in withdrawing the award of the Southwest Soldado project from Texas-based FW Oil. The Texas company is now seeking US$100 million from the TT Government for unlawful termination of their oil and gas contract. The Attorney General was speaking during the debate in the House of Representatives on the proposals for the Supplementation and Variation of the 2003 Appro-priation Bill. With a full complement of Government Members present and a rowdy Opposition bench, AG Morean-Phillip spent a lot of time explaining the FW Oil matter. She was also responding to former UNC Attorney General Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who spoke earlier in the debate, calling for the AG to resign. But the revelations of the cheques brought complete silence in the House. Morean-Phillip said after last Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, she announced Government’s plans to deal with the FW Oil matter.

"I know when these allegations were made, a certain Minister got up and said it is not me. I did not say a thing about any Minister. I did not call names. I did not use the word bribe, I said improper consideration, as was stated here." Morean-Phillip continued, "Here you have two cheques of US$50,000 being transferred in a Minister’s account in the name of himself and his wife in a foreign bank in Jersey. You have two cheques for US$20,000 and US$10,000 respectively being transferred into this very Minister’s account. These are cheques in the possession of the Government," she added. The AG added, "I will say no more, these investigations are still ongoing. This is not a question of lies, this is a question of a Government ensuring that corruption is rooted out of this country. We are not sitting back and hiding anything. You make an allegation about anyone in this Government, we stand up and say yes, investigation and when the report comes, it will be laid here. We have no sacred cows. Anyone of us found in any impropriety, we will pay the price," Morean-Phillip promised.

The Attorney General repeated her statement relating to FW Oil’s claim for compensation. Quoting from a summary of the matter presented by attorneys for FW Oil, Morean-Phillip pointed out that officials of TT’s state enterprises requested a US$1.5 million bribe in connection with an oil and gas contract. She said that in July 2000, acting through intermediaries, certain TT officials demanded the bribe and threatened to block FW Oil’s proposals unless the bribe was paid. "They later caused a fax to be sent to FWO that listed a Cayman Island bank account and demanding US$200,000 to be deposited into the account as the first payment on a bribe. FWO again refused. The officials then engaged in a campaign of disinformation designed to force FWO’s removal as the successful bidder and abused their oversight positions at Petrotrin and the TT Government to block Trinmar from proceeding with the award."

Morean-Phillip pointed out that former Junior Energy Minister William Chaitan, acting in his own self interest and without board approval, inserted the final paragraph of a letter withdrawing the award from FWO. Chaitan held an interest in a Canadian energy company that was a potential bidder for the Soldado Fields project. It was thought that Chaitan was trying to guide the project to that company. The AG ended, "as a responsible Government, as a Government committed to transparency and accountability in all its dealings, this government, unlike the last Government could not sit idly by and allow these allegations to remain on the record." Efforts to reach Chaitan last night were unsuccessful as he was said to be out of the country.