PRIME Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, who presided over the net flight of US $2.6 billion in investments in 2022-2023, is furious over objections to the suspicious entry of a corruption-accused businessman.
That is the summary of Rowley’s obsession with Naveen Jindal, whose attempt to lay hands on Petrotrin does not pass the smell test.
The Prime Minister is so outraged at legitimate queries over Jindal that he reached into his bottomless pit of offensive language, prompting the Express newspaper to remind us of the term “raging bull.”
The raw facts are that Jindal emerged as a preferred bidder for Petrotrin despite not making a formal application and being subjected to an official evaluation.
Nine local and international companies sent in proposals, which were reviewed by Scotia Capital USA, at a cost to taxpayers of $12 million.
Then a 12-member professional committee, headed by former Permanent Secretary and diplomat Vishnu Dhanpaul, examined and interviewed the short-listed bidders.
Jindal did not take part in that process.
He rode into town via references from Venezuela’s despots, although he recently backed out of a Caracas crude oil deal.
There has been no explanation for his withdrawal from the arrangement with State-owned Petroleos de Venezuela.
But the share price of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. fell months earlier when the Venezuelan agreement was revealed.
In his native India, Jindal remains on six corruption-related charges pertaining to a “coal scam” and money laundering.
Until a few months ago he required a court’s permission and had to provide a fixed deposit and certain assurances before he was permitted to leave the country for a set number of days.
When he jumped from one political party to another, a former senior colleague said he needed “a giant-sized washing machine.”
Jindal was involved in a natural gas scandal in Bolivia, where the Government cashed in a US $18 million guarantee, claiming the Indian businessman did not deliver on his commitment.
All of that should not exclude Jindal from an acceptable and authorised bid for our primary petrochemical asset, similar to other contenders.
But Rowley is hyperventilating over a chosen bidder in dubious circumstances.
The Prime Minister has sidestepped the fact that investments valued at US $2.6 billion left Trinidad and Tobago in 2022 and 2023.
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), a United Nations agency, provided that figure and said this is the only Caricom country that had a net flight of investors.
Ever Tom, Dick and Grenada welcomed foreign businesses.
But Rowley, who dubs himself the country’s main salesman, lost his cool when Jindal was featured on a magazine back cover.
He branded reasonable critics as “the most destructive, unpatriotic louts among us.”
No one has yet bothered to examine the continuous loss of investments at a time when Trade Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon leads foreign missions every few weeks.
Rowley’s Jindal obsession is absurd and disturbing.
