The United National Congress (UNC) is calling for the resignations of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and chairman of the Massy Group for the misuse of foreign exchange.
Mark, during a press conference on Friday, said people have been focusing on the revelations made by Massy’s executive Angélique Parisot-Potter, who claimed the company was spending significant foreign exchange on “bizarre rituals” during leadership training sessions.
However, Mark said the real issue is the forex.
He claimed that citizens should have a vested interest in what the country’s limited foreign exchange is spent on as ultimately, they are shareholders in the Massy Group.
“The issue is not about obeah and Delphi, the issue is about the abuse and misuse of our scarce foreign exchange, which belongs to every citizen of our republic. And the Prime Minister instead of addressing this issue he dismisses it in a very flippant manner,” Mark underscored.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to remind you that at Massy there are some three State owned companies that have interests, that have shares in Massy,” Mark said. Attempting to make that connection he added, “The National Insurance Board, owns 20 and more per cent shareholding in Massy Holdings Limited, the Unit Trust Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago has large shareholdings in Massy, and you know Republic Bank? Let me remind the people that Republic Bank has almost more than 50 per cent shareholding in that company called Massy.”
Mark said it is not fair that Parisot-Potter, who he claimed did her job as Vice President of Business Integrity, is being disciplined for highlighting her concerns with the forex haemorrhage while CEO Gervase Warner and Chairman Robert Riley remain untouched.
He pointed out: “These two individuals, instead of defending shareholders, they have taken unilateral action to send the whistleblower, the person who has come out in defence of the people of this country by exposing the abuse and misuse of foreign exchange, they have sent that individual on administrative leave. But the individual that brought Delphi (Sphere) Consulting to Massy’s compound, paying tens of thousands if not millions of US dollars is still sitting as the President and CEO of Massy Holdings Limited, ladies and gentlemen that is not fair.”
Mark said this reminds him of former Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambarran’s dismissal which took place after he revealed the top users of forex in the country.
The opposition senator said he was disappointed with Dr Keith Rowley’s response to the issue, in which he (the PM) simply said “we must carefully prioritise our foreign exchange”.