PM Kamla exposes $260M Caribbean Airlines’ debt, replaces entire board

Trinidad and Tobago: Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has appointed a new board of directors for the Caribbean Airlines (CAL) and the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA). Making the announcement on Friday she said that the Caribbean Airlines (CAL) is in the red due to the large debt of $260 Million that it had acquired over a long period of time with no plan whatsoever in place to pay for the debt. 

Speaking in a post Cabinet media briefing the prime minister said that the board of the Caribbean Airlines had been lying to the whole country about the economic state that the Airlines was in. The board had been telling the country on how they are doing well not only in a national level but at an international level and were speaking of the great profits that they are making but none of it was true. 

The debt of $260 million that had been acquired by the previous board members had not been paid, not even a single penny and had been rolled over year after year, which the Prime Minister viewed as dishonesty and concealing the information that was meant to be accessible to the public. She further added that the airlines must take action now to start paying off the $260 million debt by the millions before the airlines land in the blacklist and collapse. 

Persad-Bissessar announced the new board for Caribbean Airlines (CAL) and the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) as she asked the previous board members to resign as they were politically appointed. 

Reportedly, CAL’s new board of Directors will have Reyna Kowlessar, who is the current company secretary at NIPDEC, as the new chair of Caribbean Airlines,Videsh Praim as the vice chairman of finance, and the rest of the board will comprise of Darren Ali, Lauren Perth, and Selwyn Cudjoe who are also trail blazers in their fields.  

Meanwhile, WASA’s new Board is set to have Attorney Roshan Babwah, who is a former human resource manager and principal consultant, as chairman,Dr Maurice Hoyte, who is the acting president of the Eastern Credit Union, as deputy chairman; and other members such as Tawari Tota-Maharaj, Chaitram Brown, Kern D. Saney, Naveen Maraj, Indra Mohammed and Patricia Herry.

She finished her address by mentioning that more changes are coming as the board members of Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC), the CEPEP, and TTT board will be finalized and announced soon.