ALUTRINT AD: FREEDOM OF DISINFORMATION

ALUTRINT AD: FREEDOM OF DISINFORMATION

Alutrint is an economic bust. It is the worst economic fit for Trinidad and Tobago. It is ruinous to the health, the ecology and economy of the Republic. Not a ton of newsprint, a thousand gallons of printer’s ink could paper over these facts. Alutrint’s latest propaganda, a double-page newspaper ad titled ‘Alutrint Limited: Freedom of Information Act Statement 2009 Update’, is an attempt to paper over the fact that it is hiding critical information from the public, the ultimate stakeholders of the company. It is simply unable to publish, as is required by law, its annual accounts, or to provide any cost-benefit analysis to prove its economic viability. The following facts illustrate how Alutrint is subverting, with a face of stone, the concept of freedom of information.

In April 2006, one year after Alutrint was incorporated, the head of the Joint Select Committee of Parliament, Senator Mary King called on officials of Alutrint, the Natural Gas Export Task Force, the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, the National Gas Company and the National Energy Corporation to appear before her to answer questions on Alutrint’s economic viability. Officials refused to appear. The Senator then demanded that senior officials from these state entities appear. Again they refused. The Senator then requested that the Speaker of the House order them to appear. The Speaker refused.

In April 2007, after Alutrint/National Energy Corporation applied to the Environmental Management Authority for a certificate of clearance to build a smelter, a letter was written to the Authority (Farmer, Vine, Kublalsingh) asking for any cost-benefit analysis that might have been conducted on Alutrint. The National Environmental Policy gives the EMA the option to require that an applicant who intends to embark on large gas intensive projects conduct a cost benefit analysis. The EMA refused to reply. A sit in, followed by the intervention of state police, and a forty-day fast ensued. Over forty citizens fasted, alternately, over the period. No cost-benefit analysis.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, letters were written to the National Energy Company and Alutrint, and copied to the Ministries of Finance and Energy. The letter sought to have these state entities provide an accounting, a cost-benefit analysis of Alutrint. The reply? This information was confidential.

In 2008, Peter Vine and Wayne Kublalsingh went into the National Energy compound to request information on the economics of Alutrint. The Chief Executive Officer of Alutrint, Mr Prakash Saith, ordered that security look the doors and throw out these citizens. Kublalsingh was arrested by state police.

In June 2009, citizens belonging to eight different groups held a press conference outside the Financial Towers in Port of Spain. They read a letter to the media calling on Alutrint to publish its accounts, as stipulated by state regulation: “Government has agreed that State Enterprises be required to publish in at least one major daily newspaper a summary of the audited financial statements within 4 months to the end of their financial year and a summary of the unaudited half-yearly statements within two months of the mid-year date.” The letter was sent to Mr Philip Julien Acting Chief Executive Officer of Alutrint, Mr Conrad Enill Minister of Energy and Professor Ken Julien. It also called on these three key architects of Alutrint to disclose any cost benefit analysis of smelter. To date, no reply.

In August 2009, citizens wrote to the head of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament requesting that the committee write to the Acting Auditor General to enquire into Alutrint’s non-publication of its annual accounting statement, as is required by law. The committee sent a letter to the Acting Auditor General. To date, no reply.

In September 2009, a symposium on the Economics of Alutrint was held at St Mary’s College. The panel included professionals in the field of economics and gas. Ms Mary King gave seven solid reasons why Alutrint is uneconomic. The following resolution was passed:

“Be it resolved that the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago release immediately to the people of TT the rationale for the Aluminum Smelter, including detailed costs of natural gas and other inputs and expected revenues over the next 20 years and, in the event that this information is not forthcoming, that the GORTT suspend with immediate effect the Aluminum Smelter project.”

This resolution was published in both the print and visual media. To date, no response.

Alutrint’s Freedom of Information ad is meant to convey an image of officialdom dutifully bent on abeyance to law and transparency. This is a false image. Alutrint has steadfastly refused to provide accurate information to the public on the viability of smelter. It has, in its four and a half year history never published, contrary to law, a statement of its accounts. It says in its ad that Sural Venezuela is the 40% joint partner of Alutrint. False. Sural Venezuela has pulled out and the architects of smelter are hounding the globe trying to find a joint partner. Its ad, like all of its other propaganda projects, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, is meant to paper over the fact that it is subverting the free exchange of information. It is meant to hide the fact that Alutrint cannot provide its stakeholders with information to prove its economic viability.

Wayne Kublalsingh

University of the West Indies