Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath will ask T&TEC to institute legal proceedings against Keith Scotland and his Chambers.
She told the Parliament today that the lawsuit for fraudulent misrepresentation, professional negligence and breach of contract is connected to Flavourite Foods Limited.
The PM said Mr Scotland and another lawyer from Virtus Chambers were hired in 2022 to file claims in the High Court to recover $2.4 million in arrears accumulated by Flavourite between April 2017 and January 2022.
She adds however that the matter was consistently delayed by non-updates from Mr Scotland and other developments.
Mrs Persad-Bissesar says when her administration appointed a new T&TEC Board, it found the matter was now statute-barred, meaning the time to initiate legal proceedings had expired.
It also allegedly found that contrary to claims made by Mr Scotland’s chambers, no applications had been.
Mrs Persad-Bissessar says Government has also directed that legal proceedings, disciplinary complaints, and police investigations be pursued to determine whether misconduct, negligence, fraud, or corruption occurred.
Mr Scotland has since denied the allegations.
Speaking to reporters outside the Red House, he accused her of making “egregious attacks” under the “shield of Parliamentary privilege”.
He also had this to say about the matter:
The PM also claimed there was a “secret list” in T&TEC protecting certain accounts from being disconnected for non-payment.
She said the list included political figures from the previous administration, as well as certain entities.
According to Mrs Persad-Bissessar, this raises serious questions about fairness and accountability.
She said this special treatment came while others faced disconnection for the same non-payment, adding “there cannot be one set of rules for the powerful and another for everyone else.”
