Na­tion­al En­er­gy pres­i­dent Dr Ver­non Pal­too will be pro­ceed­ing on ear­ly re­tire­ment, bring­ing an end to more than two decades of ser­vice to the state-owned en­er­gy fa­cil­i­ta­tor. How­ev­er, sources told the Trinidad Guardian that Pal­too was in fact forced in­to pre-re­tire­ment leave, and when Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC) chair­man Ger­ald Ramdeen was con­tact­ed, he said, “I am not aware of this and I am in the mid­dle of a meet­ing at this time.”

Na­tion­al En­er­gy is a sub­sidiary of whol­ly State-owned NGC.

In an in­ter­nal memo to staff yes­ter­day, Pal­too said the de­ci­sion fol­lowed “care­ful and de­lib­er­ate re­flec­tion,” de­scrib­ing his years at the or­gan­i­sa­tion as one of the great­est ho­n­ours of his pro­fes­sion­al life.