A for­mer se­nior of­fi­cial of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) and a for­mer se­nior pub­lic ser­vant have re­ject­ed al­le­ga­tions that a so-called “pro­tect­ed list” was cre­at­ed to ben­e­fit Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) of­fi­cials and their as­so­ciates, in­sist­ing the sys­tem has ex­ist­ed for decades and was nev­er in­tend­ed to ex­empt any­one from pay­ing elec­tric­i­ty bills.

The con­tro­ver­sy erupt­ed af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar tabled a list in Par­lia­ment on Mon­day con­tain­ing the names of 17 cur­rent and for­mer pub­lic of­fi­cials, in­clud­ing for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, his wife Sharon Row­ley, Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, for­mer Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les and oth­er for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ters.

But Glen­ford Cyrille, who served as T&TEC’s gen­er­al man­ag­er be­tween 2011 and 2012 un­der a Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress ad­min­is­tra­tion, said the prac­tice long pre­dates both ma­jor po­lit­i­cal par­ties and has ex­ist­ed for at least 30 years.