Akash Sama­roo

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) says it has sought le­gal ad­vice over the ex­is­tence of a con­tro­ver­sial “pro­tect­ed list” of cus­tomers shield­ed from the nor­mal dis­con­nec­tion process for un­paid elec­tric­i­ty bills, ad­mit­ting there is no doc­u­ment­ed pol­i­cy, pro­ce­dure or record ex­plain­ing how cer­tain in­di­vid­u­als and pri­vate com­pa­nies came to be in­clud­ed.

The dis­clo­sure has added fu­el to the po­lit­i­cal con­tro­ver­sy, with Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath in­sist­ing that nei­ther he nor any mem­ber of the cur­rent Gov­ern­ment ap­pears on the list.