For­mer pub­lic util­i­ties min­is­ter Robert Le Hunte is re­ject­ing sug­ges­tions that a so-called “pro­tect­ed list” at the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) was cre­at­ed to favour of­fi­cials of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), in­sist­ing the prac­tice has ex­ist­ed for decades and was nev­er in­tend­ed to ex­empt any­one from pay­ing elec­tric­i­ty bills.

His com­ments fol­low claims made by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar in Par­lia­ment, where she al­leged that T&TEC main­tained a “pro­tect­ed list” of in­di­vid­u­als whose elec­tric­i­ty ser­vice could not be dis­con­nect­ed.

She said the list in­clud­ed for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, and sev­er­al oth­er cur­rent and for­mer PNM par­lia­men­tar­i­ans.