(Trinidad Express) Former chairman of defunct airline BWIA Arthur Lok Jack and his board of directors are fighting back over allegations contained in a report that they undersold the prized landing slots at Heathrow International Airport in London, England for 5 million pounds sterling.
In a strongly worded letter dispatched to the Port of Spain office of Attorney General Anand Ramlogan last Friday, Lok Jack, on behalf of his former board members and himself, asked Ramlogan to investigate the publication of a forensic management audit concerning the sale of BWIA’s London Heathrow slots to British Airways in 2007.
Contents of the report which was sent to the Express, were carried in an exclusive lead story by the newspaper last Monday.
Former BWIA directors Gervase Warner, William Lucie-Smith and Robert Riley were carbon copied in the Lok Jack correspondence to Ramlogan last Friday, as well as Finance Minister Larry Howai, former BWIA chief executive Peter Davies and former corporate secretary Rachel Laquis.
The letter was also forwarded to the Trinidad Express Newspapers.
Lok Jack and the former board members want Ramlogan to “immediately provide us with a copy of the committee’s report so that we may comprehensively address these misleading and unfounded allegations and statements”, about the sale of the Heathrow slots.
They also want Ramlogan to investigate how the report was provided to the media before the former directors were afforded an opportunity to respond.
In a related story published next to the Express lead on page three about the report on the sale of the slots last Monday, Lok Jack, when contacted by the Express to questions about the audit, responded by saying there was no negligence in the sale of the slots.
“It is a matter of judgment… that’s ridiculous to say there was negligence, there were only two people who were interested in the slots at that time—Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. We gave it to the one who was going to continue to fly to Trinidad,” said Lok Jack.
He said Virgin Atlantic had offered half a million more, but did not want to maintain the London-to-Trinidad route, so it was decided to conduct the transaction with British Airways instead, which had agreed to maintain the routes.
In his letter to Ramlogan last Friday, Lok Jack recalled his detailed responses to 16 questions related to a forensic management audit requested by Cabinet, concerning the sale of the Heathrow slots.
Lok Jack said: “The former members of the board of BWIA were astonished to read the article headlined “Pound Foolish”, published on Monday October 22, 2012 in the Trinidad Express. You may recall your letter dated July 6, 2011 seeking answers to specific questions relating to a forensic management audit, requested by Cabinet, concerning the sale of BWIA’s London Heathrow slots as well as my responses of July 26, 2011 and August 12, 2011. Copies of that correspondence are attached for your ease of reference. You may also recall that your letter advised that, “the Team will require your assistance and full co-operation to successfully undertake this Forensic/Management audit.” We were therefore extremely surprised to see the publication of this report when at no time did any member of the committee appointed to undertake that audit contact any member of the former Board of BWIA. Further, if the newspaper article in the Express accurately quotes the report from the audit committee, it would appear that the committee either did not receive, or failed to take into account, the information and facts which the former Board provided to you regarding the sale of the BWIA slots,” the letter stated. None of the former directors were provided with a copy of the report to address the allegations published in the Express story.
“Additionally, it seems to us most unprofessional and contrary to the basic rules of natural justice that conclusions have been made and findings published without any opportunity being given to those affected to address them,” Lok Jack said.
