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ISSUE 147 Friday 11th MARCH, 2016<br />
Page 13<br />
BANKING ON TRUST<br />
- it’s a very hard thing to expect but FCB must come clean<br />
Story by JACK WARNER<br />
The national conversation<br />
now taking<br />
placing as a result<br />
of Camille Robinson-Regis’<br />
$93,000 deposit is of concern<br />
to many sectors of our<br />
community.<br />
As a result, our Prime<br />
Minister Dr. Keith Rowley<br />
should not trivialize the disquiet<br />
among many citizens<br />
with talk about his wife’s underwear<br />
but seek to get to the<br />
bottom of this story if only<br />
to extirpate the perception of<br />
corruption among one of his<br />
senior Cabinet members.<br />
The fact that this story is<br />
still gaining traction is simply<br />
because there has been<br />
flip-flopping in the responses<br />
made by the Honourable<br />
Minister.<br />
And even though the Ex-<br />
press stops publishing and<br />
social media regress into silence<br />
on this issue there will<br />
always be a cloud of doubt,<br />
as questions will continue to<br />
plague the stewardship of this<br />
Minister.<br />
The citizens want to believe<br />
the Minister but they are<br />
not sure about the source of<br />
funds nor are they sure about<br />
the quantum nor its composition.<br />
One minute the Minister<br />
says it is her salary, another<br />
time she says it is a withdrawal<br />
from Republic Bank (from<br />
which Bank Sunshine has<br />
been told that $150,000.00<br />
had been withdrawn by the<br />
Minister) and on yet on another<br />
occasion we are hearing<br />
that the source included funds<br />
from her husband’s resources.<br />
FCB<br />
Another issue of concern<br />
has to do with the form of the<br />
deposit whether it was cash<br />
or cheque or whether it was<br />
a combination of the two; the<br />
Minister has not been very<br />
clear on these matters and<br />
thus the public senses a tad<br />
of equivocation on the part of<br />
the Minister.<br />
So this $93,000 deposit<br />
has landed this Minister in a<br />
quagmire from which her versions<br />
of the truth seem to have<br />
her more entangled.<br />
What is even worse is that<br />
this Minister has a precedent,<br />
which does not locate her on<br />
the side of trust with the national<br />
community.<br />
So coupled with her various<br />
versions concerning the<br />
$93,000 deposit and the history<br />
of the credit card scandal<br />
under Patrick Manning’s administration,<br />
it is only reasonable<br />
that one would expect<br />
a sense of anxiety related to<br />
financial transactions under<br />
question by this Minister.<br />
But of even greater concern<br />
is the response of the First<br />
Citizens Bank.<br />
In a number of cases banks<br />
have shown selective indiscretion<br />
in the release of customers’<br />
business with financial<br />
institutions.<br />
I feel a sense of pity for the<br />
Minister because I too have<br />
been a victim of such recklessness<br />
where my own financial<br />
situation was exposed<br />
leaving me at risk to the deviant<br />
within our society.<br />
As a former Minister of<br />
National Security, I am also<br />
aware that in a number of<br />
kidnapping cases the victims’<br />
bank accounts were known to<br />
the kidnappers, down to the<br />
very last cent.<br />
Some of the kidnappers<br />
could have recited dates,<br />
times and quantities of deposits<br />
thus assuring the relatives<br />
about the accuracy of their<br />
wealth and the ability to pay<br />
their demands.<br />
So if there is unease on the<br />
part of the Honourable Minister<br />
I can by all means sympathize<br />
with her because they<br />
have placed her security and<br />
the security of her immediate<br />
family and relatives under<br />
threat.<br />
And if the Prime Minister<br />
said that he too was uncomfortable<br />
with FCB after this<br />
event, the nation cannot be<br />
angry with him because if citizens’<br />
financial business is not<br />
safe with banking institutions,<br />
it becomes a threat to both the<br />
financial and national security<br />
of Trinidad and Tobago.<br />
But here lies my dilemma<br />
with FCB.<br />
What they have offered<br />
on numerous occasions is a<br />
prepared text parroting the<br />
general policy approach of<br />
the bank without taking into<br />
consideration the current situation.<br />
By now every citizen can<br />
tell you what FCB’s policy<br />
is but what we do not know<br />
is what happens when that<br />
policy is breached.<br />
The only way the Express<br />
could have known about the<br />
$93,000 deposit is through an<br />
agent of FCB.<br />
Somebody who was part of<br />
that transaction or who had<br />
access to the information regarding<br />
the transaction leaked<br />
it to the Trinidad Express.<br />
I felt insulted when the Express<br />
exposed to the public<br />
the texts shared between its<br />
reporter and the Minister in<br />
an attempt to convince the<br />
national community that FCB<br />
did not leak the information.<br />
Then from where did the<br />
source get the information?<br />
Was the bank’s data hacked<br />
by someone known to the reporter<br />
who provided her with<br />
such information?<br />
Not once have we read that<br />
FCB proposes to launch an<br />
investigation into this leak.<br />
Not once have we heard<br />
any attempt by FCB to identify<br />
the person or persons culpable<br />
for the leak and to take<br />
action against them.<br />
Until the bank convinces us<br />
that such a process is in motion,<br />
every citizen with a bank<br />
account at FCB is under threat<br />
because within its employ are<br />
persons who lack discretion<br />
and who are willing to part<br />
with information regardless<br />
of the threat it poses to individual<br />
or national security.<br />
This is something with<br />
which we as citizens cannot<br />
be comfortable and the Board<br />
of FCB needs to step in and<br />
interrupt this laissez-faire approach<br />
before citizens choose<br />
to close their accounts with<br />
the Bank and thrust it into financial<br />
peril.<br />
Regardless of what FCB<br />
suggests we know that they<br />
have had difficulty with staff<br />
in recent times and the latest<br />
episode is a further manifestation<br />
that all is not well.<br />
So as much as the Minister<br />
would like this to die, unless<br />
FCB comes clean the national<br />
community should be wary of<br />
doing business with this bank<br />
since the confidentiality of<br />
business transactions appears<br />
PM Dr. KEITH ROWLEY<br />
CAMILLE ROBINSON<br />
REGIS<br />
to be compromised.<br />
My sympathy here is with<br />
the Minister.<br />
It is not because I believe<br />
that she has no questions to<br />
answer, on the contrary, I<br />
hope that her next comment<br />
will be one that will put her<br />
side of the story to rest forever.<br />
But my sympathy is with<br />
her because I sense politics in<br />
motion in the release of this<br />
story.<br />
I am aware of instances<br />
where politicians from another<br />
administration made<br />
larger deposits at FCB than<br />
the one in question and not a<br />
word was heard and I am sure<br />
that FCB’s former CEO Larry<br />
Howai can attest to that.<br />
So the integrity of which<br />
the bank speaks is suspect as<br />
far as I am concerned and the<br />
Minister has every right to<br />
feel targeted.<br />
She has done the right thing<br />
in closing off her accounts<br />
and if I were her colleague I<br />
too would have closed my account<br />
and would have been<br />
very wary because this most<br />
certainly seems to echo with<br />
political overtones.<br />
But to FCB my one wish<br />
is for you to come clean and<br />
launch an investigation to assure<br />
the national community<br />
that you are prepared to do the<br />
right thing at all times.