The Editor,
According to official records, Senator Paula Gopee-Scoon was appointed Minister of Trade & Industry on September 11, 2015, after the current PNM administration took office.
‘Major upgrades to Hilton to start this year‘ was the headline of the extensive article in the Express Business of 14 June 2023 in which Minister Gopee-Scoon was reported to have stated – “… Gopee-Scoon indicated that the hotel was built in 1962 and has not been renovated in over 20 years…”. The Minister’s assertion that Trinidad Hilton had not been renovated in over 20 years is astonishing and entirely untrue. As I reported in this space, previously drawn from the Parliament’s 2016 JSC Report into the operations of eTeck:
…In 2016, the Parliament’s JSC examined the operations of e TecK with particular reference to its accounts and finances. Its Report was published in September 2016 and makes intriguing reading, given the stakes here. According to the President of e Teck, Robert Salandy, in his testimony to the Joint Select Committee on 6 April 2016, the project costs have escalated from an original estimate of $484M to a current figure of $634M. A total of $508M had been spent and it was reported that “…Salandy could not give a time-frame in which the renovations at the Hilton hotel would be completed…”
Property Matters – Trinidad Hilton Improvements
Of course the public cannot tell if this plainly untrue statement emerged as a result of poor-record-keeping, a collapse of Institutional Memory, a genuine error/oversight within the Minister’s office or some other misfortune, but the Ministry of Trade & Industry needs to rectify the record, in the public interest.
Thank you.
Afra Raymond,
former JCC President
Afraraymond.net
AfraRaymond.net 
There are those who like these dark places and lack of accountability, and it’s one of the most onerous problems Trinidad and Tobago has. This goes for just about anything, as you well know.
Where is the anger and outrage. Do you have no lawyers yearning to sue in the public interest. Afra are you the only one who cares ?
Boy..That is a major error which speaks to either incompetence on behalf of someone for him not to know the actual facts or malevolence. Plus what is this nonsense of open ended deadlines..Who is giving public money to these contractors with no idea when the project will be completed? Since when?
Hi Perry, there is no error here, this generation of Public Officials are seriously committed to silence and secrecy which allows all kinds of wrongdoing with our lives and of course, our Public Money. This Minister is an outstanding performer on that metric – in fact, I would give her an ‘F’ for Effort!
Since my letter was published the Ministry of Trade & Industry (MTI) have issued a lengthy statement – see here https://trinidadexpress.com/opinion/letters/property-improvement-plan-for-hilton-relates-to-major-capital-works/article_4c1929ee-0e39-11ee-bcbd-b3cdd0db8437.html – and I am about to publish a rebuttal, so stay tuned…