T&T Companies with links to Foster Cummings get over $500M in contracts in 10 years

Klydon Enterprises Ltd, a company linked to former government minister and general secretary of the People’s National Movement (PNM), Foster Cummings, operated on oral contracts for certain months in 2017 and 2018 at the Housing Development Corporation (HDC). Documents show that the HDC, through former managing director Brent Lyons and Klydon, verbally agreed for the company to provide grass-cutting services at Roystonia in Couva for $250,000 a month.

Accountant Joel Edwards, who served as CEPEP Chairman between 2023 and 2025, was listed as Klydon Enterprises’ accountant. He was also Cummings and Associates Limited’s accountant.Both Cummings and Associates and Klydon Enterprises Limited are registered at the same business address—Unit 2, Metro Building, Noel Street, Couva. Metro Building is the Metro Hotel in Couva, owned by the PNM’s 2025 General Elections candidate for Point-a-Pierre, Mukesh Ramsingh.Among those who formed part of the screening committee for Ramsingh’s selection was Cummings.‘$300 million paid over ten years to one man’

According to Housing and Urban Development Ministry documents, Klydon received at least $20 million in other HDC contracts between 2020 and 2023. As seen in the company registry, Klydon’s directors are Donetta Pierre and Oneka Mayers. Pierre was the former secretary of Cummings and Associates Limited, owned by Cummings and his wife, according to the company’s annual returns.

...This man is secretary of the PNM

One of Klydon’s invoices, dated September 4, 2017, showed the HDC was billed $180,000 for grass cutting, $25,000 for removal of debris, and $45,000 for removal of bulk garbage and clearing of illegal dump sites.

These services amounted to $250,000, inclusive of 12.5 percent VAT, bringing the total bill to $281,250.

Klydon’s other HDC contracts

But grass-cutting services were not the only job Klydon had at the HDC.

According to Housing and Urban Development Ministry documents, Klydon received at least $20 million in other HDC contracts between 2020 and 2023.  The corporation had been paying Klydon “over $200,000 a month to cut grass” at a piece of land at Roystonia in Couva.

$12,896,656.71 - HDC - Paid - Oct 1, 2022 to August 31, 2023

$3.85 million - Indian Trail Community Centre - Udecott

$1.74 million - Edinburgh 500 Community Centre - Udecott

$2,447,550 - Waste disposal at HDC Cypress Hills Phases 1A, 1B & 1C - 4/15/2025

$2,475,900 - Waste disposal at HDC Pleasantville

$2,253,259.32 - Paid - Oct 1, 2022 to August 31, 2023

The list is too long to post....😡

.....

In the past, Cummings has said that he has been a businessman for the past 30 years and had no conflict with companies linked to him receiving millions in State work, while being an MP, a salaried government minister, under the Dr Keith-Rowley administration.

@sgtdjones

It’s no surprise

it ‘s also not exclusive to the PNM

the same route is still open and I am sure 1000% some earlyUNC dregs are taking advantage of it

anyhow

the problem is not WHO doing it

crime is opportunity and motive

both exist in Trinidad

there is ZERO oversight

people can do what they hell they want when they have power ( education or position or both)

zero oversight and people don’t see or understand the essential role it plays

people will take the hit today so they and their families can benefit tomorrow

@Halliwell

I dont trust any politician in T&T...especially Indian Moneylall

He had the housing ministry. in the last UNC government. It's amazing the asset he has.

I am glad the AG has stopped all briefs concerning CLICO....

On Friday, Jeremie laid in Parliament the reports of the Commission of Enquiry into the collapse of the CLF group and the Hindu Credit Union (HCU), revealing that the state spent approximately $28 billion rescuing CLF and its subsidiaries, with a further $3 billion to $4 billion spent in subsequent years on legal, accounting, and administrative matters linked to the collapse. Jeremie announced the end of the civil actions, citing years of stagnation, ballooning legal costs, and the absence of meaningful progress.

T&T cost over 28 billion to date.

Legal fees continue over 5 billion

Coleman report... over 10 million...

A $3 per share dividend for shareholders of CLF in January 2009 was a reckless exercise made worse by its cash flow situation.

etc., etc....

 Witnesses such as Duprey and Monteil failed to turn up, concerned that they would incriminate themselves. The DPP’s office did not bring criminal charges against anyone named in the CoE report.

The report was critical of former finance minister Colm Imbert’s management of the group, saying CLF lost its entrepreneurial drive under what he described as oppressive conditions.

“Under the oppression of Imbert as MOF, the CLF group lost its entrepreneurial spirit and benefit, and this has affected the country as a whole,” Reis added. Efforts to contact Imbert for a response were futile.

He also questioned the claim that CL Financial’s losses totalled $32 billion, saying it does not match the figures shareholders were previously given. “That number is way too high,” Regis insisted, saying, “Based on our calculation—what was actually injected into Clico and what was before the court—our figures were closer to $23 billion. So I don’t know how it reached $32 billion.”

“That $32 billion—it is totally excessive, and it smells of corruption. It smells very dirty.”

Note: “Coleman... Having perused the report myself, I can advise the population that it contains very serious allegations of criminal misconduct on the part of a handful of privileged individuals who were associated with the CLICO/CLF group of companies.

“No financial statements were presented either by the UNC-controlled administration or the PNM administration on these companies, on CL Financial in particular. So the State failed in its duty of care, regardless of which party was in power.”

NO one has been held accountable or criminally charged.