The decision-making by the restorative committee to settle the debts of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) is quite disturbing and an indecent affront to the people of the country. The decision to pay some of the creditors their full balances and others a lesser percentage is an unfortunate and inexcusable act of discrimination.
The liquidator should contact a constitutional lawyer to obtain an opinion that in the matter of liquidation, all creditors must be treated equally and should refer to the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution, Chapter 4.01, The Supreme Court of Judicature, Section 21, which states that in all matters where there is any conflict or variance between law and equity in any matter, the rules of equity shall prevail.
According to Allen & Overy LLP (GB), direct discrimination occurs when a person treats A differently to B in a matter when both should be treated equally.
But leaving this aside, the more grievous matter is the decision that if after nearly three decades a creditor cannot produce evidence of the claim, the creditor will not be paid. So what happens if a fire destroyed a coach’s house, or if he has died and his family knows not where the bills are?
Isn’t this not using smartness to be foolish and dishonest and taking advantage of a person?
So I must ask the liquidator how was the TTFA able to produce the audited financial reports, and how were the auditors able to verify the accounts if invoices were not received and examined by both them and the TTFA?
Surely, the TTFA must have had the documents and would have had the opportunity to challenge the bills and only put in the accounts that it knew it owed, so how come?
Is it that the TTFA was negligent and has lost the bills and in order to circumvent liability, it has come up with a smart man’s solution that if you don’t have a bill in 2022 for work done in 1985, 37 long years ago, that you will not be paid?
The fact is that if the TTFA cannot find the bills given to them, then the TTFA must pay, simply because the bills would have already been supplied and received and acknowledged in the presentation of its financial reports.
I now come to Mr Jack Warner, whose claims of $22 million happen to be the largest, and where it appears that the committee has acted in a most draconian manner towards Mr Warner, who made the biggest contribution to football in the country—a contribution that put this speck of a country on the global stage, a contribution that gave every citizen an identity that we could win against all odds if we tried our best, that our citizens must never accept defeat because of feelings of inferiority and, most importantly, the removal of our shackles of slavery.
Is what is happening the right manner to treat Mr Warner?
The TTFA, thanks to Mr Warner, is the worst act of ingratitude I have seen in my life. If obtaining copies of bills is an impossibility for both sides after three decades, the least that can be done is a discussion to arrive at an amicable, fair settlement. Certainly not what I am seeing, which appears to be a most dishonest and unreasonable solution. Take note, TTFA. Start looking for your court clothes.
It is no wonder that T&T is falling in the crack more and more every day because of the limitations of persons who cannot see the bigger picture and where integrity seems to be absent almost everywhere.
Peter S Moralles
Cascade
SOURCE: T&T Express