…and his Opposition MP wife vows to continue talking out
Andrew McIntosh is on his last official trip in his capacity as President of the State-owned National Gas Company (NGC) before the axe falls on his head.
In fact the position of president, a post he has held for the past three years, has already been advertised in the daily newspapers and upon his return the NGC boss is expected to quietly demit office, when his three-year contract ends in February.
McIntosh is among 60 officials from government and State boards who are accompanying Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to India on a two-week State visit to that country, where the PM hopes to encourage trade developments between both countries. He left for India on Tuesday, one day after the Prime Minister and members of her Cabinet left the country.
McIntosh, who is the husband of Opposition Member of Parliament for Port of Spain North/St. Ann’s West Patricia McIntosh, is the latest in a long line of directors and CEOs of State-boards who have been forced to demit office since the Peoples Partnership government took office in May 2009.
While he could not be reached for comment, because he was said to be hastily packing his bags for India, wife Patricia confirmed that he will be leaving office in February.
Asked whether her husband’s departure from NGC had anything to do with the politics, or with her alliance with the Opposition People’s National Movement, the very vocal MP said she would prefer not to speculate but that NGC will be the bigger loser from his departure.
“My husband is a professional. I believe everybody in every sector knows the integrity and the calibre of man he is,” she said.
According to her, “He has served with the highest level of professionalism and competence, and he is very highly skilled,” she said, adding that he loves to serve and will continue to serve this country for as long as he is needed.
Mirror research revealed that McIntosh has over 31 years of technical and leadership experience in the energy sector, 13 of which have been at the vice-president level.
He has worked in both the upstream and downstream sectors, in national as well as multi-national companies.
McIntosh began his career in the energy industry in 1977 at the Trinidad and Tobago Oil Company Limited. After more than two decades at senior levels in the local energy sector, in 2001, he joined Lurgi Metallurgie Gmbh of Frankfurt, Germany as an Operations and Process Consultant, and a year later, he became General Manager of MFS Services Limited (Trinidad and Tobago).
In 2004, he joined Atlantic LNG Company and served as Vice President of Technical Services from 2004-2006 in charge of the completion of EPC works on Train 4. He was then appointed Vice President, Operations in which post he successfully integrated Train 4 into the Atlantic LNG Facility.
McIntosh joined bpTT in October 2007 as Senior LNG Operations advising on all aspects of Governance of Atlantic NGC’s operations. According to McIntosh (P): “Andrew has been there for the past three years and his contract ends in February but whatever the board wants to do, let it go ahead and do so.
“One thing I can tell you, is that my husband is marketable locally and internationally.”
McIntosh (P) warns that she will continue to be vocal on issues affecting the citizens of this country and will not be deterred by anyone.
Already she evoked the ire of Maha Sabha Secretary Sat Maharaj when she raised the issue of the principal of the Tunapuna Hindu School, Sita Gajadharsingh-Nanga, who claimed she was being victimised for refusing to carry out a decree by Maharaj to keep Afro-Trinidadian children out of the school.
The matter was first raised by talk show host and former President of the Public Services Association Jennifer Baptiste and reported in detail by the TnT Mirror in August 2011.
However, when the matter was later raised by McIntosh in November, she was threatened to be brought before the Privileges Committee, but in the end, the Government backed away from such action, and the issue got national attention, forcing an intervention by the Ministry of Education and the Prime Minister.
On another occasion, McIntosh (P) brought the issue of a young disabled teacher Akini Gill, who was initially granted a government scholarship to pursue a Master of Arts Degree in Music Education in New York., but which was later recalled because of an administrative error.
Because of her raising the issue, Persad-Bissessar intervened and Gill was eventually allowed to receive the scholarship.
