Chairman clueless on BWIA
Stabroek News
May 29, 2003
(Trinidad Express) BWIA chairman Lawrence Duprey has said he is clueless about the cash-strapped airline because he has been busy establishing a global company.
Asked yesterday about the state of the troubled airline, Duprey said: “I don’t have a clue, I have been in Europe for the past two weeks. I have paid no attention to it.”
Speaking with reporters at the premiere of The Mystic Masseur at
MovieTowne, Mucurapo yesterday, the non-executive chairman said there were capable people on the BWIA board of directors.
Planning Minister Dr Keith Rowley said on Tuesday that airline
directors had called the airline bankrupt, saying it owed creditors US$100 million.
But Duprey responded that airlines the world over were bankrupt.
Sources say that the Government has also asked that BWIA chief
executive Conrad Aleong step down as one of the conditions for financial assistance.
Asked about repeated criticisms of Aleong and his management team, Duprey said he was not expressing confidence in anybody.
But he maintained that there was a level of competence on the board and they were very capable of running the airline.
He said his hands were filled with establishing a global company at this point and once there was no threat of SARS, he would be going to China.
Duprey will not be in Trinidad today when an International Lease Finance Company representative meets the Government to discuss the future of the airline.
He said he was leaving the country. Asked whether he would invest in BWIA, Duprey said it was not him but the company he worked for, referring to the CL Financial group.
“If I have to put money in an investment, I have to put it in a
responsible way which will give me a return,” he said.
In related news, a call was made yesterday by the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (Doma) to save BWIA.
In a statement signed by president Gregory Aboud, Doma said signals of support mixed with accountability and enlightened management should be the message for BWIA.
