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NESOL chief engineer left uncomfortable after losing signing rights

Published:Wednesday | July 18, 2018 | 12:00 AM

The chief engineer at the National Energy Solutions Limited (NESOL) has told Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) that he was circumvented from continuing as a signing officer at the entity when he returned from a seven-month lease.

According to Anthony Brown, this left him “uncomfortable” but he had to “live with it”.

The man who acted for Brown while he was on leave, Lawrence Pommels, was elevated to signing officer over three other engineers with degrees.

Pommells had a diploma in engineering.

Pommels and mechanic Ricardo Harris have been charged with breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act, money laundering and being in possession of criminal property.

At Wednesday’s PAAC meeting, it was disclosed that Pommells was promoted to a newly created position of operating engineer in January 2017 reporting directly to Managing Director Carolyn Warren who was also elevated to that post in the same month, having previously held the post of human resources manager.

Committee member Phillip Paulwell asked Brown if Pommels was in charge of the Silk (Installation Loss Reduction and Community Renewal) Project.

At first Brown was reluctant to respond but later indicated that as chief engineer he did not have supervision over all the projects at NESOL.

Brown made it clear that he was not informed that Pommells was “appointed as the officer with the direct responsibility and oversight, supervision and monitoring of all engineering projects, systems designs, house wiring, operational maintenance engineering related to the Silk Project.

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