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Senior Investigative Journalist
More than $6.5 billion in public funds was pumped into the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP) over 15 years–between 2009 and 2023–by the Government.
A Guardian Media investigation has found that 63 per cent—approximately $4.1 billion—of CEPEP’s finances has not been fully accounted for to the public. The last audit submitted to Parliament dates back more than a decade, covering fiscal 2014.
As a state company, CEPEP is required to provide full financial accountability by submitting audited statements annually to Parliament.
However, according to the 2024 Auditor General’s Report, no internal audits were conducted at the company between 2018 and 2023—a period during which CEPEP received $2.5 billion in public funds.
The 2024 report also flagged concerns over a recent $499.2 million allocation. “Documents to support three payments totalling $55.6 million to the CEPEP Company Limited were not provided for audit,” it stated.
In response, CEPEP—undergoing several board changes in recent years—has attributed the missing data to a “server crash” that allegedly wiped critical records. Notably, the crash is said to have occurred after the close of the 2014 financial year, which ended on September 30.
An update was provided at a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing in April 2023.
The public heard that “the inability to retain critical information disrupted CEPEP’s ability to effectively execute its operations and complete its accounts and financial statements in a timely manner. The committee queried whether hard copies were made available before the server crash …
“CEPEP revealed that during the year 2014, the company’s system was examined, and no information, including hard copies, was stored. It was found that hundreds of documents were missing. A container was also found on the outside of the company’s building with destroyed documents inside.”
Between 2011 and 2015, under the People’s Partnership administration, led by Kamla Persad-Bissessar, CEPEP was allocated $2.58 billion—an average of $516 million per year.
From 2016 to 2023, under the People’s National Movement (PNM) government led by Dr Keith Rowley, the company received $3.5 billion—averaging $441.4 million annually.
The peak year for CEPEP allocations was 2015, when the company received $606.2 million.
In the 2024 Auditor General’s Report, concerns were raised about the most recent allocation—$499.2 million. “Documents to support three payments totalling $55.6 million to the CEPEP Company Limited were not provided for audit,” the report stated.
Concerns about the company’s financial transparency do not end there.
In its 2023/2024 report to Parliament, the Office of Procurement Regulation stated that CEPEP failed to submit the required quarterly contract reports for the final two quarters of 2023.
As part of its recommendations, the Public Accounts Committee called for a forensic audit and investigation by the Auditor General’s Department.
However, Auditor General Jaiwantie Ramdass informed Parliamentary Clerk Brian Caesar that the office was unable to fulfil the request.
“Please note that this type of audit is not included in the constitutional mandate of the Auditor General,” Ramdass wrote.
Before that, in March 2020, the report of an Inquiry to Assess the Performance of CEPEP and its operations found that there was $21 million unaccounted for in the company’s financial records.
“CEPEP’s Board became aware of the sum through a letter from the Environment Management Authority, confirming the release of $21 million to CEPEP in 2014; Investigations led to the discovery of a bank account created by a former board, which was used to withdraw the monies; and CEPEP was awaiting vital information from the relevant bank regarding disbursement of the funds,” the report stated.
The report also noted that a $1 million gratuity payment was made to a former CEO, accompanied by a non-disclosure clause.
Another report by a consultant, the Arthur Lock Jack Global School of Business in 2016, advised that the company does not understand the inherent weakness of its business model.
The report concluded, “(It) … facilitates corruption and dependency. The main weakness of the model was noted as its revolution around the calculation and quantum of management fees.
“Pays workers directly into bank accounts; Pays statutory payments to contractors for them to remit to GORTT; and Pays a ‘Management Fee’ which is excessive,” it stated.
CEPEP’s last submitted financial audit statement was done by Hardy’s Chartered Accountants.
According to the 2014 audit, the company had $36.3 million in hand and the banks in 2014. In 2013, it was $108.9 million.
In 2014, contractors were paid $455.9 million, while in 2013, they were paid $520 million.
In fiscal 2014, CEPEP’s largest expenditure was environmental protection and enhancement, totalling $477.1 million. Administrative expenses followed at $20.4 million, with personnel costs close behind at $18.9 million.
Hardy’s resigned before completing the company’s 2015 audit.
CEPEP funding
Approximate Annual Recurrent Expenditure
2023 – $477 million
2022 – $426.6 million
2021 – $443.9 million
2020 – $400.4 million
2019 – $353.5 million
2018 – $448 million
2017 – $450 million
2016 – $531.6 million
2015 – $606.2 million
2014 – $532.6 million
2013 – $584.0 million
2012 – $494.4 million
2011 – $366.1 million
2010 – $94 million
2009 – $300 million
Guardian Media reached out to CEPEP’s communications department for comment on Friday. Although the department acknowledged receipt of the questions, no response had been provided up to late yesterday.
CEPEP easy to fix, but no political will to act–Figueira
Criminologist and Social Researcher Daurius Figueira described CEPEP as the centre of a “long-standing political game”.
He noted that with every change in government, discussions about ghost gangs within CEPEP resurface—but despite the recurring allegations, no investigation has ever been completed or led to a prosecution.
“The ghost is easy to find. What you have to do is simply monitor the size of the gang. You have people out there who would pass and easily verify, if you have two wackerman, how many women and men are in the gang …You keep monitoring them.
“The next stage after you monitor the gangs is to make sure that the legal requirement is on the ground and working. You just pull the accounts of the contractor and see if the payroll the contractor is submitting to CEPEP is what is on the ground. If the payroll does not match what is on the ground, it is inflated, and that means the contractor is in a mafia that involves people within the CEPEP company who inflate the payrolls inside to send it to finance, who is not doing an audit to then pay,” he said.
Figueira also pointed to the procurement of goods and services as another area vulnerable to abuse, noting that contractors are financially responsible for equipment and materials.
However, he argued that the deeper issue preventing meaningful reform at CEPEP is the perception of political interference, including allegations that some politicians may be improperly benefiting from contractor relationships.
Figueira said that CEPEP’s financial operations are “very easy to audit and to nail”, but there’s a lack of political will to clean it up.
He alleged that some politicians influence contractor selection, creating a cycle of dependency: “The politicians choose the contractor, and the contractors become beholden to the politicians. The more gangs the contractor gets, the more for them.”
He further suggested that procurement costs may be inflated to sustain this system: “The only way the money is cut up for them boys to get their money at the top is the boys in CEPEP have to inflate the cost of purchases inside.”
These claims have not been substantiated by official investigations.
However, in 2014, in the Integrity Commission’s Report to Parliament, it was revealed that an anonymous complaint was made to the commission that a Member of Parliament was allegedly collecting money from CEPEP contractors.
The investigation was listed as in progress, but there have been no arrests to date.
Gangs and contracts
In July 2023 after there were reports of gang wars being fought over contracts, CEPEP denied claims that contracts were being awarded to gang leaders.
Before that, in 2019, former CEPEP chairman Ashford Ford also denied, before a Joint Select Committee (JSC), that gang leaders were being awarded contracts.
“We are not involved, neither the general manager nor our supervisors are involved in any illegal activity like that. If a contractor is awarded and somebody in his company is involved in [illegal] activities we are not responsible for that either,” Ford said.
However, while CEPEP directors have denied any gang involvement, academic research supports the claims made by a former gang member interviewed by Guardian Media.
Criminologist Dr Randy Seepersad and Prof Ann-Marie Bissessar in their research paper ‘Gangs in the Caribbean’ wrote that URP, CEPEP and other projects that generate large sums of money, create an environment in which gangs compete for the projects.
“Mark Guerra, a criminal deportee from the US, who became known as the ‘don of Laventille’ and Sean Francis, who lived opulently in Laventille, both men were known to be heavily involved in the URP and were both eventually gunned down. Guerra was a highly paid URP supervisor, earning approximately $150,000 per month, and who reputedly owned a number of properties,” they wrote.
“He reportedly campaigned in marginal seats for former prime minister, Patrick Manning, and appeared in photographs which showed him accompanying the former prime minister on the 2002 election campaign. To reiterate the argument, the pattern of gang-related violence is structurally related to established political process in terms of delivering constituency votes at election time in return for access to government funding via programs like the URP and CEPEP,” they added.
Another study by German criminologist Dr Janina Pawelz entitled “Hobsbawm in Trinidad: Understanding Contemporary Modalities in Urban Violence”, also reported deep-rooted gang connections.
“Besides drug trafficking, the gangs in Trinidad depend on government contracts and social work programmes (CEPEP and URP) as resources. This source of income is fiercely defended … This is in line with what a resident from Bentham Gardens observed: ‘The gangs control the ten days, CEPEP and URP, they control that within any government because all of them fear violence.’
“Officers from the Besson Street Police Station pointed out the paradox of handing out contracts and social work programmes to gang leaders, which enable them to finance the purchase of arms: The government hands them [gangs] a million-dollar project and they use the money to buy expensive guns that they use against us!” the study by the Professor of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, Germany stated.
To date, no charges have been laid in connection with CEPEP-related corruption since the inception of the company in 2008.
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