1 week ago
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Senior Reporter
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP) is being accused of deliberately leaving out a key paragraph from the disputed 2017 Cabinet note in a letter to the company’s new chairman. In the letter, he cautioned that the board does not have the authority to unilaterally renew multiple contracts without government approval.
In the letter to CEPEP Chairman Dain Maharaj dated August 11, 2025, obtained by Guardian Media, CEO Keith Eddy said the disputed 2017 Cabinet note—at the centre of the controversy over the extension of more than 300 contracts—was a one-off directive intended to put thousands on the breadline, not to set a precedent granting the board unrestricted authority.
However, former Rural Development and Local Government minister Faris Al-Rawi said yesterday in an interview with Guardian Media that Eddy left out a key paragraph in the note.
Both Al-Rawi and former CEPEP chairman Joel Edwards asserted that the 2017 Cabinet note gave the CEPEP Board the authority to extend, suspend, and terminate contracts without needing fresh Cabinet approval for each decision.
However, in the letter to CEPEP’s chairman, Eddy told Maharaj that the Cabinet Minute No 1327 of July 27, 2017, was an “unprecedented move” designed to impose restrictions on the company following concerns expressed by the Ministry of Finance about the quantity of CEPEP “gangs”, which refer to the teams of workers.
Eddy said the Cabinet at the time agreed that “all CEPEP contractors be immediately adjusted to a maximum of three gangs, unless special circumstances exist which would warrant more than three gangs per contractor, as deemed appropriate by the company, as an interim measure, pending review by the company of its ability to continue to perform its contractual obligations, in the context of Clause 16 of the CEPEP contracts, and the then economic environment.”
Guardian Media understands that, at the time, some contractors were employing up to five teams at a time.
The CEO told the chairman the Cabinet note went on to say, “The contracts of non-compliant CEPEP contractors be immediately suspended or terminated for cause, as deemed appropriate.”
And finally, that the contracts of month-to-month CEPEP contractors be suspended or terminated, as deemed appropriate.
Eddy claimed this led to the termination of 7,060 employees at the time.
Guardian Media obtained a copy of the Cabinet note.
Titled “The Way Forward With Respect to CEPEP”, the note has four paragraphs labelled (a) to (d).
While Eddy included paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) in his letter to Maharaj, it did not contain paragraph (d).
Paragraph (d) states, “New contractors be introduced in the context of the need to maintain the efficacy of CEPEP and its primary aim of environmental protection and enhancement, as deemed appropriate.”
Al-Rawi told Guardian Media that he is “scandalised and amazed” that Eddy’s letter to Maharaj did not include paragraph (d).
The former CEPEP line minister argued that this paragraph is central to the current controversy over whether the CEPEP board had the authority to renew contracts without Cabinet approval.
“The critical paragraph in the minute, which to my knowledge in the period 2017 to 2025, stood as the foundation and basis for the grant and utilisation of cabinet approval for the retention of contractors. This is a matter which Mr Keith Eddy knows very well,” Al-Rawi said.
Al-Rawi added, “Because I recall his communications in writing, relying upon this cabinet note and minute, which he has conveniently and scandalously sanitised for reasons that could not be known to me to be anything other than a deliberate persecution by way of lies and half-truths.”
Attempts to reach Eddy yesterday were unsuccessful.
Speaking at the United National Congress’ (UNC) Monday Night Report on August 11, Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath referenced Eddy’s letter to Maharaj and said, “I want to tell him (Al-Rawi), go and read the Cabinet Minute. As a present to him, I will send him a copy of the Cabinet Minute, because it is not reflective of what the note is saying. Instead, the note and minute that Al-Rawi is depending on would have sent home over 7,000 workers of CEPEP in 2017.”
Padarath added, “He ain’t tell you that. That they were intending on sending home over 7,000 CEPEP workers. They were intending on sending home over 200 CEPEP contractors. They are only telling you half the story.”
Following a High Court ruling, the files related to the controversial renewal of CEPEP contracts have been sent to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
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