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National Gas Company chairman Gerald Ramdeen - Jada Loutoo and Paula Lindo
National Gas Company (NGC) chairman Gerald Ramdeen has defended recent expenditure cuts at the state-owned energy company, saying the measures are necessary to restore fiscal discipline after what he described as years of mismanagement under the former administration.
In comments to Newsday, Ramdeen said the NGC’s reported $1.6 billion profit must be viewed in context, arguing that the returns generated from the country’s most valuable asset have been inadequate and obscured by significant losses at subsidiary companies.
“The $1.6 billion profit must be viewed in its proper context,” Ramdeen said. “Over the last five years, the average return on assets is 1.6 per cent and the average return on equity is 2.7 per cent. That represents the return to the people of this country from their most significant asset valued at $43 billion.”
Ramdeen attributed those results to what he called mismanagement of the energy sector by the former People’s National Movement administration. He said included in the headline profit figure was a $1 billion loss incurred by three foreign entities established under the previous government.
“Concealed in the $1.6 billion profit is a $1 billion loss by three foreign entities set up under the last administration,” he said. “That is the record of the NGC and its subsidiaries under the PNM. Facts are stubborn things.”
He challenged the former minister of energy to account publicly for the losses, saying, “Let the former minister of energy do a video on that and provide an explanation to the people of this country where their $1 billion disappeared.”
Ramdeen also criticised the previous administration’s spending priorities, alleging the company was used to fund activities outside its core mandate.
“While this was occurring, they transformed the NGC from the National Gas Company to the National Grants Company,” he said. “Under the last administration, the NGC was an ATM for every Tom, Dick and Harrilal.”
According to Ramdeen, the current cuts are aimed at restoring order and ending what he described as fiscal indiscipline over the past nine years.
“We are not here to be a Ministry of Culture or Sport,” he said. “Despite what many may think, the NGC is not a charity. We are here to run a gas company and earn a reasonable return to the shareholders, the people of this country.”
He added that while NGC recognises its corporate social responsibility, it will carry out that role “in a prudent and frugal manner,” with decisions guided by the best interests of the company and the country.
“The record of the former Prime Minister and his 'Gary Sobers' Minister of Energy was that the NGC declared two after-tax losses. In 2020, for the first time in its history, the NGC declared a loss of $316.2 million and in 2023, the NGC declared a loss of $1.3 billion.
“That is not 'Sobers like' at all. The present board of the NGC intends to return the NGC to its core business, the aggregation and sale of gas for a profit.”
Attempts to reach Pan Trinbago president Beverley Ramsey-Moore were unsuccessful up to press time on December 26.
Ramdeen was responding to questions sent to him on the NGC board’s decision to drastically reduce funding for community, education, and cultural programmes in 2025.
Internal budget documents reviewed showed NGC’s new board cutting sponsorships for youth development, environmental projects, and cultural preservation, while simultaneously grappling with inherited spending on staff Christmas benefits and cultural sponsorships. NGC’s corporate sustainability division’s 2025 budget of $48.412 million was significantly slashed, the documents showed.
The timing of the cuts coincided with NGC’s report of $1.6 billion in profits for 2024. The decision has triggered outrage, and NGC’s reputation as a cultural patron took a hit when it announced its cuts in its steelband sponsorship.
Casualties of NGC’s pulling its financial support were Couva Joylanders, La Brea Nightingale, and Tobago’s Steel X Plosion.
A termination letter to the steelbands had cited a contractual clause allowing the company to “terminate for convenience.” The decision sparked outrage.
“Don’t touch we pan. Don’t touch we culture,” a player said in a previous interview with Newsday, at the time. Pan Trinbago president Beverley Ramsey-Moore called the move “a devastating blow” and questioned whether the government still intended to support the national instrument.
She added, “This was done with no consultation, no dialogue.”
On November 27, Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd pulled its sponsorship for San Fernando’s Skiffle Bunch and Siparia Deltones, again sparking debate with some calling it an “assault on our culture.”
Opposition MP Stuart Young, SC, in a social media post after Heritage wrote to the latest casualties of budget cuts, said, “The UNC government’s assault on our culture continues!!! The discontinuation of sponsorship for our steelbands that began with NGC cutting assistance to three steelband sides continues today with Heritage cutting assistance to Skiffle Bunch and Siparia Deltones.
“These are calculated decisions that hurt our national instrument, the pan and the pan movement. The question is why? Why this unjustified attack?”
Young has posed questions to the Energy Minister in the parliament, directed at NGC’s decision and later withdrew them after a heated debate over the government’s failure to provide the answers.
He also questioned whether NGC intended to terminate its sponsorship of the NGC Tassa Group. They will be refiled.
According to NGC’s internal budget documents, the answer to the latter is in the affirmative.
Cut from the $2.1 million Cultural Preservation budget was the $100,000 support to tassa bands and the $500,000 support for governing bodies for Carnival (National Carnival Commission and Pan Trinbago).
For 12 years, the state company was the title sponsor of the Bocas Lit Fest, helping the festival become the Caribbean’s leading literary event. That partnership ended in 2024, and this year, NGC contributed nothing.
At the time, Marina Salandy-Brown, the festival’s founder, said the loss of funding was devastating. “The Bocas Lit Fest was born because NGC took a chance when nobody else would. Without that support, there would be no Caribbean literary hub today,” she said. “But the withdrawal has left us on a shoestring. We now depend on foreign partners and goodwill to survive.”
Human, social, and educational funding slashed
Another casualty of the budget cuts is NGC’s corporate Queen’s Park Oval.
According to the budget documents, NGC decided it was no longer interested in a corporate box at the oval or the new scoreboard and the NGC LED logo at the facility. The cost of this was $500,000.
It's i2A (Inspire-2-Achieve) youth development programme was also put on the chopping block. Launched in 2022, it was designed to prepare children in fenceline communities with skills in STREAM (Science, Technology, Research, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), entrepreneurship, life skills, and sustainability.
The programme operated on a three-year cycle, targeting youth between 7 and 17 years old. Its $3.818 million budget was zeroed out.
Other youth initiatives have also been eliminated. Under “Youth Development (strategic sponsorships),” the board cut $200,000 earmarked for vocational training and support for police youth clubs in Couva, La Brea, and Mayaro. Sports sponsorships, worth $7.45 million, were also discontinued, including the popular “Right on Track” athletics programme, district and zonal games, scholarships, and sponsorship of the Secondary Schools Football League and CARIFTA Games. The board believes that these programmes could be sponsored through the Ministry of Sport or the Sports Company (SporTT). NGC’s Secondary Entrance Assessment recognition was also slashed.
The axe also fell on human and social development initiatives. Support worth $1.375 million was pulled from the Couva Children’s Home and Crisis Nursery, the Adult Literacy Tutors Association (ALTA), and community engagement in pipeline and project communities.
In education, nearly $1 million was cut, including funding for energy efficiency programmes in schools, support for the Green Screen TT film festival, the Trevor Boopsingh scholarship, and the NGC “Above and Beyond” awards.
No decision was made on its networking efforts, which included corporate membership fees to various local and foreign agencies, support to local business chambers and seminars.
Christmas commitments also slashed
While youth, education, and cultural programmes were cut, the board had chosen to retain, or reconsider but not eliminate, its Christmas commitments.
The budget showed $1.5 million had been set aside for a staff Christmas dinner, plus vouchers for 630 employees. These were to be reconsidered after engagement with employees, the documents noted.
A $1.5 million group family day and the staff shift dinner were under review, but Christmas parties for children, including those from fenceline communities, were expected to proceed.
Also retained was a gift of $5,000 to 650 employees for NGC’s 50th anniversary celebrations, though other branded giveaways and staff tokens were cancelled.
However, in the weeks before the Christmas holidays, a decision was taken to significantly slash the holiday events budget, with staff receiving cash vouchers instead of a party.
Corporate image pared back
Couva Joylanders players.
NGC also moved to trim its corporate image budget. A $6 million advertising allocation was scrapped, along with publicity for NGC steelbands and tassa groups. Spending on branded items, giveaways, and exhibitions was also reduced, though corporate consumables such as diaries and journals were retained.
Political backlash
The cuts sparked political controversy. Young had blasted the decision to withdraw funding to the steelband fraternity as “unjustifiable and unforgivable,” arguing that panyards were safe spaces in crime-affected communities. “This is heartless. NGC must reverse this decision,” he said at the time.
The cuts at a glance
Corporate box/Oval new scoreboard and NGC LED logo $500,000
Communications:
i2A- Youth Development $3,818,000
i2A youth development strategic sponsorships
Vocational training in community and Police Youth Clubs - (4 clubs) Couva; La Brea; Mayaro;
$200,000
Sport strategic sponsorships:
NGC Right on Track $500,000
Track and field development/Youth elite programme $1,500,000
District Games (8) and Moruga Zonal (primary schools) $600,000
TT Secondary schools track and field championships $350,000
YEP Scholarship programme (3 scholarships) $150,000
Primary School Championships $300,000
CARIFTA Games (inc brand communications) $750,000
TTFA $3 million
Community football $300,000
SSFL $250,000
Cultural preservation strategic sponsorship:
Preservation of 3 community-based steelbands, stageside development/player engagement/music scoring and music literacy $1.5 million
Support to indigenous instrument- Tassa bands $100,000
Support to governing bodies for Carnival (NCC and Pan Trinbago) $500,000
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