Dansam Dhansook

Dansam Dhansook is a Trinidad and Tobago politician and businessman. Dhansook, who represents the Ecclesville district, is the lone People's National Movement (PNM) councillor on the Mayaro-Rio Claro Regional Corporation. On August 27, 2005, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, United National Congress (UNC) Member of Parliament for Siparia read into Hansard a letter from Dhansook in which he alleged that he had paid bribes to Franklin Khan, Minster of Works and MP for Mayaro and Eric A. Williams, Minister of Energy and MP for Port of Spain South. Dhansook subsequently called a press conference to recant his allegations, but failed to show up at the press conference and later claimed that his recant had been coerced.

On August 31, 2002, Dhansook's company signed a TT$ 60 million contract to supply labour to a Canadian company conducting a seismic survey off the east coast of Trinidad in conjunction with Talisman Energy. On suspicion that Dhansook was linked to acts of sabotage aimed at prolonging the contract, the company terminated the contract on August 25, 2003. On October 1, 2003 Dhansook's company sued the company for breach of contract. Several employees departed from Trinidad and Tobago, allegedly after they were threatened by Dhansook.

On February 20, 2004 Dhansook had a phone conversation with Minister of Energy, Eric A. Williams. Dhansook alleges that Williams threatened to "destroy him" if he did not withdraw the lawsuit against the company. When Dhansook threatened to report Williams to Prime Minister Patrick Manning, it is alleged that Williams replied "Report Frankie too", in reference to Minister of Works, Franklin Khan. Williams on the other hand said that when he told Dhansook that the government would take action against him if the sabotage allegations were proven true, Dhansook retaliated by threatening to "see to my [Williams] destruction".

As a consequence of this conversation, Dhansook wrote two letters to Prime Minister Manning, in which he detailed that he had paid a TT$75,000 bribe to Williams, a $121,500 bribe to Khan and had used one of his companies to help Khan defraud Venture Petroleum (Trinidad) Ltd., Khan's former employer.

External links

* [http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=75356449 Trinidad Express interview]
* [http://www.petroleumworld.com/storytt05052201.htm Anatomy of a bribery timeline]