Daily Brief- Thursday 14th September, 2017

NEWS

CLF shareholders shut out of petition

Shareholders of CL Financial (CLF) who are opposed to the conglomerate being liquidated and who are willing to repay $15B owed to Government, have been shut out of the State’s winding-up petition in the High Court. In an oral ruling yesterday, Justice Kevin Ramcharan held that although there was no dispute that the group DALCO were shareholders of CLF, DALCO advanced no evidence that it had sufficient interests to be heard in opposition of the petition. Read more here

Parking dispute leads to shooting of cop

A dispute over a parking space led to a police constable being shot in on Tuesday night while she and her husband made their way home. ccording to residents of Mamoral, the police officer Crystal Abraham was shot during an argument with a man over the use of a driveway where they both use to access their respective homes. Abraham, 32, lives in a house to the front, Residents said the two always argued over whose vehicle was blocking and who belonged there. Read more here

Teen found under bed: man, 27, in custody

A 27-year-old man is currently in custody after a 15-year-old schoolgirl was found hiding under a bed in his home. The teenager’s relatives reported her missing to officers of the Cumuto Police Station about 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Police were told by the girl’s father she had been snatched and dragged into a for­ested area near her home by a masked man who was armed with a cutlass. At the time, she was said to be just outside the home doing laundry. Read more here

 

POLITICS

Ministry contacts drowned Trini’s family

The Foreign Affairs Ministry has reached out to the family of Melan June Salvary- Doyle, who is the first Trini confirmed killed by Hurricane Irma when she drowned when the monster storm lashed St Martin a week ago. Salvary-Doyle was at the time visiting relatives in St Martin. Salvary- Doyle’s sister Emily Pasqual yesterday told Newsday that her daughter Alena received a telephone call from a ministry official on Tuesday evening requesting information about her (Salvary-Doyle) living arrangements on the island before the tragedy occurred. “I figured they wanted to start to work on locating the body but we have not heard anything from them since then (up to news time),” Pasqual said. Pasqual said the family also learnt from a family friend that a local military extraction team was being sent to St Martin to assist with relief efforts. Read more here

PM: Fake oil probe must be proper one

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says he expects the Petrotrin board will call in independent investigators to look into the fake oil fiasco involving A&V Drilling Workover Limited, adding that a proper investigation of the matter is warranted. He made the call during his third ‘Conversations with the Prime Minister’ at the St Augustine Secondary School last night, after being asked a direct question by as member of the public gallery. Read more here

Energy Ministry yet to receive report

Notwithstanding the fact that the final report of the Internal Audit Committee of Petrotrin “is all over the place”, the Ministry of Energy is yet to receive a copy of this report which gives details on the alleged “fake oil” fraud. This was revealed by permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy Selwyn Lashley as he gave evidence before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday. Chairman of the PAC Dr Bhoe Tewarie asked Lashley to fast-track the report. He said if the audit report is accurate, there should be a ­taxation audit on the producer (A&V Oil) that has under-supplied and that has been overpaid in this particular instance. Read more here

 

BUSINESS

Irma affects C&W operations

C&W Communications, operator of the retail brand Flow in the Caribbean, has provided an update on the impact to its people, markets, and operations from Hurricane Irma which left a trail of destruction across the Caribbean and parts of the United States. As the largest full service communications operator in the region, C&W reported impact on its service across the region including in the islands of Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. US-based employees in Florida were also affected by the storm. Read more here

Browne Predicts $35b Budget

Given the decline in the country’s revenue, former finance minister Mariano Browne estimates that the 2017/19 budget will be approximately $35 billion. Browne, who thinks Finance Minister Colm Imbert should be forthright and tell the nation the naked truth about the state of the economy, told guests at a Penal Debe Chamber of Commerce pre-budget forum: “The reality with this budget is that, in a sense, it’s one where we have to face the maker. We have to tell people the reality. That is what I expect from the Government, that is what I expect from the Minister of Finance—to be serious. Read more here

Rate review for T&TEC and WASA

Are water and electricity rate increases on the ­horizon? This was the question many on social media site Facebook were asking yesterday following an announcement by the Regulated Industries Commission (RIC) that it has begun a price review process for the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) and the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA). Read more here

 

REGIONAL

Gov't Hurting NHF - Agency Unable To Access Some Supplies As Parent Owes It More Than $4b

Scores of Jamaicans who depend on the National Health Fund (NHF) for benefits could be at risk as the agency faces a cash crisis that has developed because it cannot collect billions of dollars from beneficiaries, including the Ministry of Health. At the end of the last fiscal year, the NHF was owed $4.5 billion, with the health ministry accounting for 94 per cent of that amount. To compound the problem facing the NHF, $2.9 billion of what it was owed by the health ministry was overdue in excess of 90 days, this despite the NHF writing off $2 billion that it was owed by the health ministry. Read more here

BVI faces law and order breakdown

Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) officers were the first policing reinforcements to get to the hurricane stricken British Virgin Islands where, in addition to all other security issues, the local police had to deal with more than 100 prisoners set free by the storm on the island of Tortola. British Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister Sir Alan Duncan has said there is a “serious threat of the complete breakdown of law and order” in the BVI. Richard Branson’s son, Sam Branson, has reported on social media that some of the escaped prisoners are now armed. Read more here

 

INTERNATIONAL

Kuala Lumpur school fire kills students and teachers

At least 24 students and teachers have died in a fire at a religious school in Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur. The fire at the Tahfiz Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah broke out in the early hours of Thursday morning. The victims are thought to been trapped in their dormitory as the windows were barred with metal grilles. "It is one of the country's worst fire disasters in the past 20 years," Khirudin Drahman, director of the fire and rescue department, told AFP. Initial counts put the death toll at 25, but police later revised that down by one. Read more here

Trump pushes back on Dems' claims of DACA deal

President Donald Trump pushed back Thursday morning against claims by top congressional Democrats that a deal has been reached over legislation to protect hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants and that a border-security package would not include a wall along the US-Mexico border. "No deal was made last night on DACA," Trump tweeted. "Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent. Would be subject to vote." Late Wednesday, Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi said they had "agreed to enshrine the protections of (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program) into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that's acceptable to both sides." Read more here

14th September 2017

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