NEWS

Cocaine trafficking fine removed for Canadian

A Canadian construction worker who admitted to trafficking 1.16 kilogrammes of cocaine in 2012, because of a pre-existing medical condition, has had his sentence varied. Although his sentence was varied to remove a $20,000 fine imposed on him, Justices of Appeal Alice Yorke-Soo Hon and Mark Mohammed said such offences must meet harsh consequences. Christopher Awni Shair was arrested on November 20, 2012, while at the Piarco International Airport. He was in TT for one week on vacation and, because of his disease, he wanted to “make money.” Read more here

T&T position changes on global Corruption Perception Index

Trinidad and To­ba­go has placed 85 out of 183 coun­tries in the lat­est Cor­rup­tion Per­cep­tion In­dex (CPI), chair­man of Trinidad and To­ba­go Trans­paren­cy In­sti­tute, Dion Ab­dool, has re­vealed. Ab­dool made the state­ment this morn­ing at the launch of the 2019 CPI, at the Arthur Lok Jack Grad­u­ate School of Busi­ness in Mt Hope. The av­er­age score for the CPI this year was 43. T&T scored 40. In the 2018 CPI, T&T re­ceived a score of 41 and was ranked 78. The in­dex ranks coun­tries and ter­ri­to­ries by their per­ceived lev­els of pub­lic sec­tor cor­rup­tion, ac­cord­ing to ex­perts and busi­ness peo­ple. Read more here

POLITICS

QC Nelson gets another day

Jamaican-born, British Queen’s Counsel Vincent Nelson is yet been sentenced for his role in an alleged conspiracy with former attorney general Anand Ramlogan and former UNC senator Gerald Ramdeen. The sentencing hearing has been adjourned to Friday afternoon. The matter is in connection with a series of financial transactions and alleged rewards involving legal fees paid to him for representation in state briefs. The briefs were obtained while Ramlogan was attorney general. The terms of his plea deal with the State are being kept private and Thursday’s hearing was held in-camera. Only prosecutors from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the police were allowed to remain in the court. The media, defence attorneys and law students were asked to leave after DPP Roger Gaspard,SC, reminded the judge of a previous order granted in June which gave the judge the discretion to hold what would normally be an open-court hearing, in private. Read more here

Duke, Maxie Cuffie’s brother clash over PSA court ruling

If you don’t act you will face the full brunt of the law, a warn­ing to the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) Pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke from the Head of the Con­cerned Pub­lic Of­fi­cers, Cur­tis Cuffie. This comes af­ter a high court rul­ing by Jus­tice Devin­dra Ram­per­sad that the PSA Pres­i­dent and his ex­ec­u­tive must hold time­ly au­dit of its fi­nances. The 18-page judg­ment stat­ed that the court is “sat­is­fied there is suf­fi­cient ev­i­dence con­cern­ing the un­law­ful ex­pen­di­ture.” He added the court was al­so sat­is­fied with ar­gu­ments as it re­lates to the fail­ure by the ex­ec­u­tive to hold sec­tion elec­tions and pro­vide prop­er­ly au­dit­ed ac­counts. So that prop­er pro­ce­dures are fol­lowed, for ap­proval of ex­pen­di­ture, the judge said it means the PSA has to have the prop­er an­nu­al gen­er­al con­fer­ence. Read more here

BUSINESS

Calls to halt role of money in politics

A call has been made for Government to take immediate action on campaign finance reform and implementing the public procurement legislation. Read more here

REGIONAL

Big gains for Guyana on anti-corruption index

THE APNU+AFC administration’s fight against corruption is bearing fruit as Guyana has improved its rating to 85 in the latest Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). Guyana is also listed as one of several countries which made significant improvements since 2012, according to the 2019 report which was released on Thursday. The index, which ranks the 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people, uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. Read more here

Corruption Stench Rising - Perception Of Malfeasance In Jamaica Increases On Watchdog Index

Transparency International’s 2019 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has positioned Jamaica as the fourth most corrupt state among Caribbean countries ahead of Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti. The 2019 index, released yesterday, showed Jamaica scoring 43, one place lower than the 44 it scored in 2018, in a context where zero is deemed very corrupt and 100 is very clean. With a score of 43, the country’s ranking has dipped sharply from 70 to 74 out of 180 countries. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

China coronavirus: Death toll rises as more cities restrict travel

China has widened its travel restrictions in Hubei province - the centre of the coronavirus outbreak - as the death toll climbed to 26. The restrictions will affect at least 20 million people across 10 cities, including the capital, Wuhan, where the virus emerged. On Thursday, a coronavirus patient died in northern Hebei province - making it the first death outside Hubei. Another death was later confirmed in north-east Heilongjiang province. The province borders Russia and is more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) from Wuhan. Nationally, there are currently 830 confirmed cases of patients infected with the virus. A small number of confirmed cases have also been found outside China, including in Thailand, the US, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Singapore. The growing list of restrictions comes on the eve of Lunar New Year - one of the most important dates in the Chinese calendar, when millions of people travel home. Read more here

Adam Schiff piles pressure on Republicans under fire

Senators are soon going to start seeing Adam Schiff in their sleep. The lead House impeachment manager is relentlessly pressuring the handful of Republican jurors who are considering a vote to call witness and delay the acquittal that President Donald Trump craves from his impeachment trial. Heading into the final day of his effort to build a devastating case, the indefatigable California Democrat is deploying every trick in the prosecutor's arsenal as he weaves a narrative of an unchained presidency hour after grueling hour. Read more here

24th January 2020

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