DAILY BRIEF
MONDAY 20th JULY, 2015
NEWS
3 die in smash-up
An engaged couple, a doting father and a six-month-old baby all died in horrific accidents this weekend, leaving four families in mourning and adding to the carnage on our nation’s roads. Three people lost their lives in a single smash-up along Solomon Hochoy Highway yesterday morning: Coast Guardsman Phillip Baptiste, 34, his fiancee Freida Bonyun, 32, along with Jagdeo Heeralal, 55, a gardener. Six-month-old Monisa Prevatt, who has a twin brother, was gone too soon, dying when her father’s car crashed in Mayaro on Friday night. Her twin brother, who was also in the vehicle, miraculously survived. Police reports on yesterday’s multiple fatality, indicate Baptiste, a leading electrician with the TT Coast Guard, was driving south along the Solomon Hochoy Highway, at about 6 am, when he lost control of his car, crossed the median and crashed into a van driven by Heeralal on the northbound lane, in the vicinity of Mid-Centre Mall, Chaguanas. Read more…
Cumuto man, 21, murdered
The country's murder toll continues to rise with the murder of a 21-year-old Cumuto man on Saturday night. Dead is Richard Gordon, of Cumuto Main Road, who police believed was killed by someone he knew. He was shot to death sometime around 9.45 while standing outside his home, police said. Up to yesterday evening, however, officers said they did not have a clear motive for the killing. Investigators said Gordon, who lived with his wife, was approached by a lone gunman who opened fire hitting him several times about the upper body, killing him on the spot. The incident has taken the country's murder toll for the year so far to 221, according to an Express tally. Officers said at the time of the shooting, people in the area heard him scream out the name of someone who was known to him and his wife before three loud explosions were heard. Residents later found Gordon lying along the roadway with a number of gunshot wounds to the body. A district medical officer pronounced him dead at the scene and ordered the removal of his body to the Forensic Science Centre in St James where an autopsy will take place today. Read more…
Another prison guard shot. Officers threaten shutdown
The shooting of yet another prison guard on Sunday night could spark fresh action among prison officers, including the shutdown of the Port-of-Spain prison. Otis Johnson of El Socorro was shot moments after leaving the Frederick Street prison, Port-of-Spain on Sunday night, according to early reports. Up to late Sunday night, prisons officials said Johnson would undergo emergency surgery and remained hopeful that he would survive. General secretary of the Prison Officers Association (POA) Gerard Gordon said they are praying for Johnson's family and for a speedy recovery. But fed-up prisons officers told the T&T Guardian that Johnson's shooting could be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back, as they are considering shutting down the prison. The Association had already said on Friday there will be no further talks until all their safety and security demands were met. At the end of their 10 pm shift on Sunday night, after Johnson was attacked, heavily armed prison officers escorted their colleagues to their cars. When the T&T Guardian arrived at the prison, a marked police vehicle was on standby, and officers reporting for duty were seen entering in prison vans with heavily armed officers. Read more…
POLITICS
Moonilal: UNC will ramp up screening
Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal, one of three deputy political leaders of the United National Congress (UNC), yesterday agreed the party’s screening for candidates may have to be ramped up. “It has to by definition, or otherwise we’ll be screening after the Nomination Day,” Moonilal affirmed to reporters at reporters at a Housing Development Corporation (HDC) event at South Quay, Port-of-Spain. The party has screened nominees for seven seats of 41 constituencies. The first four, Diego Martin North/East, La Horquetta/Talparo, Moruga/Tableland and San Juan/Barataria were reviewed on July 10, and last Friday, another four seats, Toco/Sangre Grande, Tabaquite, Pointe-a-Pierre and St Joseph, were dealt with. Three candidates have been announced, Garvin Nicholas (Diego Martin North/East), Jairam Seemungal (La Horquetta/Talparo) and Clifton De Couteau (San Juan/Barataria). Moonilal also hinted of seat negotiations with the Congress of the People (COP) as part of the People’s Parternship coalition. “Don’t forget as well there is also the issue of the Partnership. When it comes to negotiating and seats it is not just the UNC that will have candidates, but presumably other parties as well.” Read more…
There will be no political saviours
Apart from being too little too late, the Third Force Movement was doomed to failure because, on the face of it, they appeared, and I repeat the word “appeared,” to attract mainly those Trinbagonian citizens who respond best to a political Pied Piper of similar outward appearance. We have Afro- and Indo-based political parties and then we have a minority of citizens who consider themselves ‘unrepresented’ because there is no blonde, blue eyed leader. Out there in “foreign,” these citizens are called black. You could look half-white, half-Chinese, half-Indian, half-Portuguese, or whatever mixture that might consider yourself, but out there in “foreign” you are just another black/Afro/Asian immigrant or tourist. But, even so, all of us “nable string” as we call it, buried in Trinidad and Tobago. Sad, but true, we have well-educated people who believe that lightness of skin and straightness of hair equate intelligence. There is no true political “under representation” in T&T. Instead, there are citizens who have to move out of their comfort zones and choose the political leader who offers the better idea for equitable governance. Read more…
BUSINESS
Budget blackout a possibility
Trinidad and Tobago has had hung Parliaments in the past. But if a hung Parliament results after the September 7 General Election - a possibility as most polls suggest a close race - an unprecedented situation could arise which could see a Budget blackout. Civil servants on Thursday confirmed that because the Budget must be passed by October 31, if the Parliament is unable to convene and to pass a budget after September 7, a second general election will have to be held in an attempt to tackle the ensuing blackout of finances required to run the country. Retired Head of the Public Service Reynold Cooper, who earlier this year drew up plans to cater for a smooth transition to the next administration, on Thursday said his plans did not cater for the possibility of the Budget not being passed by October 31. He said it was possible, depending the result and the ensuing political landscape, that a hung Parliament might be unable to pass a fiscal package or even elect a speaker. “If the result is 20 - 20 - 1, with one of the third parties not agreeing to a coalition, then there will be a problem,” Cooper said. “If that happens and no compromise is reached, we will have to go back to the polls. A budget must be passed by October 30. Read more…
Construction on Beetham plant 42% complete—NGC
The National Gas Company Limited (NGC) has responded to a Sunday Guardian exclusive story stating that Super Industrial Services Ltd (SISL) has already been paid US$139 million of a US$162 million contract for the Beetham Wastewater Reuse Plant by saying that NGC is honouring the payment schedule in the contract and that the contractor had completed 42 per cent of the construction related activity by the end of May. Yesterday’s T&T Sunday Guardian lead story stated that as at the end of the first quarter of 2015, SISL had received over 86 per cent of the total fee for the project, which was 66.1 per cent complete. T&T Sunday Guardian’s calculations of US$139 million already paid to SISL include US$107 million paid to the contractor for engineering, procurement and construction and US$32.4 million as a 20 per cent mobilisation fee. The NGC does not dispute the T&T Sunday Guardian contention that US$139 million has been paid to SISL, but argues that the mobilisation fee will be repaid to NGC and that under the project agreement, the first repayment of the mobilisation fee by the contractor is due next month. NGC did not say exactly how much this first repayment would be or on what day in August it would be repaid. The NGC response also alleged that the T&T Sunday Guardian article was based on “erroneous information” but the state-owned company failed to identify any specific errors in the reporting. Read more…
REGIONAL
IMF concludes consultation with Barbados
On June 17, 2015, the executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with Barbados. Real GDP growth remained weak in 2014, weighed down by fiscal drag and stagnant tourism inflows, and unemployment averaged 12.3 percent at end-2014. However, tourism arrivals jumped over the winter season and real GDP is projected to expand by 1.0 percent in 2015 as stronger growth in key markets underpins arrivals. Lower oil prices and new tourism investment will provide a boost to demand, though ongoing fiscal adjustment will dampen the growth upside. Inflation is forecast to fall to 0.9 percent by year end, reflecting lower energy and commodity prices.
The balance of payments improved in 2014. The current account deficit fell slightly to 8.5 percent of GDP as export growth was flat and imports declined slightly, while stronger private capital inflows helped support a small increase in international reserves to US$563 million (3.4 months of imports) at end-March 2015. With oil prices low, the current account deficit is projected to fall to 5 percent of GDP in 2015. Private capital flows are expected to stabilize, leaving foreign reserves at about US$545 million at end 2015 (3.3 months of imports). Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
U.S., Cuba re-establish diplomatic relations, reopens embassies
One bitter holdover of the Cold War slipped into the history books at 12:01 a.m. Monday, when the United States and Cuba re-established diplomatic relations. For the first time since severing ties in 1961, they reopened embassies in each other's capitals. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla was to travel to the Cuban Embassy in Washington to raise his country's flag, an event that Cuban government officials said would be broadcast live on the island's state-run TV. A Cuban delegation of diplomats, artists and veterans of the revolution were to commemorate the breakthrough with about 500 guests and more than likely down a few celebratory mojitos and shots of Havana Club rum. U.S. diplomats in Havana have readied everything from new business cards to the embassy sign. But the festivities and flag-raising will have to wait for Secretary of State John Kerry's visit -- the highest-level trip by a U.S. official to Cuba since the 1959 revolution -- for the embassy reopening ceremony in August. Read more…
20th July 2015