NEWS
Vicky Boodram sent to St Ann’s
Fraud accused Vicky Boodram has been sent by a magistrate to the St Ann’s Psychiatric Hospital for a mental evaluation. The order was made by Senior Magistrate Nanette Forde- John yesterday when Boodram, 38, re-appeared in the San Fernando Magistrates Courts to answer 40 charges, laid in March, when she was arrested outside the said courthouse. Boodram of Siparia has over a 100 fraud charges pending in the San Fernando, Port-of-Spain and Siparia Magistrates’ courts including alleged money laundering. She remains incarcerated at the Women’s Prison in Arouca, having been denied bail by retired Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington, before whom she appeared in March. The charges stemmed from tickets sold to hundreds of persons in Trinidad and Tobago, from a travel agency for a North-Atlantic cruise which never materialised. Charges relating to alleged money laundering involve the purchase of a Mercedes Benz sedan and property in Palmiste. The latest charges against Boodram, laid in March while she was before the courts on earlier charges, involve a concert starring a top actor from India. She is also alleged to have defrauded one of her own attorneys who represented her in 77 fraud charges. Yesterday, she had another attorney, Jason Jackson appearing for her as the case was called before Magistrate Forde- John. Read more…
Locked Out: Board action to expel 3 teachers affects entire school
Pressuring the Ministry of Education to discipline three senior teachers, the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha Board has shut down the Rio Claro Vedic Primary School, leaving students in a quandary. With national tests just 12 days away, angry parents protested yesterday, calling for the ministry to intervene. The board has accused one of the teachers of having an “inappropriate relationship” while another was accused of desecrating the school’s religious texts by dumping them in a bin. The books were compilations of Vedic songs and prayers. Parent Meera Mansingh yesterday said since Tuesday new locks had been placed on the gates of the school and a fresh batch of private security was hired. “New security guards are manning the compound but we do not know why this action was taken,” Mansingh said. She explained, however, that some teachers were negligent in their duties and did not care about pupils. Read more…
NGC wrong on SIS
The National Gas Company (NGC) is wrong in its assertion that the freeze order against Super Industrial Services (SIS) was not struck out by the Civil Proceedings Rules (CPR), says attorney Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC. The Express yesterday reported that SIS's $180 million in assets were unfrozen because a High Court injunction against the company in December last year had been was struck out according to the provisions of the CPR.
POLITICS
Young refutes newspaper reports
Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs Stuart Young yesterday declared that a freezing order against Super Industrial Services (SIS) has not been lifted, contrary to a report published yesterday in the Trinidad Express newspaper. Asked to comment on that report, at the post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair, Young stated, “I am glad that you raised that because I was very, very surprised to see the report in today’s newspaper and also to observe the inaccuracy of the report.” Explaining that he has been following up on this matter and was fully briefed with respect to it, Young said, “There has been no lifting of the injunction with respect to the SIS assets. There has been no dismissal of the matter brought by NGC against SIS.” The Minister said he understood that the judge charged with responsibility for this matter, has called for a hearing to take place today. Stressing the matter remains a current and live one before the courts, Young said his understanding was that SIS’ attorneys have taken a certain position in law which the NGC attorneys believe to be wholly inaccurate. He stated that anyone who may be called upon to do anything in relation to SIS assets must be, “very careful”, as the matter has not been dismissed. Read more…
Minister: More Govt grants coming
More Government grants are coming for those who are being negatively affected by the economic downturn, with special attention to be paid to those who lost their jobs. The good news, coming some five months before this year’s local government elections, was announced by the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services on Wednesday as it launched the first of four social dialogues to be held across T&T. “The ministry already provides numerous grants and services to assist the poor and the vulnerable but we know we can and must do better,” Minister Cherrie-Ann Crichlow-Cockburn announced during a feature address at the launch at the University Inn and Conference Centre on the St Augustine Campus. Read more…
Imbert to make statement on HSF withdrawal
Finance Minister Colm Imbert is to make a statement in the House of Representatives today on Government’s withdrawal of $2.5 billion from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF). Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young said Imbert will be making a “comprehensive” statement in the Parliament on the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund. At yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference, Young said the issue of accessing the HSF to bridge any budget shortfall was raised in the budget, in the Prime Minister’s New Year’s address and in the mid-year review. UNC slams Imbert’s refusal to explain On Wednesday, in a news release, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar called on the Minister of Finance to provide the nation with detailed information regarding the particular programmes and projects on which the funds withdrawn from the HSF will be spent. The UNC leader also slammed Imbert’s terse and cryptic response to a question from Senator Wade Mark on what the withdrawn HSF funds were used for. Read more…
BUSINESS
Never enough for TT lifestyle
This country could never amass enough money, not even if it saved all its energy earnings, to “fund our excessive lifestyle”, former Minister in the Finance Ministry Conrad Enill has cautioned. Referring to the controversy surrounding Government’s decision to withdraw $2.5 billion from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF), Enill said the fund should be an instrument to accomplish “something different” advising that the country must change its spending patterns. “For years, we have been spending more than we earn, subsidised by energy resources, and the country doesn’t know. So I think that in going forward, one of the things that we should do is take all of our energy resources, pretend we have none, and put it in the HSF. If we do that, the picture that will emerge is that we have expenditure of $60 billion and we have revenue of $40 billion.” Putting it another way, Enill said, “If we put energy resources into the HSF and we borrow from it to fund our excessive lifestyle, then certainly we will understand that there’s a different equation, a different value set, that we have to look at in the context of how we go forward.” Enill was speaking during the seminar, “Business Strategies in a Recession for the Retail Sector”, held at Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, Mt Hope this past Tuesday. Read more…
Enill: Recession started in 2010
Business, education, labour and civil society groups got together yesterday for dialogue on the current economic crisis and called on Government and the private sector to re-evaluate their knee-jerk responses and adjustments to the recession. Among those taking part in the discussion was former Energy Minister Conrad Enill who described 2016 as an “awakening” for T&T, and claimed the country had been in a recession since 2010, although it was only publicised late last year. Enill was part of the four-member panel that discussed the recession and the nation’s reaction to it. He said the word recession was enough to negatively affect society as people immediately envisaged “a sense of doom and gloom.” Read more…
$32.7m profit for Petrotrin
A net importer of crude oil, State-owned oil and gas company Petrotrin posted a $32.7 million net profit in its exploration and production (E&P) business in April thanks to low oil prices, according to the company’s monthly employee bulletin issued Wednesday. Read more…
REGIONAL
Cuba-EU human rights dialogue moves forward despite differences
A round of talks on human rights between Cuba and the European Union (EU) was held in Havana on Sunday, June 6, when, despite profound differences, both parties agreed they had made advances. According to the ministry of foreign affairs of Cuba (MINREX), the discussions were presided over by Stavros Lambrinidis, the European Union's special representative for human rights, and Ambassador Pedro Núñez Mosquera, general director of multilateral affairs and international law of MINREX. The dialogue was aimed at creating areas of debate, expanding knowledge on the respective realities and exploring possibilities of cooperation in the fields where there were points of coincidence. The delegations tackled specific issues of human rights as defined previously by the parties, both in the fields of civic and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural ones. Read more…
Campaign Chaos! - PNP's Appraisal Report Details Disastrous 2016 Election Run
People's National Party (PNP) Deputy General Secretary Julian Robinson, who chaired the party’s postelection appraisal committee, yesterday disclosed that among the key findings of the committee was that the party ran an election campaign best classified as disastrous. Robinson, who was addressing a press conference at the party’s Old Hope Road, St Andrew, headquarters yesterday, said the 13man committee that interviewed a wide cross section of individuals found that the party’s campaign organisation and its communication campaign strategies were at cross purposes, resulting in the disaster that unfolded. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
France Euro 2016: Hollande warns unions against disrupting tournament
Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton to meet after endorsement
Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton are set to meet Friday, a day after the Massachusetts senator endorsed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and called on Democrats to unite behind her. A source confirmed to CNN the two were slated to meet on Friday. On Thursday, Warren finally endorsed Clinton after being one of the lone hold outs in the Senate. "I'm ready to get in this fight and work my heart out for Hillary Clinton to become the next president of the United States and to make sure that Donald Trump never gets any place close to the White House," Warren told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. Warren's endorsement comes after both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden backed the former secretary of state on Thursday. "I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office," Obama said. Read more…
10th June 2016