NEWS
$145m public/private housing project starts
Construction firm NH International (Caribbean) Ltd has won the bid to build a $145 million Government housing development at Mt Hope. The 160-unit apartment complex, named Mahogany Court, is the first housing development to be constructed by the PNM government using the public/private partnership (PPP) model. Construction of the two- and three-bedroom units will begin at the end of next month and will be completed by December 2018. Read more here
AG goes after 9 ex-officials
The Government has initiated legal action against nine former officials of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) on allegations of corruption during their tenure. Speaking with the T&T Guardian hours after Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley revealed that the lawsuit had been filed on Wednesday afternoon (See page A6), Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said it was the first to arise out of extensive audits and investigations ordered by the People’s National Movement (PNM) Government after assuming office in September last year. Read more here
PSA members want Duke out
Even as he was speaking at a press conference calling on the public not to vote for the People’s National Movement (PNM) in the upcoming Local Government Elections, President of the Public Service Association (PSA) Watson Duke was facing heat from some of his own union members who demanded that he be removed from the post. Tensions flared between PSA members and their First Vice President Christopher Joefield after members learnt they were barred from several General Council meetings. Read more here
POLITICS
The freeze comes after Local Govt election
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has expressed the belief that Finance Minister Colm Imbert was speaking the truth when he spoke of a wage freeze for public servants during the 2016 High Level Caribbean Forum at the Hyatt Regency hotel on Wednesday. Read more here
Annisette: No 'zero' talks among Imbert and unions
Finance Minister Colm Imbert did not discuss any zero-per cent wage offers with trade union leaders and they are upset. National Trade Union Centre (Natuc) general secretary Michael Annisette yesterday said there was “no unilateral discussion” among Finance Minister Colm Imbert and trade unionists when he announced the Government's decision to make zero, zero, zero wage offers to trade unions representing public sector workers for the period 2017 to 2020. Read more here
BUSINESS
OWTU rejects broke claim
The Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) has rejected claims by Inland and Offshore Contractors Limited (IOCL), a company based at the Otaheite Industrial Park, Oropouche, that it cannot afford to pay wage increases of 80 percent demanded by the union for hourly/weekly-rated employees in the company’s Marine Division for the period January 1, 2013 to December 31st 2015. The union served strike notice on the company on October 19, one day before the two sides were to hold conciliation talks at the San Fernando office of the Ministry of Labour and the workers went on strike on October 20. Read more here
REGIONAL
Keep It 'Clean And Fair' - Private Sector Leaders Call For Civil Local Gov't Election Campaign
At least two key sector leaders want the two major political parties to carry out campaigns in a civil manner that will not disrupt productivity in the run-up to the local government elections announced yesterday for November 28. Warren McDonald, president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, said the business sector welcomed the relatively short campaign period, which is to the benefit of commerce. "We would want a clean and fair election, one with minimum disruption in terms of political violence," McDonald told The Gleaner yesterday. He also praised both political parties for agreeing to engage in two 90-minute debates organised by the Jamaica Debates Commission (JDC). "This is the kind of thing we support, where any differences in policy can be highlighted rather than the usual political mumbo jumbo," he added. Read more here
Minister 'tells a lie' about proposed $2-billion China-Bahamas initiative
Bahamas minister of agriculture and marine resources Alfred Gray falsely claimed in the House of Assembly on Wednesday that his letter to Bahamas ambassador to China Paul Andy Gomez giving him authorization to develop further a proposed $2.1 billion joint venture initiative with the Chinese was not published in full by the press. But that statement by Gray was false. Gray’s full letter was in fact published in The Nassau Guardian on Wednesday, as the newspaper pointed out on Thursday under the headline “Gray tells a lie”. A day after he claimed The Guardian’s story on Tuesday revealing that Gomez was given authorization to further pursue the possible joint venture initiative with the Chinese was “utterly false”, Gray also acknowledged in the House that he did in fact give the ambassador permission to discuss the investment with investors. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Clinton, Trump make their closing arguments
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have a simple closing argument for voters: A loss in Tuesday's election would be catastrophic. With four days remaining before the election, the White House rivals are speaking in increasingly stark terms about the stakes of the race. Clinton is portraying Trump as someone who doesn't care about minorities and women. Trump, meanwhile, is arguing that Clinton flouts the law and says her administration would be consumed with constant investigations and distracting scandals. Neither candidate is making an affirmative case for their own campaign, more comfortable keeping their opponent's flaws in the spotlight. Read more here
Turkey HDP: Blast after pro-Kurdish leaders Demirtas and Yuksekdag detained
4th November 2016