NEWS
Work or Be Fired
A day after Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams resumed duties as head of the TT Police Service (TTPS), he read the riot act yesterday to heads of nine police divisions, regarding the low detection rate and rampant murders, especially in the Northern and Central Divisions. He warned that in the near future, he will fire or block the promotion of officers deemed to be under-performing. Williams - according to very well-placed sources - is reported as telling the officers, “some of you, having attained the age of 55, if you are not performing I could use my authority under the Police Service Regulations to not recommend that you be promoted.” Newsday was told that an officer, attaining the age of 55, if he/she is not promoted (for whatever reason) must proceed on retirement. In a fiery address at the meeting to examine crime statistics (or Compstat for computer-generated statistics) at Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain, the top cop said he was not pleased at all with the overall performance of the Police Service in terms of detection and the ability to bring crime down. Read more here
Brits ‘block’ Galicia from delivering Tobago cargo
Chairman of the Tobago Chamber of Commerce Demi John Cruikshank said Tobago was short of bread yesterday, following a situation on Tuesday night when the Super Fast Galicia cargo vessel was unable to dock at the Scarborough Port. Reports are that the visiting British Naval Vessel the RFA Wave Knight was docked in the area where the Galicia was to have berthed and a cocktail reception was taking place. But the British High Commission is saying there was no reason why the Galicia could not have docked. Cruikshank told the T&T Guardian that the British vessel was “cleared to park in the channel where the Galicia had to pass by the pilots who tell vessels where to berth.” As a result “there was an eruption of chaos on the Port of Scarborough, hundreds of truckers people had perishable goods; the vessel could not offload or take on cargo so people lost a lot of revenue and Tobago was short on bread today,” he said. Read more here
‘It was Bap! Bap! Bap! over and over’
Blood continued to be spilled yesterday, with the murder of a security guard and a chef in separate incidents. The killings have pushed to murder toll for 2016 to 385, compared with 364 up to November 2 last year. The latest victims have been identified as Marvin Bridgeman, 41, of La Horquetta; and Joel Punnette, 58, of Enterprise. Read more here
POLITICS
Kamla: Govt declares war on citizens
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday insisted that Finance Minister Colm Imbert had announced a wage freeze for public servants. In a statement rejecting Imbert’s earlier clarification that he spoke about wage restraint and not a wage freeze, Persad-Bissessar demanded that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley immediately assume the post of Finance Minister and fire Imbert. On Monday, Rowley announced changes to his Cabinet. Calling on the PM to, “lead with compassion and fairness to working class citizens”, Persad-Bissessar said the alleged “0/0/0 wage policy aka wage freeze in the public sector”, is another symptom of the Government’s absence of vision and creative solutions and the inequitable distribution of the burden of the adjustment. Read more here
‘Government can’t offer more than 14 per cent’
Wage and salary hikes in 2017 will be less than 14 per cent, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said yesterday. He said so during a hastily arranged news conference yesterday at his Eric Williams Finance Building office to clarify media reports of the imposition of a wage freeze in T&T for fiscal 2017, which began on October 1. Imbert stressed that there was to be no wage freeze in T&T. He said he never said earlier that there would be a wage freeze but a wage restraint. “There is no wage freeze. There is no Government policy of a wage freeze and I never said there is going to be a wage freeze,” he said. There was widespread panic and concern after reports suggested public servants would face a wage freeze based on Imbert’s earlier comment during an International Monetary Fund event yesterday. Read more here
Duke: Vote for anybody but PNM
President of the Public Services Association (PSA) Watson Duke has urged public servants to “vote for anybody but the PNM” in the upcoming local government elections. His statement came in response to Finance Minister Colm Imbert's announcement yesterday that the Government was offering zero per cent over 2017 to 2020 to public sector workers. Speaking at a news conference at the PSA headquarters on Abercromby Street, Port of Spain, Duke expressed the view that the People's National Movement (PNM) had failed in its mandate to stabilise the economy. He said as such workers should not vote for the party. Read more here
BUSINESS
IMF: TT pursuing fiscal adjustments
Trinidad and Tobago is pursuing fiscal adjustments, including lessening its debt burden, that could lead to successes similar to that achieved by heavily indebted Caribbean countries, says International Monetary Fund Deputy Managing Director Dr Tao Zhang. Addressing the opening of the High-Level Caribbean Forum yesterday at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, Tao said that though fiscal adjustment can be difficult to sustain amid weak economic growth, there were some clear success stories in the region to share. Jamaica, Grenada, and St Kitts and Nevis have achieved “important” results in reducing their fiscal and external vulnerabilities over the last few years and, he said, “Trinidad and Tobago is pursuing the same goals now.” The current financial environment with low interest rates, he said, “provides a window of opportunity to pursue adjustment, undertake liability management to lower financing costs, and reduce debts to safer levels.” On the downside, Tao noted that in the region, TT and Suriname have been hard hit due to the slump in oil and gas prices. Read more here
NATUC on zero wage offer: ‘We feel betrayed’
A zero wage offer to public sector workers will not solve the economic problems facing the country, Michael Annisette, general secretary of the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC), said yesterday. Reacting to the announcement by Finance Minister Colm Imbert that Government will be attempting wage restraint in its negotiations with public sector unions for the 2017 to 2020 period, Annisette said studies done by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and others have shown that such an approach, instead of providing a solution, actually deepens the contraction of the economy. “That makes no economic sense,” he told the T&T Guardian yesterday. Read more here
OWTU: We’ll keep a close eye on Khan
Newly-appointed Energy Minister Franklin Khan is being monitored closely by the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), says president general Ancel Roget. Roget said yesterday the union had serious concerns with Khan, who replaced La Brea MP Nicole Olivierre. Read more here
REGIONAL
Aid distribution goes tragically wrong in Haiti, leaving one dead
A teenager was shot dead on Tuesday at around noon at the wharf in Les Cayes, Haiti, when unloading a humanitarian aid ship, flying the Puerto Rican flag. "A Puerto Rican ship was unloading its cargo in the port but it went wrong at the dock and a teenager was hit by bullets," said the mayor of Les Cayes, Gabriel Fortuné. However, not being present at the scene at the time of the incident, the mayor could not provide information on the origin of the shot, saying only that an investigation will determine responsibility, HaitiLibre reported. According to eye witness accounts, the incident occurred shortly after the beginning of the unloading operation, when individuals chanted slogans accusing officials of diverting humanitarian aid, causing an angry reaction in the large crowd that had come in the hope of receiving assistance. Read more here
'Injustice' - Parliamentarians Want Mentally Ill Removed From Prison
Enraged parliamentarians are demanding that the Government find the resources to immediately remove from Jamaica's maximum security prisons 127 mentally ill inmates languishing in custody and unfit to plead. Yesterday, members of Parliament's Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) described as a disgrace the disclosure from Ina Hunter, commissioner of corrections, who also said that "several" have been incarcerated for more than a decade. "Those that are unfit to plea would not have got a determinate sentence, and they would have had to attain a mental state where they can deliver themselves in the court," Hunter said, noting that the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) cannot release inmates, and the lack of family support makes it even more difficult. "They would be taken back to court, and a determination could be made to send them home, but there's no family support in many instances," she added. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
US election 2016: Obama warns fate of world at stake
Court ruling throws Brexit process into doubt
Britain's plans to leave the European Union were thrown into confusion Thursday after a court ruled that members of parliament must be given a say in the process. The U.K. High Court ruled that lawmakers should vote on whether the government can begin the formal Brexit process by triggering Article 50 of the EU treaty. Experts say parliament is unlikely to block Brexit outright. But the ruling could mean Brexit is delayed, and lawmakers may get a chance to influence what kind of deal the government negotiates with the EU. Read more here
3rd November 2016