DAILY BRIEF
TUESDAY 2ND JUNE, 2015
NEWS
Petrotrin drills D/Force hockey men
Out of favour national forward Wayne Legerton scored a pair of goals to lead Petrotrin to a convincing 4-0 bashing of Defence Force and a sixth straight win in the T&T Hockey Board Men’s Championship Division on Sunday. Playing in the final match of the day at the National Hockey Centre, Tacarigua, Legerton fired the Oilmen ahead in the 19th while his former national team-mate Atiba Whittington made it 2-0 five minutes later. Any chances of Defence Force clawing its way back into the match quickly disappeared in the second half as Legerton scored in the 48th minute, to put his team 3-0 ahead before Solomon Eccles added a fourth item in the 56th. The win pushed the Oilmen’s points tally to a maximum 18 from their six matches, four more than defending champions Notre Dame which also registered an impressive 4-1 thumping of Fatima. Leading the way for the Dames were Keith De Peza (tenth and 17th) and Ishmael Campbell (43rd and 53rd) while Devin Hooper had briefly tied the match at 1-1 with a 13th minute reply for Fatima. Read more...
Donkey Cart Law
President Anthony Carmona – a former judge – yesterday delivered his verdict on the country’s legal system. In remarks made after he swore in a new Justice of Appeal and a new judge of the High Court, the President called on both judicial officers to engage in better judicial practices, practices that he said would transform society. He said currently the legal system is beset by a kind of “institutional quagmire” where “donkey-cart” law seems to be the order of the day. “When I was on the bench I was always a strong advocate of judicial activism because I feel it is the way to go in the context of transforming our society,” Carmona said at a ceremony for Justice of Appeal Judith Jones and Justice Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell held at President’s House, St Ann’s. “That is why, in the not-too-distant past, I referred to a type of institutional quagmire where I said for far too long we have been engaging in a donkey-cart interpretation of our laws and of our Constitution.” Read more...
Man killed: cops arrest outpatient in Carenage
Police arrested an outpatient of St Ann's Psychiatric Hospital on Sunday evening, moments after he approached officers with a head wound sustained during an altercation with a man who later died. Killed was Gerald Marin, 35, of Upper Big Yard Road in Carenage. The police said around 6.20 p.m. on Sunday, officers of Carenage Police Station were on extra-duty at an event in the area when they saw a man walking towards them with a gaping head wound. Someone told the officers the man with the wound had stabbed another man. The suspect was dressed in a pair of black jeans, grey T-shirt and had a scarf tied around his neck. As the officers grabbed him they found a knife in his possession which police believed to have been the murder weapon. The officers then took him to St James Police Station where he told police what happened, following which the officers took him back to the scene of the crime where they found Marin with the stab wounds he had earlier sustained.. Read more...
POLITICS
Rowley: Warner, speak up on Section 34
If former FIFA vice president Jack Warner thinks Government was interfering in the local judicial system with regard to a United States (US) request to extradite him to answer corruption charges, now was the time for him to speak up, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley declared yesterday. Particularly, Rowley wants Warner, whom he said was a United National Congress financier, to say what he knew about Section 34 as he was a minister of Government when the provision was passed to deal with the issue of “the other two financiers,” referring to businessmen Ish Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson, who are also wanted by the US for corruption charges stemming from the Piarco Airport project. “It is my view that Mr Warner has information which can elucidate for us what happened with Section 34 in a Cabinet of which he was a part,” Rowley said in response to a question at a press conference at his Charles Street, Port-of-Spain office. Read more...
Don’t pay Clico directors any money
Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley is calling on Government to instruct the Central Bank not to make any payments to directors of Colonial Life Insurance Company (Clico) while taxpayers monies were still exposed. “We are calling on this Government to instruct the Governor of the Central Bank, who has the authority to overlook taxpayers in this bailout, not to make these payments, until the taxpayers interests are fully satisfied,” Rowley said. Addressing the media at a press conference held at his Charles Street, Port-of-Spain office yesterday, Rowley said Government has taken steps to have Clico directors paid with respect to liabilities. When the Clico collapse took place, he said, the company was saved by taxpayers monies through the Parliament. Since then the Parliament, he said, has had virtually no involvement in the management of the affairs of this portfolio. “This Government has made a career of misleading the public on this matter,” he said. Read more...
BUSINESS
New vice-chairman named
PAN-American Life Insurance Group, recently announced that Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Carlos Mickan has been named as the Group’s Vice Chairman.“Carlos has played an integral role in the company’s transformation over the last decade. His deep understanding of our business and steady financial stewardship have been decisive in strengthening Pan-American Life’s reputation as a financially strong company, ideally suited to meeting the life, accident and health insurance needs of our customers across the Americas,” said José S Suquet, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of Pan-American Life Insurance Group. “As a valued member of our Group’s Board of Directors, his expertise and leadership are instrumental as we continue to fine-tune and execute our strategic vision.” In addition to his role as vice-chairman, Mickan will continue to oversee Pan-American Life’s financial operations as Chief Financial Officer which includes the investment and actuarial areas of the company, as well as administration and information technology. Read more...
T&T’s daily forex demand—US$25m
T&T foreign currency demand continues to increase, Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambarran said yesterday. Speaking at the bank’s first monetary policy forum for the year, hosted in conjunction with the San Juan Business Association at Angostura’s Conference Facility in Laventille, Rambarran said current foreign exchange demand is US25 million a day up from US$20 million earlier in the year. In response to reports that former directors and senior managers at Clico are to be paid $48 million, Rambarran said those payments are not coming from the Central Bank. “It is not the Central Bank making the payment. It is Clico making the payment to its policy holders,” he said, adding that some 1,500 policy holders had not accepted the Government’s payment plan. Noting that the collapse of the Clico empire was one reason for the deficits in the T&T budget over the past five years, Rambarran said: “In the coming year, Government stands to receive some $10 billion from Clico which, if used to reduce public debt, will help to reverse some of the deterioration in the Government’s balance sheet. Read more...
Unfair concessions
The Trinidad and Tobago Used Car Dealers Association is alleging that a southern-based used car importer was being given unfair concessions from the Ministry of Trade while their members were being denied any. President of the association, Visham Babwah along with the association’s vice-president Rhondell Feeles are calling on the Prime Minister to investigate the matter and then fire Trade Minister Vasant Bharath for granting these “unfair concessions”. During a hastily-called press conference yesterday morning in downtown Port of Spain, Babwah said from their own investigations they found out that the Ministry of Trade was seeking to waive $6 million in rent being charged by the Port of Port of Spain against the said dealer. Babwah said the rent being charged by the port against the said company was for a number of vehicles stored on the port’s premises for a number of weeks but without the items being cleared the rent figure grew. Read more...
Central Bank raises repo rate
At its May 2015 meeting, Central Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) agreed to raise the 'Repo' rate for a fifth consecutive time by 25 basis points to 4 percent.The MPC based its decision on three main factors. The first and most influential factor was recent forward guidance from the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on the start of normalization of U.S. monetary policy. The second factor was the potential for rising domestic inflationary pressures in the rest of 2015. The third factor the MPC deliberated upon was the still relatively positive growth outlook for the non-energy sector in 2015. Regarding the start of U.S. monetary policy normalization, mixed economic data on the performance of the U.S. economy for the second quarter of 2015 has cast a fresh wave of uncertainty about the timing of this widely anticipated event. Recent statements by the Fed's Chairwoman Janet Yellen, however, seem to suggest the FOMC would definitely hike interest rates in 2015. Yellen warned that delaying action to tighten monetary policy until U.S. employment and inflation reach the Fed's targets would risk overheating the U.S. economy. Read more...
REGIONAL
Regional labour and employer groups sign MOU
The Caribbean Employers Confederation (CEC) and the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to work together to identify areas where common legislative and regulatory principles having regional application are essential. The MOU will also allow for the two parties to co-operate on formulating legislation as well as facilitating the establishment and operation of business and the free movement of labour within the Caribbean Community (Caricom).They also agreed to uphold and advocate for the principles enshrined in International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions addressing the elimination of child labour, forced labour and discrimination; and the right to freedom of association and to bargain collectively. The Social Chapter of the Economic Partnership Agreement entered into by the European Union (EU) and Caribbean Forum (Cariforum) countries in 2008, refers to the obligations of each member state to implement the rights and principles inherent in the eight Fundamental Conventions of the ILO. Read more...
Grenada launches long term development plan
A long-term plan of action to achieve the Grenada government’s development goals was launched last Wednesday. The 2030 National Plan is expected to be completed and presented to cabinet by June 2016 and will soon be tabled in parliament for approval and action.A secretariat will be set up that will provide support to a steering committee and a technical working group which is responsible for creating the plan. Members of the committee and group were presented during Wednesday’s launch. Dr Patrick Antoine of the technical working group said this is a serious process and nothing but the fullest commitment from committee members will be accepted. “We have to be dedicated to this. We have to have a spirit of collective progress,” Antoine said. “I think when we have a situation with working groups with 15 and 20 people but two people do the work, it’s unfair and I want to caution against that. Read more...
INTERNATIONAL
TSA screeners failed tests to detect explosives, weapons
Airport screeners failed to detect explosives and weapons in nearly every test that an undercover Homeland Security team conducted at dozens of airports, according to an internal investigation. The Transportation Security Administration found that "red teams" with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General were able to get banned items through the screening process in 67 out of 70 tests it conducted across the nation. The test results were first reported by ABS News, and government officials confirmed them to CNN. Homeland Security's report on the tests is set to be issued later this summer and is still being written. A Homeland Security spokesperson said that "the numbers in these reports never look good out of context, but they are a critical element in the continual evolution of our aviation security." Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called the failure rate "deeply alarming." Read more...
2nd June 2015