NEWS
Do as normal, Garcia tells anxious GATE students
Minister of Education Anthony Garcia yesterday urged anxious university students to proceed as normal in relation to the admissions process for the September term, as he confirmed receipt of a task force review into the operations of the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) programme. “My advice is to continue what they are doing and await the report,” the minister said when asked by reporters what advice he would give to students hoping to start or continue studies amid possible reforms of the programme. “That is all I can reveal at this time. I am not at liberty to disclose anything else contained in that report. Remember it is a Cabinet decision, it is a Cabinet report and the report has to be presented to Cabinet.” The minister added, “Thursday the Cabinet is going to receive it. The report is very detailed so I suspect that Cabinet will require some time to really digest the entire report and that might take one to two weeks. After that, we will release the findings and recommendations to the national community.” Garcia said the special task force appointed by Cabinet considered the timing of its report. Read more…
5 HR execs suspended
Five managers of the Human Resources Department at State-owned Petrotrin were suspended yesterday, following the conclusion of a four-year audit into a recruitment exercise. Those suspended were Ryerson Bagoo, Fareeda Mohammed, Gillian Cherotiere, Franka Mohammed and Bianca Attong. Among the positions the managers held were head of staffing, head of HR technology and head of planning policies and control. The suspensions came days after Petrotrin undertook a major organisational shake-up in the face of falling oil prices and the hiring of former communication minister Neil Parsanlal as CEO of Petrotrin’s Employee Assistance Programmes Services Ltd. Read more…
Vessel docked close to NP catches fire
For most of yesterday afternoon, a heavy cloud of smoke hung over the capital city as fire fighters fought to control a blaze which was reported on board a sea vessel in Sea Lots. Sources said around 1.56 p.m. yesterday, officials of the Wrightson Road Fire Station received a report that a vessel docked in the vicinity of the NP building along Sea Lots was on fire. Read more…
POLITICS
Franklin Khan, Gopee-Scoon resting comfortably
Rural Development and Local Government Minister, Franklin Khan, has reportedly taken time off from his official duties and is resting comfortably after undergoing a medical procedure for a heart condition at a private medical institution recently. PNM general secretary, Ashton Forde, in a telephone interview yesterday, rubbished rumours that heart surgery had been performed on Khan saying he (Khan) had been in contact with both Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley and himself. However, well-placed sources told Newsday that following an examination by doctors last week, five blockages were discovered in Khan’s arteries and veins and five stents had to be placed to relieve the pressure on his circulatory system. Khan has reportedly been ordered to rest for three weeks by doctors, sources said. A stent is a small mesh tube that is used to treat narrow or weak arteries. Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart to other parts of your body. Read more…
Families ask Rowley for help
The family of one of the five T&T nationals detained in Venezuela since March 2014 has appealed to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley for an urgent meeting concerning the detainees. In a letter on Monday seeking the meeting, Saadiqua Mohammed, wife of detainee Dominic Pitilal, told Rowley:“On the eve of the passing of one of our former prime ministers, Mr Patrick Manning, many great things can be said about him but the greater picture is that we will assume position and one day we have to leave it but the question is how are we going to leave? “Are we going to depart with dignity and grace or otherwise? As a small voice from within the Muslim community I am asking you to allow your legacy to live on among the Muslims as a prime minister who stood for justice, despite race and religion.” Read more…
Minister sorry for steupsing
The woman who shouted that she was living in the hospital and wanted a house was actually allocated two Housing Development Corporation Units (HDC), Housing Minister Randall Mitchell said yesterday as he apologised for steupsing in response to her call. On July 2, Mitchell while announcing the death of former prime minister Patrick Manning in San Fernando, Mitchell was faced with a woman — Mary Faria — in the background who yelled: “I living in the hospital, I want a house.” Read more…
BUSINESS
Govt considering novel ways to finance housing
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says the Minister of Finance is to try to locate funds for citizens to borrow to finance the construction of their own homes. Rowley said that during yesterday’s HDC sod-turning ceremony to mark the start of construction of the River-Runs-Through housing project at the Arima By-Pass, Arima. Rowley said because of the prevailing economic situation new ways will have to be found to provide housing and that was one such method that can be used. He said following Hurricane Flora in Tobago, several years ago, the state housing company at the time provided a facility where Tobagonians were able to borrow and construct their own homes. Read more…
Manning’s legacy
Because the Trinidad and Tobago electorate appears to have made a policy decision to change governments every five years, with minimum “extra time” added in only two instances in the last 30 years, it is difficult to identify singular achievements of the five prime ministers we’ve had during that period, the incumbent included. With few exceptions, policies, especially in relation to the national economy, straddled several administrations, and some, such as the shift in focus from oil to natural gas, go back 40-plus years to the era of Dr Eric Williams. It was under his watch, during the first real oil boom that began in the mid-1970s, that the Point Lisas Industrial Estate took shape with the establishment of fertiliser, steel and power-generating plants. Even with those strictures, Patrick Manning was able to leave something of a legacy by the rapid expansion of the downstream energy sector – ammonia, urea, methanol, gas processing – that all but saturated Point Lisas and extended into La Brea, Point Fortin and Galeota. Not all of these projects went well. Read more…
REGIONAL
Bahamas government defends US travel advisory
The Bahamas ministry of foreign affairs has denied a suggestion that it was acting for political reasons when it issued a travel advisory on the heels of the fatal shootings of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota last week, and after five police officers were killed and seven others were injured by a shooter who opened fire during a rally in Dallas. On Monday, minister of foreign affairs and immigration Fred Mitchell sent The Nassau Guardian a statement his ministry sent to CNN after former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Assistant Director Tom Fuentes suggested that the reasoning behind the issuance of the advisory was political. “This sounds like a political reason to put something like that out,” said Fuentes on CNN. “I would like to see what they based that on and how they justified that.” Art Roderick, a law enforcement analyst who also commented during a CNN program, described the advisory as sad. Read more…
Scrapped - Gov't Pulls Plug On Controversial $1-Billion Negril Breakwater Project
The decision of the Andrew Holness administration to scrap the controversial billion-dollar Negril Breakwater Project has been described as unfortunate by an executive of the coastal engineering firm that recommended the project. "In a way, it's unfortunate that the whole project seems to have been shut down," said Dr David Smith, managing director of Smith Warner International, the company that conducted a preliminary analysis of beach erosion in sections of Negril in 2007. Noting that the assessment found "tremendous" coastline erosion in sections of Negril, Smith suggested that instead of scrapping the project, the ideal situation would have been a public-private-sector partnership to address the issues identified. "The stakeholders put the money together for the dredging and the Government does the money for the breakwaters. But that doesn't seem to be on the cards anymore," he said. Yesterday, The Gleaner obtained a copy of a letter written by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) to Lee Issa, president of the Negril Chamber of Commerce, indicating that the decision to shut down the US$9.95-million (or approximately J$1.1 billion) project was taken by Cabinet last month. "The Planning Institute of Jamaica, as the national implementing entity to the Adaptation Fund (AF), uses this medium to inform you that last month, the Cabinet approved a recommendation for the termination of Component 1 of the GOJ/AF programme and all related activities," read a section of the letter addressed to Lee Issa, president of the Negril chamber. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
David Cameron applauded by MPs as he prepares to hand over to Theresa May
Has South China Sea ruling set scene for next global conflict?
Could an old map bring Asia to the brink of war? An international tribunal ruled Tuesday that China's nine-dash line -- drawn on a map dating from the 1940s that claims large stretches of the South China Sea -- has no legal basis. It was an eviscerating verdict for Beijing, which has long claimed it has unique, historical rights to the disputed waters which are rich in resources and a busy thoroughfare for international shipping. "It will certainly intensify conflict and even confrontation," said Cui Tankui, China's ambassador to the United States, in a speech in Washington. Read more…
13th July 2016