TTMA IN THE NEWS
TTMA to workers: Shutdown will have adverse effect
The Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA) and the Employers’ Consultative Association (ECA) are advising employees that a national shutdown on Friday will have adverse effects on the country. Read more here
NEWS
Petrotrin’s Augustus Long Hospital ‘to function as normal’
Despite sweeping changes at state-owned Petrotrin, the Augustus Long Hospital which services the medical needs of the company’s employees, retirees and their dependents, will continue to operate as normal. That promise came from a senior official at the company yesterday. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the hospital, St Peter’s School, houses and other assets of the company are not a priority at this time and have not been discussed. “The primary focus at this time is how do we transition safely, efficiently and smoothly from the current state to the future without any disruption to anyone,” he said. Read more here
‘Fired’ City engineer still on the job
The Port-of-Spain city engineer who was “fired” for non-performance by a vote of councillors last week is still on the job. This was confirmed by Port-of-Spain Mayor Joel Martinez yesterday as he answered queries over whether the councillors had the power to fire the public servant in the first place. Saying the motion taken by the council during the statutory meeting was done under the Municipal Corporation Act of 2190, Martinez said, “I believe the council would have apprised themselves of the act before bringing the motion to remove anyone. Based on the information, I was informed the engineer was not performing. There were a number of infractions.” Read more here
Killed by ex-Facebook lover
A Palo Seco woman was chopped to death on Monday by an obsessive ex-lover she met on Facebook. When the killer came at Tehilla St Clair with a cutlass, she sacrificed her life and pushed her five-year-old son out the front door and told him to get help. Read more here
POLITICS
MP questions slow payment for Central flood victims
The day after flood victims in Beetham received compensation cheques for damage they suffered in a flood three weeks ago, Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial is asking why hundreds of flood victims from Couva and surrounding areas are still waiting for compensation from three years ago. Ramdial claimed she was happy to see “MP Fitzgerald Hinds distributing flood-compensation cheques to the flood victims of Beetham just a mere three weeks after the flood event.” She was heartened, she said, as it signalled to her that “finally the Minister of Social Development, Minister Cherry-Ann Crichlow-Cockburn had persevered and ensured all flood-compensation cheques were processed for flood victims from as far back as 2016.” Read more here
PNM internal quarrel continues to boil Harry vows to sue PM, Young
Embattled People’s National Movement (PNM) financier Harry Ragoonanan has threatened to sue Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and National Security Minister Stuart Young for defamation. Ragoonanan’s legal team yesterday served Rowley and Young with pre-action protocol letters in their roles as the party’s political leader and public relations officer, respectively. While both letters are essentially based on the same grounds, they pertain to separate comments made about the party’s ongoing disciplinary proceedings against Ragoonanan for alleged corruption and bribery. According to the letters, which were obtained by the T&T Guardian, Young made the allegedly defamatory comments after the corruption allegations against Ragoonanan arose in PNM General Council meeting in October last year. Read more here
No Guyana Babu
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s suggestion that Trinidad and Tobago could look to Guyana as a source of crude oil for the Petrotrin refinery has been rebuffed by Guyana’s former minister of natural resources and the environment, Robert Persaud. Read more here
BUSINESS
NIF bonds now available on Stock Exchange
The National Investment Fund Holding Company Limited has been listed on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange. The NIF bond, which the Government reported had raised $4 billion, was oversubscribed after it was offered to public in July. Following today's ceremony it was placed on the stock bond market of the TTSE. This listing allows the opportunity for those who failed get their hands on the NIF bonds during the public offering a second chance to obtain them. However, this will depend on the willingness of the current owners of the bonds to sell them so early on. Read more here
Bond holders anxious over Petrotrin’s future
The yield on Petrotrin’s US$850 million bond, which matures with a bullet payment in August 2019, increased to 15.97 per cent yesterday, providing more evidence that the holders of the bond are increasingly anxious about the oil company’s future. Read more here
REGIONAL
Tax On G Sugar! - Shaw Blames Manufacturers For Growing Woes In The Industry; Threatens To Revoke Duty-Free Importation
Unscrupulous manufacturers working in tandem with corrupt customs officials and brokers are largely to blame for the dismal state of Jamaica's sugar industry, a situation Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Audley Shaw warned he is moving to address. "One of the things that are militating against the success of the industry right now is the illegal importation of sugar. Some years ago, the decision was taken to give manufacturers duty-free entry of sugar into the country for the manufacturing process. I am now satisfied that there is more than anecdotal evidence that white (processed or granulated) sugar that is being brought in for the manufacturing sector on an increasing basis is finding its way into the domestic market. Not by way of the manufacturing processes, but directly finding its way on to supermarket shelves and corner shop sellers across this country," Shaw told a stakeholders' meeting at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston yesterday. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Salisbury Novichok poisoning: Two Russian nationals named as suspects
Woodward's revelations raise disturbing questions about Trump
If Bob Woodward is right, the United States and the world face an imminent, dangerous emergency: There is an "unhinged" "liar," a "fifth grade" intellect and an aggrieved and abusive "Shakespearean king" raging in the Oval Office. That is the word -- rendered by the ultimate Washington insider reporter -- of some of Trump's closest aides who feel they must protect the commander in chief from himself and the world from him. A President who prizes loyalty and self-image above all is left exposed and isolated in his own White House, viewed with contempt by those who serve him and open to ridicule by others who see his swaggering, domineering brand as a front for inadequacy. Read more here
5th September 2018