Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Panday fires Ramesh Maharaj as Chief Whip

Opposition leader Basdeo Panday on Tuesday fired Chief Whip Ramesh L. Maharaj and appointed Dr Hamza Rafeeq to the post with effect from April 1, 2009.

He made the change in a brief letter to the Speaker/Deputy Speaker of the House Representatives, dated March 31, 2009. It comes as no surprise. Maharaj had been telling everybody that his time as Chief Whip was limited.

Last week the Parliamentary caucus of the United National Congress (UNC) passsed a motion of no confidence in Maharaj and asked Panday to relieve him of his duties. Panday initially said he would meet Maharaj first to discuss the matter.

Maharaj didn't respond to Panday's call but told reporters he would be fired. Last Friday he sat in the Chief Whip's chair. Panday later met with him and advised him of the decision of his colleagues, but did not say immediately what decision he had made.

For several months a rift has been growing between Maharaj and the majority of caucus members. He and Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner have been clamouring for change and for internal elections. That caused a divide with Maharaj and Warner on one side and the rest of the caucus and the UNC's national executive on the other.

Last Wednesday when the caucus passed the no confidence motion in Maharaj, Mayaro MP Winston "Gypsy" Peters refused to sign on and told reporters the real problem in the party is Panday. He has since said he would sit with Maharaj and Warner in the back bench.

That leaves Panday with the support of 11 other MPs.

Here is Panday's letter:

The Hon. Speaker/Deputy Speaker,
House of Representatives,
Office of the Parliament,
Red House,
Abercromby Street,
PORT OF SPAIN.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Appointment of Chief Whip

I hereby revoke the appointment of the Hon. Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, Member of Parliament for Tabaquite, as Opposition Chief Whip and appoint Dr. the Hon. Hamza Rafeeq, Member for Caroni Central as Opposition Chief Whip with effect April 1, 2009.

Your kind co-operation will be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Basdeo Panday
M.P. Couva North
Leader of the Opposition

Cc: The Hon Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj
Member of Parliament for Tabaquite
The Hon. Hamza Rafeeq
Member of Parliament for Caroni Central

In an immediate response to the change on the front bench of the opposition, Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner wrote the Deputy Speaker of the House asking to be relocated on the back bench next to Maharaj.

"Should the Honourable Ramesh L. Maharaj be discharged from his duties as Opposition Chief Whip, I am respectfully requesting that the seat for Chaguanas West be relocated in the back bench of the Opposition next to the Member of Parliament for Tabaquite," Warner wrote in a letter dated March 31, 2009.

He stated further, "I humbly request your advice on the matter, bearing in mind that I will not be in Parliament as advised in an earlier correspondence."

Warner is visiting the U.S. and Egypt on FIFA business until next week and will miss the sitting of Parliament on April 3, 2009 when the change will take place.

Mom pleads guilty in cult starvation death

A former religious cult member pleaded guilty Monday to starving her 1-year-old son to death after making an unusual deal with prosecutors: If the child is resurrected, her plea will be withdrawn.

Ria Ramkissoon, 22, also agreed to testify against four other members of the now-defunct religious group known as 1 Mind Ministries. All four are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Javon Thompson.

According to a statement of facts, the cult members stopped feeding the boy when he refused to say "Amen" after a meal. After Javon died, Ramkissoon sat next to his decomposing body and prayed for his resurrection.

Ramkissoon's attorney, Steven D. Silverman, said Ramkissoon believes the resurrection will occur. She agreed to plead guilty only after prosecutors said they would drop the charges if the child comes back to life, Silverman said.

"This is something that she absolutely insisted upon, and this is indicative of the fact that she is still brainwashed, still a victim of this cult," he said. "Until she's deprogrammed, she's not going to think any differently."

Baltimore Circuit Judge Timothy J. Doory assured Ramkissoon that the plea would indeed be withdrawn if the child is resurrected.

Ramkissoon pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse resulting in death. She will remain in custody until she testifies against her co-defendants and will receive a suspended 20-year sentence and serve five years probation. Sentencing was scheduled for Aug. 11. By then, Ramkissoon would have spent about a year behind bars.

As part of her probation, Ramkissoon must submit to treatment, including sessions with an expert on cult behavior.

The maximum sentence for child abuse resulting in death is 30 years, and defendants typically receive between 12 and 20 years, according to Maryland sentencing guidelines.

Disowned family

Ramkissoon will fare much better under the plea deal than if she had pursued an insanity defense, Silverman said. A court psychiatrist found that she was both competent to stand trial and could have been held criminally responsible for Javon's death because she knew the difference between right and wrong.

Silverman could have challenged that finding, and he said prosecutors told him they wouldn't have stood in his way. In a letter to Silverman that outlined the terms of the plea deal, prosecutors said the finding of criminal responsibility was "somewhat surprising."

If Ramkissoon had been found not criminally responsible in court, she would have been committed indefinitely to a state mental hospital. By pleading guilty, she will serve little jail time and still get the treatment she needs, Silverman said.

Ramkissoon's mother and stepfather and Javon's paternal grandmother wept in court as prosecutors described the boy's death. Ramkissoon, a native of Trinidad, was calm, answering the judge's questions in a barely audible voice.

When asked her address, she gave the location of the city jail. Asked later whether she had any other place she called home, she said, "No."

Ramkissoon's mother, Seeta Khadan-Newton, said the cult manipulated her daughter into disowning her family.

"We are behind her now. We are in the past," Khadan-Newton said.

Geraldine Ridgley, Javon's paternal grandmother, said Ramkissoon deserves a stiffer punishment.

Body stuffed in suitcase

The boy's father, Robert Thompson, was not in court Monday. Ridgley said he was ill. Thompson was in jail when Javon was born.

After the boy died, the cult members left his body inside the apartment where they lived until it began to decompose, according to police documents and the statement of facts. In early 2007, they stuffed the body inside a suitcase and filled it with mothballs and fabric softener sheets to mask the odor.

The cult members relocated to Philadelphia, where they befriended an elderly man and stored the suitcase in a shed behind his home. It remained there for more than a year before police found it, the documents say.

The judge also ordered the four co-defendants to appear before another judge Tuesday to receive a new trial date. Alleged cult leader Queen Antoinette and ex-members Trevia Williams and Marcus A. Cobbs are being held without bail. Steven L. Bynum is free on his own recognizance.

-Associated Press

CLICO Bahamas faces big money troubles

A report in the Express newspaper says CL Financial and its insurance provider, CLICO, are in deeper financial troubles that expected. The report said one of CL's more profitable overseas companies is showing a US$18 million shortfall between liabilities and assets.

It cites a report filed in the Bahamas Supreme Court by provisional liquidator Craig Tony Gomez in relation to CLICO Bahamas.

Gomez's report listed the Bahamas subsidiary's total assets at US$116,965,096 and its total liabilities at US$135,085,964.

The reported also noted that the company has a "considerable amount of critical claims", which include death benefits, emergency surgeries, cancer patient treatments and HIV patient treatments.

Another CLICO subsidiary subsidiary, CLICO Enterprises Ltd., owes CLICO Bahamas US$73 million. CLICO Enterprises borrowed the money to help finance a Florida real estate deal.

The money, which would put CLICO Bahamas in a liquid position, is "not currently collectible" because of the downturn in the US real estate market, the liquidator's report stated.

He said this has further endangered the asset base of CLICO Bahamas and its ability to service policyholders.

CLICO Guyana and CLICO Suriname are also claiming policy packages of US$34 million and US$15.5 million respectively with CLICO Bahamas.

But Gomez's report suggests that although those funds initially went to CLICO Bahamas, they were immediately forwarded as cash to a United States bank account.

US Lawmaker promises to help Caribbean businesses

A United States Democratic Senator has pledged to assist in the promotion and development of investment and trade initiatives between the U.S. and the Caribbean.

Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat and member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) diplomatic corps that he will attempt to get some of the region’s concerns on the agenda for next month's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

“Senator Dodd said that he was upbeat about the upcoming event, noting that it presents an opportunity to highlight and promote a range of issues impacting the region, including but not limited to the environment, trade and security,” a release from the Jamaica Government Information Service (JIS) said.

U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to attend the April 17-19 Port of Spain summit, which will be the first opportunity for Caribbean leaders to engage with him since he assumed office in January. Dodd also told the region’s diplomats - including Trinidad and Tobago’s Harold Robertson – that he will help in expanding small business ventures.

"I'm a great believer in small business development; that's where most employment comes from,” he said.

“Today, with the availability of the Internet, if you can have access to technology, you can market your products very well, so we'll be glad to try and help in that area," he added.

He assured the meeting that he would make an effort to get the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Export/Import Bank to “sit down and look at how they can jointly assist small and emerging businesses to access markets that commercial banks are sometimes too reluctant to support”.

PM Manning invites Cuban president to T&T

Prime Minister Patrick Manning is sending a clear signal to the region that he wants Cuba fully accepted as part of the community of the Americas. On the eve of the fifth summit of the Americas in Port of Spain Manning has extended an invitation to Cuban President Raul Castro to visit Trinidad and Tobago "when he feels" it is appropriate.

Castro cannot attend the summit, which is a forum for democratically elected heads of state and governments of the Americas. But Manning is hoping to make a point during the discussions that Cuba should be included in the community.

It's an argument that would meet fierce resistance from the American delegation. The United States has maintained a trade embargo against Cuba for decades and President Barack Obama is not yet ready to change that although he has relaxed some restrictions.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden reiterated that point over the weekend, telling reporters that Washington is not lifting the embargo against Cuba. He said he and President Obama "think that Cuban people should determine their own fate and they should be able to live in freedom".

Castro's closest ally in the region, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, will be at the summit. Manning made an unsuccessful attempt to visit Chavez last week. The leftist Venezuelan leader was too busy dealing with domestic matters to meet with Manning.

Trade and Industry Minister Mariano Browne told reporters last week Manning will still try to meet with Chavez before the summit begins on April 17.

Manning would find Chavez a strong ally in lobbying for Cuban admission to the community. Other leftist nations in Latin America would also urge delegations to admit Cuba.

"If we all are friends of Cuba, we cannot continue accepting impositions from the North American empire," Chavez said Sunday in his weekly radio address. "I ask myself, why Cuba is not there if Cuba is our friend?"


Panday urges Baptists to fight discrimination, stand up for rights

The man who gave the Spiritual Baptists a national holiday in 1996 urged the community Monday to stand firm in their determination to fight discrimination. And Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday told them to demand the establishment of an African Spiritual Park.

Panday was speaking at Spiritual Baptist Liberation Day celebrations held by the Council of Elders of the Spiritual Shouter Baptist Faith of Trinidad and Tobago at Maloney.

Panday said he is saddened to see that after 14 years and an expenditure of some $200 billion under the People's National Movement regime, there is no African Spiritual Park.

He said when his United National Congress was in office the government not only declared a holiday for the Baptists but it also gave the land to build the park. He said he was unable to accomplish the task because of the change of government.

"There is no African Spiritual Park. It is still a dream and I ask why? Where are the churches? Where are the cathedrals? Where are the schools?" he asked.

He said the Baptists must use the sword God has given them and demand an end to discrimination, noting that the country is today deeply divided and the discrimination is a threat to social order.It's no longer a "rainbow country" he said.

Panday told the elders they must demand change because prayer alone won't help.

"You can pray from now until thy kingdom come for God to come and take you from all of this, it will never go away until you decide to rise up and stand tall and remove with your own hands the yoke around your neck" he said.

"What happened to the fire in your belly? Have you lost it?" he asked.

Culture Minister Marlene McDonald delivered an address on behalf of Prime Minister Patrick Manning who is visiting Cuba. She promised that the Manning Government would ensure that the Baptist faith is recognised, adding that Baptists can rely on the Government for support.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Trinidad Express not buying finance minister's story

We reproduce below an Editorial from the Trinidad Express commenting on the latest episode of Trinidad & Tobago's finance minister's attempt to justify her actions in her handling of the CL bailout.

"On the basis of her statement in the House of Representatives last Friday, the Minister of Finance has decided to use defiance as the way out of a situation in which she has lost tremendous public respect and goodwill.

"The Minister sought to justify actions which she took ostensibly for the sake of saving deposit holders and policy holders who stood to lose huge sums of money with the near collapse of the CL Financial empire.

"Putting this objective in front, the Minister continued to defend against those allegations that she committed a conflict of interest on the one hand and also that she was less than candid in a disclosure in Parliament.


"In a highly legalistic presentation in which she went over at length the purport of the bills she took to Parliament to amend the Central Bank Act and the Insurance Act, the Minister repeated much of the detail about what these amendments were designed to do.


"She was at pains, as well, to describe her actions as not on her own behalf, but on behalf of the Cabinet of which she is a vital part, and therefore on behalf of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

"Applying a self-interested definition on the issue of conflict of interest, however, the Minister refused to consider that she had a conflict, in deciding to sit as part of the team which designed the Memorandum of Understanding with the principals at CL Financial.

"Such a conflict arose from the simple fact that the Minister was a shareholder at CL Financial. That the Minister chose not to make this fact known to the Parliament and thereby to the country even when on February 2 she was forced to disclose that she had withdrawn money from Clico Investment Bank at the end of December remains a grave error of judgement.

"But according to the text of the law regarding integrity in public life, once the Minister sat in on discussions in this matter knowing she was a shareholder in the company this constitutes a conflict. Whether or not as the Minister kept insisting on Friday, she may have sought to do anything that may have been to her direct benefit remains immaterial.

"On top of this, the Minister further mis-stepped when in that statement in Parliament she declared that the withdrawal of the deposits at CIB had been as a result of their maturation.

"Her statement never mentioned the fact that the deposits had been "rolled over" as she was to claim after the fact, when this newspaper subsequently broke the story of how the Minister had applied to the bank to break them.

"She remains gravely wounded, with her image severely tarnished. Her continued retention as a member of the Cabinet is therefore another significant error of judgement, both for her and for the Prime Minister, whose stated confidence in her is at variance with that of a sizeable segment of the population.

"Moreover, both Mrs Nunez-Tesheira and her ministerial supporters are "getting on'' as if this is simply a political issue between the Government and the Opposition. It is not. It is a public issue of ethics, morality and, indeed law.

"By their stance they have put paid to any lingering notion that they have even the slightest regard for any of the three. As such they are setting the population an egregious example.

"Shame on them!"

-Reproduced from the Trinidad Express, Monday March 30, 2009
Related story: DPP probing finance minister

Hearings begin into dealings between former Canadian PM and businessman

A high stakes political drama involving a former Canadian prime minister gets underway in Ottawa Monday with the first witnesses taking the stand at hearings into the business relationship between former prime minister Brian Mulroney and German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber.

The witnesses include Bill McKnight, who served in Mulroney's cabinet and former Liberal Party cabinet minister Marc Lalonde. Mulroney's former chief of staff, Derek Burney, and Beth Moores, the widow of former Newfoundland and Labrador premier and Mulroney confidant Frank Moores, will testify on Tuesday.

Mulroney, who first demanded the inquiry to clear his name, had asked for it to be postponed. But a judge clarified the legal terms of the inquiry last week to allow the hearings to proceed.

The hearings will cast a wide legal net in assessing the business relations between Mulroney and Schreiber. But it won't make any conclusions on criminal or civil liability.

The focus of the enquiry is money Schreiber gave Mulroney. The former Conservative prime minister has admitted to a Parliamentary committee that Schreiber gave him Cdn$225,000 after he left office in June 1993. The told the ethics committee in 2007 that he received the money in three installment as payment for his work as an international lobbyist on behalf of Thyssen, a German company.

He further said he didn't declared the funds and pay tax on it until 1999, six years after he took the money.

Schreiber's story doesn't follow the script Mulroney presented in his defence. He told the Parliamentary committee he gave Mulroney Cdn$300,000 and that he and Mulroney made the in 1993 while Mulroney was still prime minister.

Schreiber told the ethics committee Mulroney did nothing to earn the money.

Mulroney initially denied ever receiving money from Schreiber and took the Liberal government to court after the government began a probe into Mulroney's business dealings, including his alleged corrupt involvement with Schreiber.

On Nov. 20, 1995 Mulroney filed a Cdn$50-million defamation suit against the federal government after a newspaper report linked Mulroney's name to a Justice Department probe into the sale of Airbus aircraft to Air Canada. Read the document.

In June 1997 The Department of Justice, the Solicitor General and Mulroney reached a settlement in the defamation suit.

The government apologized to Mulroney for the wording of the letter of request to the Swiss authorities in the Airbus probe, but not for investigation that had been launched by the Canadian national police force, the RCMP.

A judge ordered that the government pay Mulroney Cdn$1.4 million for legal expenses and $587,721 to cover public relations expenses as part of an out-of-court settlement. Read the ruling.

When news broke that Mulroney had in fact taken money from Schreiber, Canadians were outraged and demanded that he pay back the money he received from the government. But all through the various phases of the investigation Mulroney had insisted that all his dealings were above board and that he never did anything wrong.

Schreiber will have his day on April 14 to lay out the details of his side of the story. The businessman, who holds dual German-Canadian citizenship, is awaiting extradition to Germany on fraud, bribery and tax evasion charges.

He has been fighting the extradition and Mulroney's supporters have said Schreiber has 'garnished' the story to escape extradition. Schreiber has won a temporary reprieve that stays the extradition until the end of the hearings.

For a full background and timelines, go to cbcnews.ca and also check the cbc's fifth estate for its investigation into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Former Guyanese President Janet Jagan dies at 88

Janet Jagan, the first female President of Guyana, died in Georgetown early Saturday. She was 88.

Jagan was admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital late Friday after complaining of feeling unwell. A statement from health Leslie Ramsammy said the former Head of State died as a result of an abdominal aneurysm.

Jagan led the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) to victory in the 1997 elections, having taken over leadership of the party following the death of her husband, Dr Cheddi Jagan, who was President at the time of his death. She resigned in August 1999 due to ill-health.

Jagan, who authored several books and at one time worked as the editor of the PPP’s newspaper, The Thunder, was born in the Chicago, Illinois.

She moved to Guyana in the 1940s with her husband, whom she met while Dr Jagan was studying to be a dentist at Northwestern University.

She was a co-founding member of the PPP and served in various political and government capacities over the years.

Jagan has been honoured with numerous local and international awards, including the Order of Excellence, the nation’s highest honour; Woman of Achievement Award from the University of Guyana; and the Gandhi Gold Medal for Peace, Democracy and Women's Rights awarded by UNESCO.

In a statement to mark the passing of the former Guyanese leader, Trinidad & Tobago's opposition leader Basdeo Panday said:

"ON BEHALF of the Parliamentary Opposition of Trinidad and Tobago, the Executive, members and supporters of the United National Congress, and on my own behalf and that of my family, I wish to extend deepest condolences to the people of Guyana on the passing of former President Janet Jagan yesterday.

"Lady Jagan’s contribution to the social, political and economic development of Guyana is immeasurable and truly reflects a lifetime of service, having arrived in the country in 1943 at the age of 23 and immediately entering into politics with her husband, the late Cheddi Jagan who himself served Guyana as President.

"She was a founding member of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Guyana’s first mass-based political organization, and led by example. She was personally involved in implementing strategies to promote the messages, ideals and objectives of the PPP, and in the struggle for Guyana’s independence from Britain both she and her husband were imprisoned in 1955.

"The region has lost a true hero and a fighter and the people of Guyana have lost a servant and leader.

"May her soul rest in peace".

Ramesh keeps his seat as Chief Whip

Despite the predictions that he would be fired as opposition Chief Whip Tabaquite MP Ramesh Maharaj sat in his regular front-bench seat in the House of Representatives next to opposition leader Basdeo Panday on Friday, with Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner on the other side of Panday.

Caroni Central MP Dr Hamza Rafeeq occupied the seat briefly as he normally does when the Chief Whip is not in the House. But when Maharaj arrived late for the sitting he spoke with Rafeeq, who vacated the seat and moved to his regular back-bench location.

On Wednesday, the Parliamentary caucus and national executive of the United National Congress (UNC) overwhelmingly passed a motion of no confidence in Maharaj and recommended to the political leader the dismissal of Maharaj from the influential post in Parliament.

Panday subsequently said he would make an attempt to meet Maharaj to discuss the circumstances before making any change on the front bench. But Maharaj declined and called a news conference instead and informed reporters that it was a forgone conclusion that his days at Panday's side were numbered.

But Panday is playing his cards carefully. He met with Maharaj Friday to discuss a no-confidence motion and later told reporters he still has not made a decision on whether to fire him. He said he wanted to hear Maharaj's side of the story and discuss “what we should do about that.”

The former prime minister said he has not decided. “Don’t ask me what is the decision because of course you know I can’t tell you that. It really makes no sense to have a meeting at 11 o’clock and take a decision at 12. It would have been a farce,” Panday told reporters.

Panday explained that in order to make a "rational" decision he needed to consider all the facts.

For his part Maharaj continued to insist that his time as Chief Whip “may be very temporary.” He said if Panday fires him he would continue his service as an MP and he told reporters he does not care to hold any post in the party.

DPP to probe finance minister:Kamla


Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar told the Trinidad & Tobago House of Representatives on Friday that acting Director of Public Prosecutions Carla Brown-Antoine has written to her stating that she believes an investigation is warranted into the role of Finance Minister Karen Tesheira for her role in the CL Financial issue.

And the former Attorney General said Brown-Antoine also believes that the acting police commissioner should probe the matter.

Persad-Bissessar was speaking on a motion of no-confidence in Nunez-Tesheira calling for Prime Minister Patrick Manning to fire the finance minister.

Prior to Persad-Bissessar’s motion Nunez Tesheira made a comprehensive statement in which she categorically denied any wrongdoing regarding her interests in the CL Financial Group.

Persad-Bissessar told the House that on March 20 she received a written response from the acting DPP in response to her correspondence regarding the CL matter and the finance minister.

She quoted from the letter: “...regarding your request for an investigation into a possible breach of the Prevention for Corruption Act by the Tesheira and the Governor of the Central Bank Ewart Williams... Having reviewed the material provided by you, I am of the view that an investigation is warranted in this matter.”

Persad-Bissessar read another section of the letter: “While I appreciate that your letter was also addressed to the Commissioner of Police, I have also referred this matter to the commissioner for investigation.”

The Siparia MP said she is heartened that there are still independent institutions acting in good faith in the country.

“It is fortunate that there are independent institutions in this land although the Prime Minister is trying every which way he can to subvert those independent offices,” she said.

Persad-Bissessar said Nunez Tesheira had created history.

Change ad causing controversy

A controversy is raging over the ethical considerations of using a little girl's image in a full-page newspaper ad in support of change in the United National Congress (UNC). And neutral observers have said it appears that the child is being exploited for political gain.

The child in question is Shania Tewarie. She was holding a pro-change placard on Sunday when a scuffle broke out at the Reinzi complex as officials blocked supporters on the change platform from attending the party's congress.

Reports say Tewarie was injured in the jostling and suffered a sprained wrist when a UNC Member of Parliament allegedly snatched the placard from her. A police report was filed after the incident. The MP in question has since denied that he was involved.

The ad has upset Caroni East MP, Dr Tim Goopeesingh who told reporters it is likely to further divide the already splintered UNC membership.

“I believe that they are appealing for public sympathy from these ads but they will obviously divide the party because supporters are already experiencing feelings of insecurity after witnessing what transpired on Sunday,” he said.

Gopeesingh said the political meeting was “no place for children.” And he said MPs Ramesh L. Maharaj and Jack Warner should take full responsibility for what happened to the young girl. Maharaj and Warner have been clamouring for change in the party.

The girl’s mother, Jacqueline, said she gave her permission for her daughter’s image to be used in an ad.

She said she is bothered by the manner in which she and her child were treated for exercising their rights, adding that the UNC had treated them as “accused persons”. She said based on what happened on Sunday she is now skeptical of attending any other political meetings.

But the issue is raising ethical questions about whether the child has become a pawn in the UNC power struggle. The ad is an emotional one, showing the girl holding her hand, with a caption "And all I asked for was change!"

Some commentators have said it is in poor taste to exploit the child in such a manner.

Contractor got stadium contract without tender

A former chief construction engineer at UDeCOTT told the Uff commission nof enquiry into the construction sector and UDeCOTT Friday UDeCOTT handed a multi-million-dollar contract to Turner Alpha Ltd (TAL) without compteting with other firms. Ian Telfer said the contract was to design the Brian Lara Cricket Academy (BLCA) project in Tarouba.

Telfer also said the team within the corporation that is supposed to evaluate the suitability of all consultants and contractors had never evaluated TAL. Telfer was the person in charge of the evaluation team when UDeCOTT awarded the contract.

On Thursday UDeCOTT's lead attorney, Andrew Goddard, told the commission TAL had provided flawed and incomplete designs and that it was solely to blame for the delays and inflated cost of the project.

Kenneth Sirju, one of the enquiry's commissioners, asked Telfer to clarify the issue: "So the technical staff assigned typically to evaluate consultant and contractor suitably were by-passed and Turner had gone directly to the Board for that award, is what you are saying?"

"Yes," Telfer replied.

He also said as far as he had been aware, TAL "were construction managers" and not project designers.

"So you don't know how they got to UDeCOTT, in the first instance, to offer a design proposal for something when they were not designers and they were not asked to compete with anybody else?" Sirju asked.

"I think you should ask the members of the Board that," Telfer responded. Telfer said the UDeCOTT board at the time included the corporation's current executive chairman, Calder Hart.

Former UDeCOTT chief executive officer, Winston Agard, also testified at the enquiry Friday. He held the post when UDeCOTT gave the design contract to BCLA. Agard told the enquiry the normal procedure with construction projects is that "you hire consultants based on a RFP" - that is a Request for Proposals.

Sirju said UDcCOTT received no RFP and Agard told the enquiry as far as he could recall, UDeCOTT's tender rules at the time TAL received its contract in 2005, did allow for the corporation to hire contractors and consultants on a sole selective basis.

He was careful not to say that the sole selective tendering procedures used by UDeCOTT satisfied the rules at the time for sole selective tendering. "I am not saying that at all," he said.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

T&T Parliament to debate no confidence in Finance Minister

The Trinidad &Tobago House of Representatives will on Friday debate a resolution of no confidence in finance minister Karen Nunez-Teshiera.

Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar has filed the motion, which is included in the Order Paper for Friday's sitting.

The motion states:
"WHEREAS the Minister of Finance has conducted herself both within and outside of the House contrary to the tenets of transparency and accountability regarding her interests in CL Financial Limited prior to, during and subsequent to negotiations between the government and that company over government’s intervention in the affairs of the company;

"AND WHEREAS the said conduct of the Minister of Finance has eroded the confidence of the public in the Minister’s ability to administer over the finances of the nation in the best interest of the public;
"BE IT RESOLVED that this Honorable House express its loss of confidence in Mrs. Karen Nunez Teshiera as Minister of Finance of Trinidad and Tobago; and call upon the Prime Minister to take steps to have the appointment of the Minister of Finance revoked forthwith."

It's unlikely that the motion would achieve its desired result primarily because of the strong majority of the governing People's National Movement (PNM) has in the House and Prime Minister Patrick Manning's endorsement of the minister.

Nunez-Teschiera has been under fire since she announced a rescue package to help out CL Financial. Persad-Bissessar has been leading the charge based on information reported in the media that Nunez-Tesheira might be in a conflict of interest by presiding over an aid package for CL Financial while she was a shareholder of the conglomerate.

Nunez-Tesheira denies any wrongdoing and has said she didn't mention her CL shareholding in Parliament but had declared it to the Integrity Commission. But Persad-Bissessar told the media earlier this month her checks and those made by reporters showed that no such declaration was made by the minister.

The minister has dismissed the issue of a conflict of interest and made it clear that she is not about to quit. Prime Minister Patrick Manning has also said he saw nothing wrong about the matter and has said he has confidence in her.

Documents from CLICO Investment Bank (CIB) show that Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira closed two US dollar accounts with the bank on December 31, 2008, before they were scheduled to mature later this year.

CIB is one of four CL Financial businesses that benefited from a multi-billion-dollar taxpayer bailout approved by the Cabinet last month.Nunez-Tesheira told Parliament on February 2 that she took the money out of a CIB account that had matured. However the docments show that Nunez-Tesheira paid a 3.5 per cent penalty for closing two accounts at CIB worth a total of US$48,549.91.

They were due to mature on April 30, 2009 and August 13, 2009 respectively. She closed one account at US$37,549.45 and the other at US$11,076.34, including interest. Persad-Bissessar suggested that the minister had access to privileged information about CIB, which led to her making withdrawals from her accounts with the bank and Caribbean Money Market Brokers (CMMB), another CL subsidiary, late last year.

Here is what the official Hansard records the minister as saying regarding a CIB account:
"On December 31, I withdrew an account which had matured on December 31, 2008. You go and check it because when you were making your accusations, I wanted to ensure that I was accurate on the information, and I called to get all the information that I had on every withdrawal I made in relation to those two institutions."

Nunez Teshiera claimed that she did not realise that she was breaking the despoits although she signed for the transactions. She said she was not informed by anyone at CIB that she was, in fact, breaking the accounts.

"The request was first made verbally. In that initial discussion, no one said to me that what I was doing I was breaking an account," Nunez-Tesheira told the media.

UNC caucus 'fires' Ramesh Maharaj as Chief Whip

The Parliamentary caucus of the United National Congress on Wednesday passed a resolution of no confidence in Chief Whip Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, effectively removing him from the opposition front bench.

Wednesday's decision means that it is now up to the opposition leader to determine if he would act on the recommendation of the caucus and ask the Speaker of the House of Representatives to revoke Maharaj's appointment.

Panday told reporters he plans to have a meeting with Maharaj Thursday before making a final decision. He said he would invite Maharaj to that meeting, but it's unlikely that the Tabaquite MP would oblige since he has already said he won't attend.

The move against Maharaj doesn't affect his status within the party. That is a matter that a disciplinary committee will handle. Panday has said he won't intervene or influence the committee, which is to be headed by Panday's ally Orlando Nagassar.

Warner can be removed from his post under Section 16 of the UNC’s constitution while Section 21 indicates that members can be suspended or expelled from the party for any breach of discipline.

Both Maharaj and UNC Deputy Leader Jack Warner have said the decision of the caucus would not alter their resolve to continue their fight for change within the party. They plan to hold a meeting in Biche on Friday as they continue their series of information sessions to update the membership on their view of what's going on in the party.

In a media advertisement Warner said the only thing stopping the UNC from forming the government “is ourselves.” (See Warner's speech below)) He said he would give up everything he has to change the government.

No replacement for Maharaj has been announced since the matter still has to go through the formality of writing to the Speaker. But UNC sources say the most likely person for the job would be Central MP Dr Hamza Rafeeq, who has served as chief whip before.

In the latest salvo in the war of words between Maharaj and Panday, the former attorney general has said Panday misled supporters in a statement he made at a meeting in Debe Monday night.

Panday said he fired Maharaj as Attorney general in 2001 because Maharaj was using state funds to investigate cabinet colleagues without authorization from cabinet.

In a statement Tuesday Maharaj denied that. He said Panday knew that the attorney general had hired Canadian forensic investigator Bob Lindquist to probe the Piarco Airport, desalination plant and other projects.

"I handed the report to Mr Panday as prime minister and he promised to look into it. Three weeks after he said he lost the report. I made a copy and again went to see him. Weeks after he said he lost the report again and I made a second copy. Then I was fired,” Maharaj told the media.

Panday's version of events is different. He claimed that Maharaj "was using State funds without the permission of the Cabinet to hire Bob Lindquist to build files on his colleagues in the Cabinet not because he investigating any corruption...They want no discipline so they will use the party funds to build files on members. What they building files on members for… you building files on members so that you can use it to blackmail them and to terrorise them and to threaten them,” Panday charged.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Jack Warner's speech to UNC Congress - Mar. 22, 2009

Brothers and Sisters, I have crossed over 20,000 miles, two time zones and four airports in a journey from Zurich, Switzerland that lasted some 13 hours flying time to ensure that I would be here at Rienzi this afternoon. I will then immediately have to head back tomorrow to be in time for my FIFA commitments. If I had to swim to be here, I would have done so.

I might not have made it, but I would have given it my all, simply because that is just the way I am. When I commit to a cause, come hell or high water, Sunday or Panday, nothing will stop me.

It was with the same passion I began my journey into politics behind the UNC.

I saw then as I do now a party that represents the discriminated, the underprivileged and the overlooked. I saw in the UNC then as I do now, a party that embraced everyone, a party that represented everything that we could become. I saw then as I do even more now the only hope for Trinidad and Tobago.

Nothing has changed for me in the way I felt then when I sat with Basdeo Panday and offered my unequivocal support and now….except…except…that the political scene around us has changed.

It doesn’t take a genius to tell you that the UNC will not change the government unless we first change our approach. To move from victimhood to victorious the UNC has to understand that all political groupings must be embraced, genuinely.

The last general election demonstrated this and there is nothing to be gained from ranting and raving about those who voted another way and by telling them they must not complain now just because they didn’t vote for the UNC.

That is the politics of the past.

Today’s expectations and the dire circumstances we currently endure here now dictate that we reach out beyond our past conflicts, beyond our old adversarial positions, beyond our petty political squabbles, beyond our grievances, beyond our fears, real or imagined, beyond blind political ambitions, beyond suspicion and acrimony, to find common ground – to end the killing fields of crime, to halt the squander mania of billions of dollars of our resources while we suffer, to meet the basic needs of a desperate populace, to restore hope, confidence, law and order in Trinidad and Tobago.

That is our mission.

Who cares to listen to an opposition party railing against a government that becomes more entrenched because our own failings have allowed them to be there?

We have got to create the kind of political organisation that reflects what the electorate wants. But how can we hope to understand what voters want when we don’t even know what our membership wants!!

The UNC Executive has refused to hold elections for years, so on whose authority are we making decisions at the so-called leadership level?

If the UNC is just about the dictates of one man then it has by default excluded itself from ever representing the people and by ever again forming the government.

How much longer must the UNC go on like this? How many more elections must we lose before we gain such obvious political insights? How can we shout for democracy in Trinidad and Tobago when it isn’t practised within our own party?

That isn’t just hypocrisy, it is just downright stupidity.

Maybe a PBR Pass and an Opposition Member of Parliament parking sticker might be a glorious achievement for some, but it means nothing to me. I would trade my job, my home, and all of my savings for a change of government today. That is my objective and that my brothers and sisters is where I differ from my political colleagues including Basdeo Panday.

Times change; people change. We will not change the government unless we look within and change ourselves.

Part of that change is an embracing of the COP and others, not by mere words but through genuine discussions on accommodation. That represents one platform. The other is by going to our own membership and asking them who they want as leaders to take the Party forward into government.

Once they have chosen we then have the moral authority and indeed, the mandate of our membership. But to continue year after year deferring this simply because some are afraid that the membership may not re-elect them is absurd and undemocratic.

Who gives anyone in the current leadership of the UNC, including myself, the right to say they make decisions on behalf of the membership of the Party when the membership has been denied their democratic right to choose who they want in their leadership for years?

Am I wrong to say this? I must sit down and speak only when I am spoken to and express my opinion only when one is given to me? While all of this is going on people are dying and suffering? We are beholden to the people not to a politically incestuous group who seem to have lost touch with whom and what really matters.

Each day in every home I visit in Chaguanas West, my constituency, people express their misgivings about what is going on. They say “you all need to change how you going about things, you need to get together with the COP and others; you need to bring in new blood in the Party, you need to talk to Bas and the boys.”

These are the comments across Chaguanas West and indeed everywhere I go. These are the views of the grassroots. How can we be so arrogant to ignore this?

I am called disloyal and undisciplined by the Executive for saying these things? I have tried to represent the views of the constituency within the Party but to no avail. So where should my true loyalty lie?

I say with the people, not the expired Leadership Council.

Trinidad &Tobago is clamouring for change in direction and management. Not even PNM supporters right now like the way the PNM is going. But we in the UNC have become our own worst enemy. The only thing that is stopping us from forming the government is ourselves. Not the PNM.

The electorate has already shown us that they don’t want them. They have also shown us that the opposing parties must unite or perish.

Since I am not ready to be dead or even play dead either politically or otherwise, I will be taking the fight more aggressively than ever before, to ensure the will of the people is carried out.

It is my hope, but not my expectation, that good sense will prevail and the time-expired Executive and the changes so necessary, will be made and internal elections held forthwith.

Be assured, whatever happens, I will not be moved in my position for the people. Change must and will come within the UNC. A change in government will be realized. That we are here talking about this is in itself a good thing. What must be done must be done.

Remember this day, for it signals the start of the end of the current ruling party’s term in office. The sun is rising. Hope is returning. Unity among all those in pursuit of a better Trinidad and Tobago can celebrate the fact that the forces of change have met the feebleness of reactionary thinking.

Yet there is an ironic twist to all of this.

I have stood through thick and thin with Basdeo Panday. I have suffered with him. I have supported him politically, emotionally and financially through his toughest times and greatest challenges.

I have been ridiculed, ostracised and vilified for my political position and today while I stand against his railings, I do it for the very country he so bravely fought for and for his legacy.

It is my belief therefore that there will come a time when the man who today would wish me gone will say “Jack, I am glad you stood strong. We could not have done it if you didn’t.” He would give his politically mischievous grin and say “but ah give you a good fight, eh?”

It isn’t however a fight with Jack Warner. I am almost irrelevant to the process. This is about becoming more relevant to the needs of the people and the politics of the day.

This is about sacrificing personal political glory for the greater good. This is about the very survival of our Republic.

This is about the little child in Chaguanas who hugged me and said “keep us safe Mr. Warner.”

This is about the young footballer from Gordon Street who asked me if he didn’t do well enough in football if he could still get a job.

This is about the businessman I met at the Chamber of Commerce who asked me why we couldn’t put aside our differences with the COP for the sake of Trinidad and Tobago.

This is about the woman who held me and cried at the Anti Crime Commission I had established and said “do it for my son who died. Make it stop. Make it stop.”

This is about my understanding that family isn’t just those to whom you are related but those you feel a connection with…as I do today with so many I have come into contact with in one way or another.

This is about each and every one of you I promised never, never, never to disappoint. I will never let you down.

Jack Warner | Deputy Political Leader, United National Congress

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Police investigating threat to kidnap Panday's daughter

A report in the Trinidad Express Wednesday said acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert is investigating an alleged plot to kidnap one of the daughters of Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday.

The paper said its sources confirmed that Philbert met with Panday Tuesday at the Opposition Leader's office in Port of Spain to discuss the allegation. The paper said a fisherman at Las Cuevas overheard a conversation about a plot to kidnap one of Panday four daughters but did not say which one.

Panday has four daughters - Niala, Mickela, Nicola and Vastala.

His eldest daughter, Niala, lives in Scotland. Mickela is the Member of Parliament for Oropouche West. She and her two other sisters live with Panday, his wife, Oma, in Palmiste, San Fernando.

The Express said the fisherman told police he saw two men behaving suspiciously and told police he overheard one of the men say "kidnap one of Panday's daughters". The fisherman promptly called police, the Express reported.

The Express said members of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad visited Panday's home Tuesday and interviewed Mrs Panday and her daughters.

The Express said Panday confirmed the allegations and added that the intended target was not Mickela.

UDeCOTT acts like a "little cabinet": Israel Khan

Israel Khan crossed swords with UDeCOTT at Tuesday's hearing of the Uff enquiry into the construction sector and UDeCOTT, suggesting that the organization acts “like a little Cabinet outside of the Cabinet”.

The commissioner's remarks brought a retort from UDeCOTT's executive chairman Calder Hart who insisted that his company follows directives from the real Cabinet.

The matter came up during a round table session at enquiry at which Khan expressed concern to Works and Transport Minister Colm Imbert over the way UDeCOTT appears to operate.

He said, “Minister, what I am concerned about is that UDeCOTT really is not a private limited company, it is a sort of a State enterprise guaranteed by the Government of operating funds" and not accountable to Parliament.

“When you look at it it’s like a little Cabinet operating outside of the Cabinet. I do not know whether that is the correct interpretation. That is the impression I am getting,” Khan said.

“UDeCOTT can engage in commercial activities and discussions with an outside Government, they can do things on their own with billions of dollars without any security...They can buy and sell ammunition–something is wrong with that...Personally as a citizen, I am concerned about the powers of UDeCOTT,” the commissioner said.

“I am concerned about that and the Cabinet of this country should be concerned about it. I have a problem with the powers of UDeCOTT as a citizen and as a commissioner also,” Khan said.

Hart defended UDeCOTT saying that it "relies on its mandate from specific Cabinet directives" noting that it has "some flexibility" to determine how things are done.

“It does not determine what is done, that is essentially as a result of Cabinet directives,” Hart said.

Khan was not pleased with that explanation and warned that the current arrangement left citizens vulnerable to “an unscrupulous corporation sole.”

Imbert was defending Government’s decision to not implement recommendations of the White Paper on Public Procurement. He told the commission, in his view, the paper’s proposals would take away the powers of Cabinet.

Imbert noted that the paper proposes an independent regulator for the award of state contracts. But he said this body would stymie Government’s developmental plans and create a bureaucracy that would “have far too much power, even more power than Government.”

Why Panday fired Ramesh as AG

Former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday is going back into history to explain why he dispensed with his attorney general. Panday told supporters Monday night in Debe he fired Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj from his Cabinet because he was using State funds to build files on his Cabinet colleagues.

"Ramesh was fired as Attorney General because he was using state funds without the authority of Cabinet to...to build files on his colleagues in the Cabinet. That is why he was fired. Not because he was investigating any corruption," Panday said.

But Maharaj has dismissed the charge as "totally incorrect" adding that Panday knew that the Attorney General had hired Canadian forensic investigator Bob Lindquist to investigate the Piarco and Desalination projects.

"The report was prepared and a copy given to Mr Panday", Maharaj told the Trinidad Express.

Maharaj said, "Because no action was taken, I asked Mr Panday what he was doing and he said he had lost the report. I then gave him another copy. Still no action was taken. And while he was Minister of National Security I went to him for feedback on the report. And it was then he fired me."

Maharaj said he would say more to reporters on Wednesday.

Panday said neither Warner nor Maharaj wanted a disciplinary committee set up in the party because "they want to get huge donations for the party and not give any account to the party so that they could build files to blackmail and terrorise people".

Disciplinary Committee will decide fate of Jack & Ramesh: Panday

Basdeo Panday is washing his hands from the latest fracas in his United National Congress (UNC) and leaving the fate of dissident MPs Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and Jack Warner in the hands of the party's disciplinary committee.

The committee is likely to be headed by Orlando Nagassar, Chairman of Panday's Couva North Constituency and comprise members sympathetic to Panday.

Expulsion seems imminent since the UNC's constitution provides for any member to be expelled if a disciplinary committee finds that the member took part in any activity likely to damage the image of the party.

The matter that will be before the committee is Sunday's fist fights and scuffles at the entrance to party headquarters, when Warner and Maharaj attempted to have their supporters attend a party congress.

"This party will not be governed by mob behaviour," Panday said Monday night. He said he is "taking the issue to the wider community to explain that supporters of Ramesh Maharaj and Jack Warner could not have been allowed inside the meeting, because the rules state that only delegates from the party would be allowed to be at the meeting."

Panday was speaking at a meeting in Debe. He said he was "surprised and shocked" to see Mayaro MP Winston "Gypsy Peters" among the dissenting group and suggested that Gypsy had been "brainwashed".

He insisted that Warner and Maharaj "were not locked out and I want the public to know that the accusation is not true. How can you hold a meeting to discuss anything with a mob?"

He told supporters he was told that there were people from Laventille among the unruly crowd whose sole purpose was to disrupt the congress.

The UNC leader insisted, "They are not hurting me. What they are doing is destroying the foundation upon which they, both Warner and Maharaj, were given safe seats at the 2007 election. We may have to look elsewhere at the next election."

Read the Trinidad Express editorial: UNC bacchanal must stop

Ramesh to get a "whipping" as UNC MPs call for him to quit

Members of the United National Congress (UNC) Parliamentary caucus are gunning for Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj. And if they have their way the party's Chief Whip could be fired before the end of the week.

The Trinidad Express reported Tuesday that its sources have said that opposition MPs - with the exception of Jack Warner, Winston Peters and Ramesh Maharaj - have signed a letter asking Panday to use his authority as leader of the opposition to fire Maharaj because members have lost confidence in him.

The Chief Whip chairs the Parliamentary caucus, maintains discipline among members, plans the speaking agenda and liaises with the government leader to arrange the business of the House of Representatives.

MPs say Maharaj has clearly lost the moral right to serve in this capacity based on what has been happening and what happened on Sunday at the party's congress.

Maharaj is expecting it and he told the paper if Panday kicks him out he would work harder to spread the message of change to create what he said is the "real UNC".

He is refusing to attend any caucus meeting this week and is threatening to call a mass meeting if the party moves against him. He told the Express that at that meeting the membership would move a vote of no confidence in Panday and the UNC executive.

Panday told the paper a decision on Maharaj's fate as Chief Whip will be made when the Parliamentary caucus meets. "If the undisciplined elements should be exorcised from the party, the party will be stronger I think", he told the party.

This is not the first time the two men have drawn swords. Their on-again-off-again feud started while Panday was prime minister and Maharaj was the country's Attorney General. At that time Maharaj teamed up with cabinet ministers Trevor Sudama and Ralph Maraj to demand better accountability and transparency in the government.

Maharaj and his colleagues made a deal with then opposition leader Patrick Manning and had planned to advise President Arthur N. R. Robinson that the Parliament has lost confidence in Panday and would support Manning for prime minister.

Panday pulled the rug from Maharaj's feet, demanded that Robinson dissolve Parliament and call fresh elections less than a year after Panday, with Maharaj at his side, had won a majority in the 2000 general election.

That election resulted in the 18-18 tie with Maharaj's Team Unity (TU) doing just the right amount of damage to keep Panday out of office and sending Manning to White Hall while he remained empty handed, the UNC's chief "neemakharam".

The reconciliation with Panday came for the 2007 election and once again, Maharaj stood with Panday and fought a good campaign, beating well-respected attorney Anand Ramlogan to win the Tabaquite seat.

Once again the battle lines are drawn - Bas vs Ramesh. And Jack Warner, friend, ally and supporter of Panday is in the path of the raging storm.

Imbert defends foreign contractors, calls locals 'profiteers'

Keith Rowley wants to know who in the Government is taking advice from UDeCOTT.

The former cabinet minister whose dismissal led to the commission of enquiry into the construction sector and UDeCOTT raised the matter Monday as the Uff commission returned to work and Chairman John Uff confirmed that Government had not approved funding for construction expert Jerry McCaffrey to continue his work with the commission.

Rowley is interpreting that as “a concerted effort to ensure that the slander and the conspiracy against me by Government spokespersons and activists continue.”

Attorney Andrew Goddard, appearing for UDeCOTT, rejected the McCaffrey report as having no value, which prompted Rowley to wonder why Goddard could make such comments on “the content, quality, veracity, effect and the purpose of McCaffrey’s (interim) report.”

McCaffrey’s report cleared Rowley of any wrongdoing in the Cleaver Heights housing project, from which $10 million was allegedly reported missing. Rowley said he is troubled that in the wake of the interim report that McCaffrey has been fired.

The propaganda over Cleaver Heights suggests that Rowley and the contractor was in some kind of collusion but government data and other documents relating to the matter show that everything was above board and that no money was ever missing.

At the inquiry Monday, Works Minister Colm Imbert went on a tirade against contractors, branding them "profiteers" and accusing them of "collusion, overpricing and inefficiency".

Imbert made the charges as he defended the Government’s preference for foreign contractors on its billion-dollar mega projects. The minister complained that the local industry is not up to the job and identified some of the problems in the sector as "incomplete designs, change orders, inadequate supervision, inadequate nominated subcontractors and inappropriate provisional sums".

He said in some cases foreign contractors are able to bid half the price for projects than the nearest local contractors.

“When we look at the evidence what you will find is that when you give a foreign contractor responsibility for both design and construction, the projects are more or less, by and large, successful. The evidence is not so for local design-build consortiums,” he said, adding that in one recent case the local industry's bid for a contract was 100 per cent higher that the foreign company that won the award.

“It’s a 100 percent margin. Anybody looking at this dispassionately would agree that that is pure inefficiency and we just can’t support that,” he said. “A foreigner who has no presence in Trinidad and Tobago, who has a higher mobilisation cost, is able to come in at half the price of the nearest local bidder? There is no explanation for that. I think that sums up the difficulty that we as a Government have in terms of local versus foreign.”

Imbert said the Government stands to save $1.8 billion by simply choosing foreign contractors over locals.

He said when locals handle the job projects are behind schedule and over cost, with design errors and omissions and supervision problems.

“The people of this country deserve delivery of projects as quickly as possible and efficiently as possible and in the most cost effective manner. If we were to adopt the approach as suggested by the local industry then we will spend 100 percent more than we should.

“Speaking on behalf of the Government we wish that every contract in Trinidad and Tobago and every project was done by local contractors. That’s what we would want, that is our wish. But we also have a responsibility to deliver public facilities to the citizens. They don’t care. They want their schools, their hospitals, there police stations, their roads, that’s what they want.”

Friday, March 20, 2009

My apologies to all

(That's me a long time ago when I actually had some hair...working in my hotel room in the Bahams on a report for TTT on the Nassau Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference - CHOGM -1985.)

It's unusual for me not to be working.

I know that many of you are disappointed that I have not updated my blog since Tuesday March17, especially when so much is happening.

I have been ill but I'm getting better. And soon, we'll be back at full speed.

Thanks for supporting the blog.

Jai

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Official whose report cleared Rowley quits HDC

The managing director of the state-owned Housing Development Corporation (HDSC) has resigned. Margaret Chow is one of the people who wrote a report to the Uff commission of enquiry into the construction sector and UDeCOTT which cleared former cabinet minister Dr Keith Rowley of any wrongdoing while he was housing minister.

The HDC report filed with the commission on January 21 cleared Rowley of allegations made by Prim e Minister Patrick Manning of a missing $10 million in the Cleaver Heights housing project. The report noted that clerical errors led to the confusion about the money.

But the current housing minister was upset about the report and publicly criticized the HDC staff for its report. Dr Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde said the report contained "inconsistent and inaccurate
information" and submitted her own report a week later.

The minister's report revealed an impasse with Chow over the the HDC document sent to the enquiry regarding certain critical details that were not included in the document.

Chow is the latest casualty in the matter. Cabinet decided last week to fire the entire HDC board with the exception of chairman Andrew Mc Intosh.

Chow was appointed acting managing director in July 2008 five years after joining the organization. She served as divisional manager of the HDC estate management division until her acting appointment.

"My sister is no angel": Waldo Nunez, jr."

Businessman Waldo Nunez, jr. has come out in defence of his sister, Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira, saying she went into politics because "she wanted to try to uplift the country.” The Diego Martin businessman made the comment in an interview with Newsday.

According to Newsday Nunez said the family warned her that politics is a "nasty thing". The paper quoted him as saying that his sister was determined to make a difference and to be an honest politician.

"When she got into office she told me, ‘I am not going to steal money. One thing I am not going to do is to steal money.’ That is not her way, that is not her,” Nunez told the paper.

“I always tell her, ‘Now that you are in politics you have to pray even harder. You have a lot of evil that will pull you down...We told her politics is a nasty thing, very nasty. But she wanted to do something for all of the people. That is her. That is her heart and her only aim...She is trying to do her best for the country,” he said.

He also spoke about contradictory statements his sister made with regards to her private financial matters. "I am not saying my sister is an angel, she is not a saint but she is trying to do her best for the country,” he said, adding that there's a false perception that the minister has took money illegally.

"How can people think that? She has her own money. She is not doing anything against the people," he told Newsday.

Nunez said he is not following the controversy closely but declared that it's all "hot air", adding that she is "a praying person."

He said the family would have preferred if she didn't get into politics. "You could only advise somebody, you cannot tell them. If that is how her heart is that is how she is. She not in it for gain...she did not go into it for that. She entered into it because she wanted to try to uplift the country,” he said.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Opposition says finance minister can't hide behind apology

Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira has promised to clear the air Tuesday on all matters raised by her political and other critics regrading her alleged conflict of interest regarding her dealings with a bailout for CL Financial while she was a shareholder of the conglomerate.

And her main accuser, Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar is warning that the minister should not hide in the Senate but stand in the House of Representatives "to face the fire of Opposition".

The former attorney general told the Trinidad Express Monday, "Whatever statement the Minister makes in the Senate tomorrow is inappropriate since she should be reporting to the House and so face MPs in the house of which she is a member; financial matters are the purview of the House-so she should not content herself with hiding in the Senate but should make a statement in the House."

The minister is under fire on two fronts.

She is accused of being in conflict of interest for not disclosing that she owned more than 10,000 shares in CL when she was presiding over a rescue package for the organization. She told the media she didn't disclose that information in Parliament because she had done it in a declaration to the Integrity Commission.

But Persad-Bissessar said her checks and those of the media revealed that no such declaration was made.

Then there is the other issue of the minister withdrawing funds from CL's subsidiary ahead of the announcement of a bailout package. Now there are reports that she may have been in breach of government regulations.

Persad-Bissessar has demanded the minister's resignation. But Nunez-Tesheira is standing firm, saying she has done nothing wrong and quitting is not an option.

"It is difficult to see that statement the Minister of Finance can make tomorrow that would be credible since she has already made so many conflicting statements on these issues but we shall listen and comment thereafter," said Persad-Bissessar.

Persad-Bissessar said she will relentlessly pursue this matter pointing out that it was opposition pressure that forced former PNM minister Franklin Khan and Eric Williams to resign over allegations of criminal behaviour.

"As representatives of the people it is our duty to expose possible wrongdoing whenever and wherever we can and to try to bring the perpetrators to account and to justice.

"If all this fails, then at the end of the day, it is the people who decide on their government and, these issues will be weighed in their scales when they exercise their franchise," Persad-Bissessar said.

Critics say Nunz-Tesheira must resign

The former head of the Public Service and retired career diplomat Reginald Dumas says an apology from Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira will not be enough to end the controversy surrounding her alleged conflict of interest in the Government's bailout of CL Financial.

Nunez-Tesheira is expected to make a statement on the issue Tuesday.

Dumas' views are shared by former finance minister Gerald Yetming and former Central Bank governor Winston Dookeran, who is also the political leader of the Congress of the People (COP).

"Sorry would not be enough, she must leave," Dumas told the Trinidad Express. "She should step down as Minister of Finance altogether, because she has lost creditability, considerable credibility in the eyes of the population, in the eyes of the financial community both at home and abroad.

"I hope her remarks will not be confined to saying that in the light of criticisms expressed by the population and the Opposition too, about her role in this whole matter of CL Financial, that she will be stepping down as the lead Minister and leaving somebody else because that will not be sufficient."

Yetming expressed anger at the prospect that the minister might try to close the matter with an apology.

"Sorry? What the hell is that? No, no, she ought to resign immediately and if she doesn't resign, the Prime Minister must fire her ... No if but or maybe," he told the Express. He said that he is shocked by what has been disclosed in the media about Nunez-Tesheira regarding the CL Financial matter.

Dookeran said Nunez-Tesheira "has already failed 'the fit for office test' and it is really a mater of personal honour on her part. I don't think this will solve the problem of which this is simply a symptom," Dookeran said, adding the matter strikes at the very "foundation stone on which confidence" is built.

The Sunday Guardian has reported that Nunez-Tesheira owns millions of dollars worth of shares in the group, which she inherited from her late husband Russell Tesheira, a former Colonial Life Insurance Co (CLICO) executive.

The Express reported last week that documents from Clico Investment Bank (CIB) showed that Nunez-Tesheira closed two US dollar accounts with the bank last December 31, before they were scheduled to mature later this year.

She claimed that she did not realise she was breaking the deposits adding that she was not informed by anyone at CIB that she was, in fact, breaking the accounts. However documents showed that she signed the relevant documents to close the accounts and pay a penalty.

Jai & Sero

Jai & Sero

Our family at home in Toronto 2008

Our family at home in Toronto 2008
Amit, Heather, Fuzz, Aj, Jiv, Shiva, Rampa, Sero, Jai