Prison Commissioner William Alexander says there was an increase in absenteeism at the nation’s prisons yesterday, in wake of a voice note circulating on social media that was alleged to have called for prison officers to take industrial action.

The social media threat came in the wake of the murder last Thursday of prison officer Glenford Gardner in Bagatelle in Diego Martin. Gardner was assigned to the Carrera Island Prison and was killed two weeks after another officer, Richard Sandy, was killed by an ex-convict at a Gasparillo bar.

But on Sunday evening, National Security Minister Edmund Dillon, in a press release which highlighted the voice note was purported to have come from Prison Officers’ Association president Ceron Richards, appealed to prison officers to ignore any attempt by anyone to prevent them from lawfully carrying out their duties. Dillon added in the release that advice from the Office of the Attorney General on whether any legal action could be taken against those officers who engage in the industrial action alluded to in the voice note.

Yesterday, Alexander confirmed the nation’s prisons had been hit by the action as early as Sunday.

“There was some and it started from yesterday (Sunday), some absenteeism and we are grateful to the dedicated officers who are performing their duties notwithstanding the death of officer Gardener. He was a quiet man,” Alexander said.

Alexander said officers were being killed and it was distracting from the issues the service faced. He said he was not interested in taking disciplinary action against Richards, but admitted Richards should stand up and admit he sent the voice note.

“Let him be a man. We’re all grieving, we are making the situation worse by not showing up for duty. You putting hardship on the other officers and the inmates. My attention is to keep the prison steady and stable and my major focus and I will not be sidetracked in talk. There is always room for discussion,” he said.

He said citizens were living in a violent society and we should be emphasising on bringing the murderers before the courts and not turning the current situation into a political football.

Contacted on the matter yesterday, however, Richards said the National Security Minister seemed more concerned about a voice note than the problems plaguing the Prison Service.

“The minister is doing a lot of talking rather than meeting and treating with the Prison Service. That is the only time I heard from him and his only concern is to ask me about a voice note. Thank God for a voice note, if it wasn’t then I wouldn’t hear anything,” Richards said.

He said on many occasions the association, along with the Fire Service Association, had attempted to meet Dillon on issues affecting their members.

“Over a year we haven’t met with the minister and now he all of a sudden has gotten active. We thought that energy would be deployed then. Their (prison officers) families are afraid for them, all are running scared.”

He said the officers were being attacked and facing a lack of support from the state, noting there has been no word on whether their calls for legislation to protect prisons officers from attacks would be looked at.

On whether he organised the sick-out, given that last week he had suggested such action could occur, Richards said: “I was predicting on the basis of how they feel that is all. I just stating my concern and that the powers that be, I just want to re-iterate that we (association) are not in support of any industrial action and we are responsible. We demonstrated that. That is how they feel at this time.”

He said government had previously passed legislation years ago when kidnappings were rampant across the country.

“They did everything in the past to arrest it so it down to zero. Where is the same approach for prison officers?” he asked.

“Prison officers are looking at that and feeling worthless. That is the bigger issue and putting focus on it. We are not in support of industrial action and I don’t know what accusations the minister is making. The lack of action, government intervention and parliamentary response is not the issue. Ceron Richards is ...”

Thick dark smoke blocked out the sky in Rousillac during the early hours of yesterday, as residents signalled to Government: “Fix our roads or we’ll shut down the entire South-Western peninsula.”

Miles of traffic piled up along the Southern Main Road from Otaheite to La Brea, trapping students, commuters, vehicles and equipment heading to and from the industrial areas of Point Fortin and La Brea. Many businesses remained closed, with only the neighbourhood bars and mini-marts benefiting from the inconvenience caused by some 10 blockades set up.

Burning tyres, mattresses, bed frames and almost any discarded items protesters found were dumped along the Solomon Hochoy Highway Extension to Point Fortin, Mon Desir Road, Southern Main Road, Grant Road and Neranthar Trace. The protesters sent an invitation to Government ministers to drive their luxury vehicles along the pothole-riddled roads. They were supported by their councillors Chanardaye Ramadharsingh and Deryck Bowrin.

“I carry children to school. Since the term started I’ve spent over $6000 and I’m not finished. I’ve changed three link pins so far and I still have to replace some bushings. I want to know who will re-compensate me for the money I have spent to fix my vehicle,” school bus driver Sharon Nichols-Deoraj said.

“Everybody has subsidies for their vehicle, but I don’t have any and I have to work very hard for what I earn, so I will like them to bring their Porsche, Beemer, Lamborghini and their hybrid vehicles and traverse this road as we’ve been doing for the past two years.”

Supporting Nichol-Deoraj, cricketer Hubert Sahibram said since the partial construction of the highway between Oropouche to Rousillac, Grant Road had become a thoroughfare for heavier vehicles and the damage to the road had significantly increased the cost of vehicle maintenance.

He said unless their roads are rehabilitated, they are prepared to the shut down the South-Western peninsula. He said following talks with their MP Nicole Olivierre, it was understood that no works were planned for their communities.

Ramadharsingh, who lives along Grant Road, said the road was paved two years ago under the United National Congress, who oversaw the construction of that leg of the highway. She said it was not a matter of poor workmanship, but the increase of heavy vehicles passing along the road.

Commuters were stranded at taxi hubs in Point Fortin and La Brea under rainy conditions as taxi drivers sat leisurely in their vehicles during the protest action. Most of the PTSC buses remained at the station, while a few were trapped in the traffic. The few taxi drivers who took trips through the Petrotrin field roads increased their fares from $14 to $20 from Point Fortin.

The Ministry of Finance says it made the necessary funds to pay salaries for the month of October 2017 available since last week. The ministry payments were made in accordance with Civil Service Regulation 39, which states that salaries should be paid on the day previous to the last full business day of the month, which was yesterday.

The ministry’s claim came even as Trinidad and Tobago Registered Nurses Association president Hayden Stewart said this was the third month nurses employed by the regional health authorities (RHAs) had been paid late without any explanation or apology, adding the association’s attorneys are now looking at sending legal letters to the RHA CEOs and Ministry of Finance.

Stewart said as of midday yesterday, “only one group of workers employed in the NCRHA had been paid through Royal Bank.”

He said the association had sought answers from Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh and he referred them to the Minister of Finance Colm Imbert, but all attempts to get answers from Imbert were unsuccessful.

Stewart said, “We have started speaking with our lawyers, because it is not a favour that they are doing, this is scripted in law. We want to ensure this does not continue and that nurses are paid as they are supposed to, two days before the end of the month.”

Stewart said he could understand a one-off situation but it seemed it had become “a habit and we will take the necessary legal recourse. We want to make sure the ministry obeys the relevant guidelines.”

PSA president Watson Duke said Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex workers were furious they had not been paid.

He said late payment of salaries was in contravention of section 39 of the Public Service Act, adding salaries should have been in the bank either last week or by yesterday morning.

Duke said these “scare tactics” will not force workers into believing that “things are really hard and our jobs are under threat. There is money and there is work. Pay us to do our work.”

TTUTA president Lyndsay Doodhai said his members also complained salaries were late. But he said he was assured by Ministry of Finance officials that teachers should be able to access them this week.

Fire Services Association president Leo Ramkissoon said they were told that “the Minister of Finance only released funding for payment on Friday and the information is between today and up until Wednesday fire officers will get their payments.”

Ganga Singh says Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s “political leadership is unassailable,” but he is maintaining his position that “there is need for constitutional propriety in the actions of the National Executive (Natex) to call the election of the Political Leader without her vacating the office.”

The national congress of the United National Congress meets today at 5 pm at Shiva Boys’ College in Penal when the decision of the Natex to call the election for the post of Political Leader a year before it is due will be discussed in light of a challenge from Singh that the decision is “ultra vires of Article 18 of the UNC Constitution.”

Singh wrote to the party’s general secretary Dave Tancoo last week challenging the decision, but the Natex sent a legal letter indicating that his interpretation was wrong. Persad-Bissessar herself has told Singh that in her view the decision was “intra vires the party’s Constitution,” and was legal.

In the midst of the debate over whether the party’s constitution is being violated, former St Augustine MP Vasant Bharath announced his decision to challenge Persad-Bissessar for leadership of the party.

Bharath told the T&T Guardian last week that he had been getting support from “sitting UNC MPs and activists,” but UNC chairman David Lee challenged Bharath to “name the MPs who are supporting him.”

Lee said as chairman of the UNC “I do not believe there are any sitting MPs supporting Bharath.”

When the T&T Guardian asked Singh if he was perhaps one of those referred to by Bharath, he said his issue had nothing to do with the leadership of the UNC. He said Persad-Bissessar’s “political leadership is unassailable. I don’t know what is Vasant’s intention in fighting because her position is unassailable I cannot fathom his intention.”

His position, he said, is that “there is need for constitutional propriety in the actions of the executive to call the election of the political leader without her vacating the office.”

Caroni East MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie said the constitutional issue raised by Singh “cannot just be brushed aside, it must be treated properly. There are options in the constitution.”

The manner in which the issue had evolved he said has “put the party under scrutiny and has placed it in a situation where it is going to be tested as a political party.”

He is hoping that at the end of today’s meeting “the UNC will emerge stronger than it is right now.”

But he warned that if things are “handled ineptly today then the party could end up being divided and fractured and incapable of inspiring.”

Tewarie said those who are managing the agenda must “appreciate the fact that they must begin with the end in mind. That means we have to prepare and ready the party to win an election whenever it is called. That means that we have to transform the party. It means you have to have a variety of attractive faces in the party with support from different sectors of Trinidad and Tobago.”

He said at the end of today’s meeting, the membership must feel “inspired,” and those who do not support the UNC must be able to say that the “UNC has managed its business well, it has conducted itself with dignity, and that its leaders have functioned with a level of maturity that is desirable.”

He said if those things are not achieved “we would have fallen short and it would be very difficult to justify ourselves as the alternative. The country deserves more and the people are entitled to more.”

Christine Newallo, who had previously said she was also concerned as to whether the processes of the party were being followed, said, “Both Persasd-Bissessar and Bharath are great people. I respect both.” Newallo is yet to decide which of the two she will support. While she felt that both had strong points “and if a general election is called we need both,” she felt that neither of them had what it takes to “grow the UNC outside of the traditional base.”

Newallo-Hosein said she had not received an agenda for today’s meeting, but she said “based on what happens at the congress I will decide what’s next.”

Problems continue to plague the sea bridge as Caribbean Airlines had to schedule additional flights following the cancellation of sailings of the T&T Express on Sunday at 3 pm and 6.30 pm respectively.

But president of the Inter-Island Truckers and Traders Association Horace Amede is calling for better measures to be implemented saying members were forced to fork out additional money for additional expenses.

In a statement, manager of Marketing and Public Relations of the T&T Inter-Island Transportation Company Vilma Lewis-Cockburn had initially said there were cancellation of sailings of the T&T Express on Sunday at 3 pm and at 6.30 am yesterday but efforts were being made to resume the sailings later yesterday at 3.30 pm.

But in a subsequent statement she said due to ongoing repairs on the vessel the 3.30 pm sailing had to be cancelled as well as the 6.30 am sailing scheduled from Tobago today.

Lewis-Cockburn said passengers were advised the MV Cabo Star was expected to sail from Port-of-Spain at 2 pm and from Tobago at 11 pm yesterday.

She also advised that passengers wishing to send their vehicles on these sailings could make the arrangements with the passenger area at the terminals.

Amede, however, in an interview said yesterday the disruptions were having an adverse effect on his members.

He said some left their car keys in their vehicles to be sent to Tobago and had gone to Piarco Airport but were unable to access a flight.

“This situation is really affecting the members very adversely. Some also cannot even get a flight to return from Tobago,” Amede said.

He said members also had to bear additional cost of plane tickets and ground transportation.

President of the Inter-island Transport Committee’s Tobago Division Dianne Hadad, when contacted yesterday, said she was in a meeting.

Efforts to contact Dionne Ligoure, Manager of Corporate Communications of Caribbean Airlines were unsuccessful and messages left were not returned.

A group of CL Financial (CLF) shareholders has been denied permission to challenge the Court of Appeal’s decision to appoint provisional liquidators for the company in July.

In an oral ruling at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain yesterday, Appellate Judges Nolan Bereaux, Gregory Smith and Andre Des Vignes refused the shareholders leave to go to the Privy Council in London.

Bereaux said the appeal did not raise any arguable issues as the appointment of the provisional liquidators became academic after High Court Judge Kevin Ramcharan approved Government’s bid to wind up the company in September.

The shareholders can now approach the Privy Council directly in seeking to challenge the appointment of a provisional liquidator.

Bereaux also rejected the policyholders’ claim that the appeal was a matter of public importance and pointed out that it was in the public’s interest for the company to be liquidated in order to repay Government for its bail-out of CLF’s subsidiaries in 2009.

In denying the shareholders leave, the Appeal Court ordered them to pay the State’s legal costs for defending the application.

In making the application, attorney Navindra Ramnanan, who is representing former CLF chairman Lawrence Duprey, said his client needed to challenge the initial appointment as the shareholders were not allowed to make submissions before Ramcharan made his decision.

Ramnanan said his client was unable to raise unique issues with the winding up, including the fact that the application was made by Government, which had effective control of the company since 2009 through a memorandum of understanding and a series of shareholder agreements.

He also admitted that the shareholders had filed an appeal against Ramcharan’s decision in the Court of Appeal. That case is yet to come up for hearing.

Deborah Peake, SC, and Ravi Heffes-Doon represented the State.

About the winding up

The Government made the application and a corresponding winding up petition for the company in July after the shareholders signalled their intention to change the composition of the board which had been government-controlled since Clico’s bailout.

As a condition of the bailout, CLF had agreed to honour its subsidiaries’ debt and allow Government to select four members, including the chairman, to its seven-member board. The agreement, which was renewed 17 times after being first signed, expired in August last year and the shareholders refused to agree to a new deal.

The shareholders’ refusal was reportedly based on the failure of the Ministry of Finance to consider a proposal from independent auditing firm PwC, which suggested that they are given control of the company and allowed to renegotiate its repayment arrangement for the $15 billion still owed to Government.

They are claiming the company’s debt to the Government is inflated and the company is not insolvent, as is required for winding up proceedings.

Ramcharan initially refused Government permission to appoint provisional liquidators from international accounting firm Grant Thornton. However, his decision over overturned by the Appeal Court.

In an initial report, provisional liquidator Marcus Wide said the company only had $90 million in its management accounts. In September, Ramcharan approved the winding up petition giving the liquidators permission to sell the company’s assets to clear its debt.

In his 2017/2018 budget presentation, Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced that CLF’s assets will be sold on the stock exchange and used to create a national mutual fund.

Imbert said the $1.4 billion allocated for the fund represented 29.9 per cent of CLF’s shares in Angostura and 16 per cent of its shares in Home Construction Ltd (HCL).

Public Services Association (PSA) president Watson Duke will be challenged by three candidates in the union’s November 27 election.

However, the outspoken trade unionist who is leading his own slate in the polls, the Game Changers, is not concerned.

“None of these guys have a proven track record in representing workers. They have not even done anything to improve themselves and the workers after eight years or added one certificate to their name. They have done nothing to improve their personal capacity,” he told the T&T Guardian.

Duke said the union needs to be led by someone who is passionate and able to represent the workers.

“I want to appeal to the wider membership that when the government is cutting jobs, raising the cost of living and keeping salaries low, it is not the time to experiment with immature and incompetent persons. Rather it is time for those are tested and proven themselves to be result oriented. It is time for the Game Changers led by Watson Duke,” he said.

One of the challengers, Oral Saunders, of the United Public Officers, said his team wants a united front to unseat Duke.

He said: “The vast majority voted against Duke in 2013 and he was a minority president. There were seven teams who went against him,” he said as he appealed for the membership of the PSA to unite.

Saunders said he has approached other leaders fielding slates in the election and started discussions.

“Our group comprises of former executive officers and activists. We have the most experience in industrial relations and the ability to build and restore the PSA and we are the only group that has that intellectual capacity,” he said.

Team Sentinel is led by Nixon Callender a former Duke ally, who said his team would focus on restructuring, social committees, training, wage negotiations, membership housing and public sector reform.

“Our team has a strategic plan for the PSA which we developed after interviewing the membership over the past four years. This plan was based on their response,” he said.

Although he is not a presidential candidate, Demetrius Harrison is vying for the post of industrial relations officer for Team Fixers, another group that is hoping to unseat Duke in the upcoming polls.

“I was successful against Duke in the High Court. I won that matter and was financially remunerated and was a former trustee,” he said.

“We are about a different type of negotiations than accustomed to where we negotiate for percentage increases and for the merchants move their prices. We want to become more innovative to provide different commodities in terms of stocks and bonds on the open market that public officers can now become investors,” Harrison said.

The body of an unidentified man was found in a river near Roodal Cemetery in San Fernando at around 8 am yesterday.

Game warden Rennie Lokpath, 60, said he was taking his 36-year-old son to the San Fernando General Hospital when he saw the body floating in the river.

“When we reach on the bridge my son said, ‘Daddy look I see a body inside the drain there,’” he said.

Lokpath said he was going to pull aside to assist but his son told him the person’s head was submerged in the river.

Lokpath said he dropped off his son at the nearby hospital and then returned to the scene. He said the body was clad only in chequered short pants and there were a few one dollar bills not far from the body.

He called the police. Investigations are continuing.

In a protest directed at the People’s National Movement and the United National Congress, Aripero residents demanded development of their community yesterday.

The area holds great significance in T&T’s oil industry as the first successful oil well was drilled there in 1866. However, generations later, the community is plagued by crumbling infrastructure and high unemployment.

Frustrated residents blocked the Southern Main Road with old tyres, appliances and furniture, and set them ablaze. The blockades caused massive traffic pile-ups.

South Western Division police officers, some of them in riot gear, arrived on the scene and stopped the raucous demonstration. By noon, the Ministry of Works and Transport had cleared the burnt debris from the road and traffic began running smoothly. However, determined to highlight problems in the area, residents set up fiery blockades across minor roads.

“It is over 34 years now I am living in this community and government come, government go, nothing is changing. The councillors and MPs are making statements that the young people in the back here are thieving but what are they doing for the young people in this community?” said resident Nicole White.

“We don’t have a community centre and years come, years go, we have been voting and supporting you all but what are you are all doing for the young people in this community? I have a five-year-old and I want betterment for the children of the future.”

Another resident, Kinkaid Jones, said the community has not changed since he was a child and it is time for the world know that they want a better standard of living.

Although the police stopped their protest, Jones said there was no confrontation as the residents understood that the police had a job to do.

Calls to Otaheite/Rousillac councillor Chanardaye Ramadharsingh went unanswered.

An historic bridge in Marabella collapsed yesterday, days after residents of Bayshore pleaded for help to repair the derelict structure.

The bridge, which was over 100 years old, was used as part of the train line in Marabella. It collapsed in the river yesterday.

More than 12 families have now been left with no access in and out of their homes.

The community is also without a water supply because the pipeline was ruptured as the bridge fell.

Only last week residents expressed fear that the bridge would collapse and appealed to authorities to fix the steel and concrete structure.

The dilapidated bridge, accessible through Theresa Street Extension, was closed by the San Fernando City Corporation earlier this year. However, residents still risked their lives to cross the rickety bridge while others used a lonely, bushy track to access their homes.

One of the last people to cross the bridge before it collapsed shortly after noon was a 14-year-old girl.

“As she come inside we just heard a loud crash and everybody run out,” said her mother Makebe Wildman.

She said most of the bridge fell into the river. Wildman said her two children, ages five and 11, had crossed the bridge earlier in the day because their school had dismissed early.

“They had no choice but to use the bridge because there is nowhere else for them to pass,” Wildman said.

She also complained that the track, which runs alongside a drain, is overgrown with bush, muddy and lonely. Wildman also said residents in the “rich people” area were opposed to them using the track and attempts have been made to block the track.

“We already don’t have current, so we are in the dark, and now we have no water now. We have nowhere to pass and the longest while now we calling the MP and we not getting through,” she lamented.

Wildman said she may have no choice but to keep her children home from school today. The roadway is also caving and cracks have already reached a resident’s property. She had also appealed to the authorities to intervene before the situation worsens.

MAYOR SEEKING SOLUTION

San Fernando Mayor Junia Regrello said he was aware of the situation. He said two weeks ago the matter was raised in a council meeting. He said they sent correspondence to MP Faris Al-Rawi, who in turn forwarded it to Works Minister Rohan Sinanan.

“Tenders went out, proposals were done and we are awaiting feedback on when repairs will start,” said the mayor, who applauded Al-Rawi and Sinanan for their quick response in the matter. He said although the dilapidated bridge was closed several months ago it began to deteriorate at a fast rate following the bad weather. Regrello said a team will be visiting the site to assess the situation and look at what arrangements could be made for the residents.

Just two months ago San Fernando commemorated the 50th anniversary of the instalation of locomotive Engine No 11, which would have crossed that bridge, at Harris Promenade, San Fernando.

By the end of this year, some 300 families who have been squatting on State lands will receive certificates of comfort (COC) by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

This Ministry began the process on Wednesday as 18 individuals who have been occupying State lands prior to October 1998 received their certificates of comfort (COCs) from Housing Minister Randall Mitchell, a release stated.

Of the 18 recipients, five are at an advanced stage of squatter regularisation process and are eligible to receive statutory leases.

In addition, 300 COCs, the release stated, are expected to be processed and delivered by December 2017.

There are three components to the squatter regularisation.

They are the tenure regularisation stage where eligible persons would have applied for a COC on or before the application date of October 27, 2000.

After the applicant has received their COC, they will be eligible to advance to the statutory lease stage, which gives him/her a maximum of 30 years to make payments for the land.

Upon completion of payments, the holder will advance to the stage where a deed of lease can be granted for 199 years.

The Land Settlement Agency will ensure that designated sites are properly surveyed, planned and designed and the necessary development works such as proper drainage, electricity, water, sewerage and road infrastructure have been conducted.

At the ceremony, Mitchell said the decision to provide the COCs was in keeping with the mandate of the Ministry to facilitate home ownership for the most vulnerable.

Mitchell promised that he will ensure that the process from application to processing of COC is completed so that those who qualify will get the opportunity to move forward in the home ownership process.

He also advised that once individuals are eligible to receive statutory leases, they can pay the premium (25 per cent of the market value) for the land they occupy and become owners of a valuable asset.

Police officer Roger Singh will likely face trial in the High Court for robbery and misbehaviour in public office but his three colleagues and co-accused have been freed. Singh was jointly charged with PCs Reeves Boodoo, Errol Manphool and Neil Harripersad. The officers were last attached to the Ste Madeleine Police Station.

In a ruling on Wednesday at the end of a preliminary inquiry, Princes Town Senior Magistrate Debra Quintyne said a prima facie case had been made out against only Singh.

The first charge alleged that on or about May 12, 2012, at Iere Village, Princes Town, while performing duties as member of the T&T Police Service, the accused misbehaved by unlawfully carrying away Larry Barran against his will. It was also alleged that on the same day, at Daisy Road, Ste Madeleine, Singh, Boodoo, and Manphool, robbed Barran of $2,400 using personal violence against him. The officers were charged by Sgt Michael Veronique of the Professional Standards Bureau on July 21, 2012.

Singh, Boodoo, Manphool, and Harripersad were represented by attorneys Jagdeo Singh, Rajiv Persad, Kevin Ratiram and Petronilla Basdeo. Ratiram, Persad, and Basdeo made no-case submissions.

Ratiram submitted that there was no evidence linking Manphool to the incident, while Boodoo and Harripersad’s attorney argued that the identification parades involving their clients were defective.

The magistrate upheld the attorneys’ submissions and discharged Boodoo, Manphool, and Harripersad.

Singh, who is out on bail, has to return to court on November 15 when he is expected to be committed to stand trial on both charges.

Two years after Dexter Lewis was accused of hiding cocaine, he was fined $32,000 fine for trafficking in the illegal drug. He was also fined $5,000 for possession of marijuana.

Lewis, 55, pleaded guilty to the charges when he appeared before San Fernando Senior Magistrate Cherril-Anne Antoine .

Prosecutor Cleyon Seedan told the court at around 4.16 pm on April 24, 2015, Northern Division Task Force officers carried out a search warrant at a house in Mon Repos, San Fernando, and found 33 plastic packets with cocaine and several packets of marijuana in the kitchen. They also found a marijuana plant in a cup in the kitchen and a quantity of cocaine wrapped in plastic in a toilet bowl.

When he was cautioned, Lewis told the officers he “does do a little hustling”.

Antoine said she was satisfied that Lewis was turning his life around and spared him a jail term, although he has a previous conviction for narcotic possession.

“The court has been persuaded to exercise mercy because it seems the defendant has recanted from his former lifestyle. He is gainfully employed and he gave two testimonials from his employer and a retired police officer,” she said.

Antoine advised Lewis to look at the legacy he was leaving for his children, not in terms of money or finances, but the values he teaches them which could outlast any financial benefits.

She told him the maximum fine for cocaine trafficking is $50,000 and ordered him to pay $2,000 forthwith and the balance in a month or serve five years in jail. He was ordered to pay the marijuana fine forthwith or serve nine months in prison.

The University of T&T (UTT) will not be able to continue full operations beyond January 2018.

The sentiment was expressed in memo by UTT chairman of the Board of Governors, Prof Kenneth Julien, given to staff on Wednesday night.

Also, there will be significant job cuts at both managerial and academics levels effective November 10 due to severe financial constraints over the past year, which worsened with the further 11 per cent decrease in UTT’s 2017/2018 recurrent allocation to $200 million.

“This development, if left unaddressed, will see the university experiencing a huge cash shortfall of the order of TT$190 million at the end of the fiscal year, and an inability to meet its payroll liabilities beyond January 2018,” Julien said.

“In light of these circumstances and the continuing comprehensive review which the board has determined UTT’s operations and structure must be subjected to, it is apparent that the existing arrangements are not in alignment with norms for tertiary-level educational institutions.

“These existing arrangements cannot be supported, particularly given the current reductions in financing and the likelihood that these reductions will extend for some time.”

Julien added: “Previous communications from the Office of the Chairman and Management have hinted at the serious challenges faced by the university. I am now to advise that without immediate effort, the university will not be able to continue operations beyond January 2018.”

The Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union, which represents the majority of the affected workers, has held several meetings with the board and on Wednesday met with membership on the pending restructuring exercise.

UTT has proposed the number of vice presidents be reduced from seven to three, with one responsible for Academic and Student Services, one for Corporate Operations and the third for Quality Assurance and Institutional Effectiveness.

There is also expected to be a significant change in the administration of the Academic and Academic Support functions of the university.

Under the new structure, the position of provost and senior vice president, who served as the academic head of the university, has been abolished. In the proposed arrangement, a vice president Academic and Student Services will be tasked with oversight for academic systems, including Undergraduate Studies, Research, Impact and Postgraduate Studies.

The management structure is expected to be reduced by approximately 40 per cent, with resulting total expenditure reductions of approximately 25 per cent within the academic body and 50 per cent within the corporate body.

Five of the eight employees sent on administrative leave in July from the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SporTT) have been dismissed and three others have been constructively dismissed having been told that their contracts, which end in December and January, will not be renewed.

The eight workers were called to a meeting at the SporTT head office in Couva yesterday and five were handed dismissal letters while three were told to proceed on leave and not to return.

The action was taken although SporTT admitted in a brief statement to the media yesterday that the forensic audit was incomplete. The two paragraph release said, “The PWC forensic audit is substantially complete and a draft report has been submitted to the Ministry of the Attorney General.”

SporTT said the five employees were dismissed for “various reasons, but some were dismissed for conduct during the audit as well as certain findings made during the audit.”

On the others, SporTT said, “No decision has been made to dismiss the remaining three employees at this time and it is expected that their contracts with SporTT will run their course.” It added that “due to the sensitivity of the matter, SporTT will not make any further statements on the issue.”

The T&T Guardian understands that four of the dismissal letters were signed by acting CEO Jason Williams, who had resigned his post as financial comptroller and re-hired less than a month later and assigned new duties of financial comptroller and acting CEO. The letter given to former CEO Adam Montserin was signed by SporTT chairman Dinanath Ramnarine.

Attempts to contact Montserin were unsuccessful but the T&T Guardian understands he was dismissed for “loss of confidence” relating to a recommendation he made to the board.

Three other workers, Anthony Blake (facility manager), Jeewan Kowlessar (internal auditor) and Naveen Maraj (legal officer), were also dismissed for “loss of confidence” relating to an act they were alleged to have done during the probe.

But well-placed sources said it was curious the company spent “one million dollars to conduct an audit only to dismiss people” because they could not access information they were believed to have in their possession.

The T&T Guardian reported exclusively last week that although the workers had been sent on leave since July, they were only called to interviews with PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the firm retained to do the forensic audit, two weeks ago and the line of questioning focused on the maintenance contract with a Chinese firm. Questions are also being asked about why the workers were dismissed when the audit is incomplete.

The workers have reportedly retained attorneys and are contemplating legal action for unfair dismissal because none of them were spoken to or issued warning letters. They are reportedly finding it difficult to understand how the company could just say they lost confidence in them and not give them an opportunity to be heard.

Efforts to contact Ramnarine and Sports Minister Darryl Smith were unsuccessful yesterday.

But contacted for comment, Jason Julien, who was fired as a board director earlier this year, said: “I feel for them. They were hard workers and for them to be treated like that makes me upset, especially coming up at Christmas.”

A teenager and two young men are expected to be questioned by police about the pregnancy of a 12-year-old schoolgirl.

The Child Protection Unit of the T&T Police Service is investigating reports that the girl had been subjected to two years of sexual abuse by relatives and neighbours.

According to reports, the girl’s 17-year-old cousin and two of his friends, ages 19 and 20, had sex with the girl earlier this year. It is not yet known who is the father of the unborn child. The girl was living with her mother in severe poverty at the time of the alleged attacks.

The series of events only came to light when the girl told her father, who was released from prison two months into her pregnancy, about her experiences. She was taken to the Princes Town Police Station where a statement was taken, then to the Princes Town District Health Facility where it was confirmed she was pregnant. She was then placed into the care of her father.

Several people were questioned about the abuse of the child but no one had been arrested up to yesterday. Police said investigators are stilling piecing the case together and more witnesses have to be interviewed.

One day after being stripped of her title, Yvonne Clarke was reinstated to represent T&T at the November 26 Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas.

A statement issued yesterday by the Miss Universe T&T Committee confirmed it had “settled all issues concerning 28-year-old Ms Yvonne Clarke,” following which a decision was taken to reinstate her.

The statement, which did not say why the decision to disqualify Clarke was reversed, added, “We truly wish Miss Clarke all the best in her journey and we do hope and pray that she is able to bring home the crown. We also wish to thank the public at large and the media for their support in this matter.”

The action came a day after attorney Rondell Donawa issued a pre-action protocol letter demanding a copy of the contract Clarke was said to have breached, leading to her removal.

Clarke was relieved of her crown following comments on a TV interview in which she indicated she sought help from soca artiste Fay-Ann Lyons-Alvarez in getting prepared for the international competition. Franchise holder Jenny Douglas subsequently accused Clarke of breaching her contract, in particular a clause which says a delegate could not ill-speak or “make the franchise look bad.”

Efforts to contact Douglas as well as Clarke were unsuccessful up to late yesterday. But the T&T Guardian was told Clarke was trying to get rest yesterday, as she was said to have been very tired from the whirlwind 72-hour experience which began with her TV interview, suspension and reinstatement.

However, Lyons-Alvarez, who had pulled together a team, including international personalities, to assist with Clarke’s photography, hair and make-up, airline ticket, hotel and ground transportation while in the US, questioned the veracity of the franchise’s announcement yesterday.

In a telephone interview, Lyons-Alvarez said she spoke to Clarke earlier yesterday and was told of the reinstatement.

“She was happy and then I saw the release from Jenny, so I imagine she (Clarke) would be very happy,” Lyons-Alvarez said.

She reiterated that her role was not to get involved in the franchise’s business but to assist Clarke in her preparation, adding it was only recently she came to know Clarke.

“I was the management coordinator. So what I did was to get people to do all the work for Yvonne for free. But now everything has to be rushed to get done which is sad,” Lyons-Alvarez said.

She said she and husband Ian “Bunji Garlin” Alvarez arranged sponsorship from some of their friends, including Dwayne Bravo.

Lyons-Alvarez, who had demanded an apology from Douglas, also said she was yet to receive one.

“I have not been able to reach that woman. She has not apologised and nobody from the franchise has reached out and again the cheese stands alone. That’s why I went to the news in the first place. If I could have done it by myself, out of pocket, I would not have gone to the news,” Lyons-Alvarez said.

Noting the controversy surrounding the decisions made by the local franchise, she said she hoped the reinstatement was indeed genuine as it would be a shame if Clarke now goes to the competition only to find out it was not true. However, Lyons-Alvarez said she wished Clarke the very best, noting with all the controversy she was confident Clarke would do well.

Declaring that they have little or no faith in the Government, prisoners officers and their families gathered outside the Canadian High Commission in Port-of-Spain yesterday in a bid to seek asylum in that country.

They claim their move was sparked by the Government’s inaction over their calls for special legislation to deal with attacks against prison officers in the wake of the murders of two of their colleagues last month.

Prison Officers Association (POA) president Ceron Richards said a letter was delivered to the High Commission seeking information on asylum in that country.

“We are going to pursue this, which we believe is the only life-saving step at this point in time,” Richards said.

“Prisons officers and their families no longer feel safe in Trinidad and Tobago and there is no indication coming from the highest offices of the land ... coming from the most important space, which is the Parliament ... there is no indication that anything will change any time soon.”

Richards said for too long prison officers’ pleas have fallen on deaf ears and members are fed up of the seeing the lives of colleagues being snuffed out. As such, he said the POA had no choice but to look at alternatives for protection.

Asked whether this move could result in unmanned prisons, Richards said that was a question for Government to answer.

“We have done all we could have done under the sun. This matter is a matter that has spanned for decades and we are at the wrong end of the criminal element,” he said.

“The reality is criminal elements are training their guns at prisons officers and there is no resistance from the State. The State has a duty and responsibility to protect itself and an attack on any prisons officer is an attack on the State. The State is not showing officers it has the wherewithal to protect itself.”

Richards said the attacks, including hits being called on officers from behind the prisons walls, spoke volumes.

He said the State was not interested in finding useful solutions and instead was “pulling down the names of prisons officers.”

Contacted yesterday on the officers’ action, Prisons Commissioner William Alexander said he held a meeting with the association on Wednesday to discuss some of the initiatives they were seeking but Richards was not present. However, he said he had no knowledge they planned yesterday’s action. He added, however, that he did not believe the move, along with their continued sick-out action at the Maximum Security prison, was in their best interest.

“They are civil servants and officers must not bring the service into disrepute. I have to find out and I have no clue about that (this morning),” he said.

High Commission officials could not be reached yesterday for comment on the prison officers’ asylum requests.

A murder suspect yesterday jumped from the 11th floor of the homicide detective's office at Riverside Plaza in Port-of-Spain in an attempt to escape police custody.

According to reports, around 4.15 pm while being interviewed by homicide detectives, murder suspect Roger Holder jumped out of the window. Holder landed on the roof of a Chevrolet Aveo which was parked outside Riverside Plaza.

Miraculously, he survived.

Holder was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he is currently warded in a critical condition.

An investigation is ongoing into the incident.

Santa Cruz man gunned down

Homicide detectives are also investigating the shooting death of a 31-year-old man in Santa Cruz on Friday night. Dead is Arnold Dickson.

According to reports, residents of Moraldo Trace, Santa Cruz, heard several loud explosions around 11 pm on Friday.

Dickson was found lying in a pool of blood along the roadway.

The police were contacted and Dickson was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment.

Cops probe two shootings in Diego Martin

Police are investigating two separate shooting incidents in Diego Martin on Friday night.

The two victims survived the shootings.

In the first incident, Salim Ramirez, 25, was shot on Richplain Road, Diego Martin, around 9 pm.

According to reports, Ramirez was liming at a home along Richplain Road, when he was approached by a masked man.

The man shot him in the chest. The gunman then fled the scene on foot.

Ramirez was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he was treated.

Around 10 pm, the second shooting incident occurred.

Josh Toussaint, 29, was liming with friends along the Blue Basin Road when gunshots were heard.

Toussaint felt a burning sensation and realised he had been shot in his knee.

He was rushed to the hospital where he was treated.

He was said to be in a stable condition up to late yesterday.

A prison officer narrowly escaped being shot and killed at his Foster Road, Sangre Grande home on Friday night. The prison officer’s vehicle was sprayed with bullets as the gunman believed he was still in it.
Fearful that the gunman would return to finish the job, the 25-year-old prison officer, who remains traumatised, has moved out of his home.

He was not available for comment.
Police reported that around 8 pm on Friday, the prison officer who is attached to the Eastern Correction Centre, Santa Rosa, drove his white Tiida vehicle into his unfenced house at Foster Road.

As he alighted from the vehicle, the gunman fired several shots behind the car.

The prison officer ran into a neighbour’s house where he sought refuge and called the police.

Cpl Randy Castillo and WPC Seenath of the Sangre Grande CID responded and were backed up by officers of the Eastern Task Force.

On arrival at the scene of the shooting, police found the car riddled with bullet holes. Crime Scene officers also found several spent shells.

He escaped in a waiting vehicle.
Cpl Castillo is continuing investigations.

FEAR CRIPPLING OTHER OFFICERS

A senior prison officer, the victim of a similar incident, said fear was crippling prison officers and nothing is being done to safeguard them. The call for firearms for off-duty prison officers is yet to be addressed in spite of the Prison Officers Association’s cry for security and safety of officers.

The Prison Officers Association on Friday reported that they were tracking down all their members living in west Trinidad following the murder of one of their colleagues and attempted murder of another, who recently retired.

But the senior officer, who also resides in the East, said they will have to do the same for those in the East as this was the second incident where prison officers were shot at in Sangre Grande.

POA Secretary Gerard Gordon told the Guardian an average of 300 inmates are left in the care of police officers to be taken to court and some inmates have returned with fast food and other things they could not get on their own. He said it was not only rogue prison officers who facilitated the influx of contraband, which is a flourishing business in the prison.

“This thing bigger than the jail. We do not have society’s help. So today is us and who is next? Who will the criminal be offended by, so they will come to kill? I am fed up ! It is too much too soon.”

Following the murder of two prison officers last month, the association secured a meeting with National Security Minister Edmund Dillon. The association will meet will Dillon at 3:30 pm on Tuesday to further address their concerns.

RALPH BANWARIE