High Court judge Kevin Ramcharan has reserved his decision whether environmental activist group Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) should be granted leave to pursue its lawsuit challenging the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) to approve the controversial Churchill-Roosevelt Highway Extension to Manzanilla.

Ramcharan indicated that he would need time to consider the issue after hearing lengthy submissions on it during a hearing in the Port-of-Spain High Court, which continued well past 7 pm yesterday.

The interim injunction granted last week against Ministry of Works and Transport and the National Infrastructure Development Company (Nidco), limiting the scope of works which can continue on the site, will stay in place until Ramcharan's delivers his decision after Carnival.

In the event that Ramcharan refuses FFOS leave and rules that its case does not have a reasonable prospect of success, the interim injunction would be immediately lifted and its application for a injunction pending the final determination of the claim would be automatically dismissed.

If FFOS is successful, Ramcharan would then determine the substantive injunction.

Presenting submissions on behalf of the EMA, Senior Counsel Deborah Peake called for the case to be dismissed as she pointed out that FFOS filed the lawsuit over three months after her client granted the Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) in June, last year.

She said it was in breach of the deadline allowed for the filing of judicial review lawsuits against State entities and institutions.

She also criticised the FFOS for failing to participate in public consultations for the project between December 2016 and January, last year.

"If they were truly interested they would have availed themselves to the opportunity to participate provided by the developer (Nidco)," she said as she noted that over 100 persons had participated.

Peake also claimed that the lawsuit was misconceived as FFOS claimed that the EMA was required to supervise the consultation process, when in fact its duty was to consider the opinions generated in Nidco's consultation.

Douglas Mendes, SC, who is representing contractor Kall Co, submitted that the EMA has the sole remit to mitigate the environmental destruction, which is is inevitable in major infrastructure projects.

"We all have to trust that the EMA is doing its job to balance the competing interests," Mendes said.

Nidco's lawyer Ian Benjamin conferred with Peake and Mendes as he claimed that the interim injunction is costing the State $10 million a week.

FFOS lawyers were responding to the submissions up to late yesterday.

About the Highway

In the lawsuit, the group is challenging the process used by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) for granting a Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) for first phase of the project between Cumuto and Guaico.

It is claiming that the process was procedural flawed and failed to consider alternative routes for the project, which would have less impact on the environment and existing communities.

It is questioning why the EMA took 10 days to publish the CEC in the national register after it was granted on June 22, last year.

The group is contending that the construction works, which commenced on January 8, hasalready infringed on the Aripo  Savannas forest reserve-a designated environmentally sensitive area.

Under the injunction, contractor Kall Co is only allowed to continue surveying the site, to construct a temporary site office and to remove logs that have already been felled under permission from the Forestry Division of the Ministry of Agriculture.

On Monday, the injunction was varied to allow Kall Co to widen an already existing access road to the site.

Last Friday, FFOS claimed that the Government was in breach of the injunction, however, the issue was not raised during a subsequent hearings.

About the Aripo Savannas

The Aripo Savannas is one of three locations across T&T that is designated an Environmentally Sensitive Area by the EMA.

The other two are the Matura National Park and Nariva Swamp.

According the EMA’s website the area is internationally renowned for its unusual flora and striking vegetation communities and is one of the more intensively studied natural ecosystems in Trinidad.

The website states: “It was designated as a Strict Nature Reserve because it is one of the areas in T&T with high scientific value, as it is the best remaining example of the types of ecosystems found within its boundaries. This designation makes the area eligible for special protection and management under the laws of T&T.”

Dialysis patients who are recipients of Government-subsidised treatment at the St Augustine Medical Hospital have been assured that their health will not suffer as a result of lack of funds.

Senior officials of the Ministry of Health yesterday sought to comfort persons who had received letters from the institution that they would be responsible for ensuring their dialysis bill was paid in full as of February 1.

Ministry officials confirmed monies had been approved and released early last week— estimating that it would have been accessible by last week Friday.

As such, they urged patients being treated at that hospital “to ignore” the letters.

Dialysis patients who are not registered with the External Patient Programme (EPP), Ministry of Health - have to foot their own dialysis bills which can range from $1,200 upwards, per session.

Those approved by the ministry are treated to a substantial savings cost as government funding covers three-quarters of the overall costs of the sessions.

It was just over one month ago that patients registered for government-funded dialysis sessions at the St. Clair Medical Centre encountered a similar situation as the hospital accused the ministry of failing to settle outstanding bills.

At the time, officials explained that the ongoing economic downturn had led to cash-flow problems but assured that as soon as funding became available, all private hospitals providing this type of service would receive payments.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is expressing a sense of frustration with the country’s crime problem admitting to telling his wife, Sharon Rowley, that: “it’s a hell of a thing I have a job where I am responsible for things I have absolutely no involvement in or control over.” He also admitted to a sense of frustration over the process for the selection of a Police Commissioner.

Speaking on Power 102FM’s breakfast programme yesterday, Rowley admitted to a link between the crime scourge and the economic saying “there is absolutely no doubt that crime and the fear of crime is having an effect on economic activity.”

He is of the view that “if people can go out and utilise spaces and places more without fear of crime, more people will do that and that in itself will generate economic activity.”

The PM said everyone has been affected “whether you are a shop keeper a taxi driver or whatever, we have just been saddled with this chronic and violent crime.”

The country at this time, he said, is averaging two murders a day, with 48 murders recorded up to yesterday it prompted his remarks to his wife, observing that criminal activity is now well organised he said “crime is not an incidental thing,” it is he said “now an organised arrangement and a way of life for some of our citizens who plan and execute it.”

Rowley said the Police Service is the agency charged with those who choose a life of crime, “so we have to keep working with the police service to improve its ability to identify, to intervene, to execute, to detect and to try and eliminate this feature from our land.”

While the police boast of the number of guns being seized Rowley admitted said, “It has not impacted on the fall in the number of murders.”

As Head of the National Security Council he expressed concern that firearms are coming in “straight through the Port.”

He said, “We know there are people who attempt to bring arms and ammunition through the normal legal ports of entry and to detect the presence of those items you know you have to have scanners.”

Rowley said attempts to make the scanners at the Port operational have been stymied by the President of the Public Services Association Watson Duke whom he said had gone on record as saying that the union was opposed to the scanners “because they will affect the scrotum of the officers who work there. These things are used worldwide!” Rowley said in frustration.

The Prime Minister said, “I have to be blamed for everybody who get murdered in this country and then I have to listen to that damn nonsense while guns and ammunition are coming through the Port, straight through the open door, because we cannot put the scanners in force because the government does not have the authority to do it without the say so of somebody else.”

Rowley said there are people in the country “who are protecting the status quo because it works for them,” but he said it was “really frustrating to be held responsible for the outcome if you don’t have the wherewithal to say get on with it.”

He said there are “some systems here which are completely upside down,” because the people who are “responsible for the outcome,” don’t have the authority to “make the decision to do what has to be done.”

Criticises process for selecting top cop

Asked whether he knew who was on the short list for Commissioner of Police, he responded “ I as Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago I am the person who knows the least about that and that is part of the stupidness that going on in this country.”

He said the Parliament had changed the process for the veto of the Prime Minister, but the change is a “rigmarole that ends up in a more political situation than that.”

Rowley lamented that after all this “carrying on and millions of dollars,” a recommendation will be made to the Parliament and the “majority team in the Parliament, which is the PM’s team will then select that person.” The procedure now he said is “far more political than before” when the Prime Minister in his own jurisdiction interacting with the service commission selected the Commissioner of Police. “now” he said “it is all the politicians in the Parliament.

The Prime Minister said the first time he will see the recommendation is when it comes to the Parliament. For now he said “I am just sitting here as Prime Minister listening to the rumours about who apply and who is doing what.”

The consultancy firm KPMG and the Police Service Commission have been doing their evaluations of the candidates. The PSC will submit the recommendation to the President who will then pass the recommendation to the Parliament.

Rowley said and after millions of dollars spent on the process “the joke about that is that at that stage the Parliament say yes or no, so what’s the point, all of that cost millions of dollars eh and is now five years since 2012 we have a vacancy. This is the height of a failed process.”

Despite facing a financial bind, the monthly overtime bill at State-owned Petrotrin is $22 million, while its annual wage bill to its 5,000 employees amounts to $2 billion.

This was what was revealed before a Joint Select Committee (JSC) chaired by Finance Minister Colm Imbert on Energy Affairs, as senior management of Petrotrin was yesterday interrogated into the operations of the energy company at the ANR Robinson Room, Tower D, Port-of-Spain.

Vice chairman Stuart Young asked if anyone at Petrotrin could say what was the company’s monthly or annual overtime bill compared to payments of salaries.

In response, the company’s vice president of Human Resources and Corporate Services Neil Derrick responded saying “it’s about $22 million a month in overtime for the entire company.”

Young questioned what was Petrotrin’s annual salary bill. Derrick answered, stating that it was $2 billion, which included overtime.

“So the ratio of your $2 billion salary a year how much of that is overtime?”

Petrotrin’s outgoing president Fitzroy Harewood said the figure was about 18 per cent.

“So near to 20 per cent of our salary bill at the end of the year is overtime? “Young asked.

That figure amounts to $400 million in overtime.

Imbert read from the Lashley report which stated that Petrotrin’s cash flow was currently tight, its working capital eroded, margins negatives and salaries were estimated at 50 per cent of operating costs, while the company had an over leverage system.

“If there is a statement such as this that 50 per cent of operating cost being paid to salaries is too high, what is the correct figure? What should it be 25, 30, 40 per cent? Somebody must know what is the standard international benchmark for salaries in terms of operating cost,”Imbert said.

Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet, in response, said it was “twice as much as it should be,” stating the Petrotrin cannot exist in its present form with its high operational costs.

Member Gerald Ramdeen asked Espinet how the board intended to reduce the company’s huge salary bill.

“One of the proposals that has come out of it is to separate the operational activities and to focus our management and employees in their specific operational activities rather than as we have them now as an integrated company where we have operational and a super structure that manages it. That, we see as being an opportunity to reduce the labour force, for sure,”Espinet said.

Espinet said he was not sure if they can convince employees to reduce their salaries down “that you may be able to work four days a week or three days a week rather than five days a week if you want to keep numbers.”

These are issues, Espinet said would have to be discussed.

The chairman said to reduce the labour force and for employees to work less days would have to be part of a negotiated process “because I think there is about six ways to skin the cat.”

The system of promotion within the Police Service is just like a little devil in the backyard. Those were the words of retired deputy commissioner of Police Wayne Dick, who was called before the Joint Select Committee (JSC) on National Security yesterday.

Admitting that most of the issues highlighted in the Police Manpower Audit Committee, that was chaired by Professor Ramesh Deosaran, were real issues, Dick added that sadly it was the way he left it back in May 2017, when he retired, having served for 40 years.

Dick, who gave a lot of personal experience, explained that when promotion time hits the air, senior officers disappear for months, leaving junior officers in charge.

Giving a real example, Dick said in 2010 when he headed the Homicide Bureau he was acting when they called them for books to study for the first part of the process.

He said his colleague, who ranked just as him, chose to stay away from active duty, investigating to solve murders, to stay home to study. In the end, he said, he was confirmed while his colleague ranked very low.

“I would tell him, buddy, let’s stay and solve this and he would say no I have to go and study…in that three months I saw him twice and the two times he came to get his travelling signed and I spoke to him about it,” Dick said.

“The system is not a good system while it may be good intended it turned out to be a little devil in the backyard,” he added. Dick suggested that the previous method of having officers go before the chairman of a Promotion Advisory Board was better in the sense that they were able to identify who was worthy of that promotion.He also stressed that there lacks proper leadership, training and discipline. He suggested that a team should be established of retired police officers who still have that genuine passion for the career to come together to train officers who are currently in the service.

He stressed that training should a continuous one for officers throughout their respective service years. Dick explained that over the years, in interviewing criminals he learnt that police officers who are not disciplined in adhering to wearing their required uniforms and who choose to dress down “like the gangsters on the street,” and who sport mohawks and coloured hairstyles and tongue piercings are not respected and will never earn respect from the people out there.

Whilst agreeing with persons having high forms of education including tertiary and university degrees added that some times people who may have little or no education become very successful in policing.

“Human trafficking could be happening right around you, so it is important to know what to look out for.”

That was the key message from attorney Juanita Headley, who has been travelling around the world actively campaigning to end human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

T&T is just one of the 26 countries to which she has travelled so far on her mission.

“Exploitation, abuse and trafficking is happening here,” she said on Wednesday night during a presentation hosted by City Women’s Dialogue and the Human Equity Value Institute at Colm Hall in Belmont.

“Right now, somewhere in the world, a boy or girl is being raped, sexually abused or murdered.”

Headley, who describes herself as a human trafficking abolitionist, is founder and CEO of Changing Cases, an international organisation dedicated to the eradication of sexual exploitation through educating and empowering the public on human trafficking, creating safeguarding tools for children, researching legal issues, and assisting in investigations and rescue planning.

Projects by Changing Cases are currently taking in the Philippines, India, New York, Washington DC, T&T and London, England.

Underscoring the severity of the human trafficking problem, she said: “Once you have men, women and sex, it is happening.”

According to Headley, children as young as five are being trafficked, most of the time to be made sex slaves and by age ten that child could repeatedly be exposed to sexual abuse. For this reason, she said, it is important to get to the root of highly sexualised behaviour.

“By age 13-14 childhood had been stolen. They start acting out, perhaps displaying promiscuous behaviour. Instead of judging, find out why. Get to the root,” Headley urged.

“Any person in your world could be a victim. It could be someone in your neighbourhood.”

Headley said she has encountered girls in T&T under the age of 16 who have already been victims of domestic violence. Without serious intervention, those girls are more susceptible to trafficking and sexual exploitation, she warned.

All is not lost, however, as there is “scientifically proven hope” of healing for victims and survivors.

Headley, who is in T&T until February 9, is hosting screenings of the movie Sold, a vivid portrayal of human trafficking at the MovieTowne multiplexes in Port-of-Spain, San Fernando and Tobago. At the screenings, she will be sharing information on the issue.

Headley, who was raised in London, England, by her Jamaican-born mother, is currently based in New York. Since 2012, she has been doing volunteer work in the United States in the indigent community in matters of crime, immigration, family, employment, and housing law. She has volunteered with ECPAT-USA on an anti-child pornography project and assisted at the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation’s 2016 Coalition to end Sexual Exploitation Summit.

She has also used Facebook to create gender-specific anti-trafficking groups and an education and empowerment group.

VICTIM INDICATORS

Human trafficking is often a crime that is hidden in plain sight. Some indications that a person may be a victim of human trafficking are:
n Appearing malnourished
n Showing signs of physical injuries and abuse
n Avoiding eye contact, social interaction, and authority figures/law enforcement
n Seeming to adhere to scripted or rehearsed responses in social interaction
n Lacking official identification documents
n Appearing destitute/lacking personal possessions
n Working excessively long hours
n Living in place of employment
n Checking into hotels/motels with older males
n Poor physical or dental health
n Tattoos/ branding on the neck and/or lower back
n Untreated sexually transmitted diseases
n Security measures that appear to keep people inside an establishment—barbed wire inside of a fence, bars covering the insides of windows.

Hotline numbers that can be contacted to report suspicious activity or to get help:

Counter-Trafficking Unit (CTU) Hotline: 800-4288
Childline: 800-5321
For further information on Juanita Headley and her organisation, visit the website:
www.changingcases.org.

The defence in the Ira Mitchell murder trial yesterday opened its case with pathologist contradicting the evidence of the State’s expert witness forensic pathologist Dr Hughvon Des Vignes.

Pathologist Dr Hubert Daisley testified in the San Fernando Second Assize that all the injuries Balo Seurattan, including his broken neck, could have been caused by a low-level fall.

Earlier this week, however, Des Vignes dismissed any scenario or suggestion that Seurattan’s broken neck could have been the result of a fall.

Des Vignes, who had performed Seurattan’s autopsy at the Forensic Science Centre, testified that the injury would have been caused by an arm lock around the neck and twisting.

Mitchell, 39, who is before Justice Hayden St Clair-Douglas, claimed her uncle in law was sick and weak and fell in his bedroom twice on the day he died in January 2000.

Daisley, who has performed some 60,000 autopsies, said if Seurattan’s broken neck was caused by a chokehold there would have been certain injuries to the thorax and the thyroid gland which were not mentioned in the post-mortem report.

He said Seurattan also suffered from severe coronary artery narrowing, which could have also caused him to fall or drop dead, and would have contributed to his death.

Daisley was expected to be cross-examined by State attorneys Sabrina Doudgeen-Jaglal and Selwyn Richardson. Mitchell is being defended by attorneys Rekha Ramjit and Jared Ali.

The trial continues today.

A letter from the Office of the President that went out in error to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley regarding the appointment of Dr Noel Kalicharan as chairman of the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), which the PM strongly objected to, is now being corrected.

Confirmation about the faux pas came from President Anthony Carmona’s communications adviser Theron Boodhan.

Last night, Boodhan said the Office of the President took responsibility for the error.

The incident stems from a letter sent from the Office to President to the PM, indicating that the term of Kalicharan, a member of the EBC board, came to an end on January 24.

The letter further stated, in the circumstances, Carmona informed Rowley he proposed to reappoint Kalicharan as a member for another five-year term.

“What was instead communicated was the intention to appoint Kalicharan as EBC chairman,” Boodhan said.

The EBC’s current chairman is Mark Ramkerrysingh, whose term ends in 2021.

Boodhan said the wrong information was “copied, pasted and it slipped through” in the letter to Rowley and as such a new consultation letter was being prepared to send to Rowley with the correct details.

Boodhan said it was never any intention of removing Ramkerrysingh as EBC chairman.

In response to Kalicharan being named as the new chairman, Rowley in a letter dated January 25, which Guardian Media Ltd obtained, strongly objected to the appointment.

On the eve of demitting office, Camona came under fire from Rowley for Kalicharan’s appointment.

Rowley suggested to Carmona that Ramkerrysingh “be left in the post, as to do so will go a long way in ensuring a continuation of peace, stability and good order of T&T. I hereby advise that I have strong objection to the appointment of Dr Kalicharan as chairman of the EBC,” Rowley wrote.

Rowley informed Carmona that as far as he was aware there was no immediate issue with the quorum of the EBC (as per section 71(2) of the Constitution of T&T.

Rowley further informed Carmona that “you may wish to give serious consideration to allowing the incoming President-Elect (referring to Paula Mae Weekes) the opportunity to engage in wider consultation and consideration, leading to an appointment to the position of chairman of the EBC an office which plays such an essential role in the political peace and stability” of the country”

Rowley further informed Carmona that the EBC’s Commission was arguably within the political landscape as opposed to that of Government, as its mandate was to regulate elections of political parties in office.

After several years of ups and downs with some controversy in attempting to appoint a permanent Police Commissioner, the Police Service Commission (PSC) has selected acting deputy Police Commissioner (Operations), Deodath Dulalchan to be T&T’s new top cop.

Top sources within National Security revealed yesterday that the PSC gave the nod to Dulalchan, who applied for either of two posts—Commissioner or Deputy—a post in which he has been acting for almost two years.

Yesterday, the PSC submitted the commission’s recommendations of two deputy Police Commissioners and the Commissioner to the President.

A source said acting deputy Police Commissioner Harold Phillip has also been selected to fill that vacancy.

The source said Dulalchan, who has been named Gold Commander for this year’s Carnival, was recommended ahead of several other candidates, among them former national security minister Gary Griffith, acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams and president of the Police Social and Welfare Association Inspector Michael Seales, who is currently reading for his Doctorate.

Dulalchan, when contacted last night, had no comment.

Top officers in the Police Service described Dulalchan’s selection as a “bombshell” as no one expected him to be selected as Commissioner but rather Deputy Commissioner. They said it was also a big surprise as his name was not in the forefront before.

Other officers who applied for the post of commissioner were secretary of the Police Social and Welfare Association ASP Anand Ramesar, acting ACP commissioner Irwin Hackshaw, retired deputy commissioner Glen Hackett and former police officer Wayne Hayde.

Dulalchan has been a police officer for 37 years and during his career he worked in several divisions. He is known to be a no-nonsense police officer.

He has been actively involved in all the Police Town meetings throughout Trinidad hearing the complaints of those in the various communities. Up to Wednesday he attended a similar meeting in Valencia, promising to bring relief to residents.

It was only on a radio interview on Power102 FM on Wednesday that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley expressed frustration over the upsurge in criminal activity in T&T and the delay of the selection process of a permanent Police Commissioner.

Now that a commissioner has been selected the Parliament still has veto power.

According to section 123 (2) of the Constitution, Parliament can veto the decision of the PSC and force the search to be restarted.

The next step in the process is for the President, in accordance with the Constitution, to issue a notification in respect of the highest graded candidates, which shall be subject to an affirmative resolution from the House of Representatives.

The commission shall appoint the Commissioner of Police or Deputy Commissioners of Police only after the notifications are approved.

The exercise to find a Police Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner cost taxpayers approximately $3.2 million (TT) to local consulting firm KPMG.

The search began with advertisements of the positions placed in local newspapers from September 4 to 29.

The funding for the search came from the commission’s budgetary provision.

No one has held the substantive post since 2012, when Stephen Williams was appointed as acting Commissioner of Police, a position for which he has received 11 six-month extensions since that time.

In yesterday’s statement the PSC said the candidates, who vied for the open positions, underwent a comprehensive, rigorous process to determine their suitability for the roles. This included psychometric testing, panel interviews, scenario testing, professional and security vetting, financial and background checks, and medical assessments, the commission added.

MORE INFO

After Trevor Paul retired as Commissioner of Police in 2008, James Philbert, who was the most senior officer in the service after Paul, was appointed to act in the role.

At that time, acting Deputy Commissioner Stephen Williams, who was the PSC’s nominee for CoP in 2008 after being recommended by Penn State, had been rejected by the PNM in Parliament.

In 2010, during a search under the People’s Partnership coalition, Parliament rejected Canadian Neal Parker for the post, citing that he had been part of the evaluation team for the selection of the commissioner in 2008.

The last appointed commissioner, Canadian Dwayne Gibbs was the second-rated nominee on Penn State’s evaluation.

ROBERT ALONZO
NEWS EDITOR

The battle between the National Gas Company (NGC) and Caribbean Nitrogen Company (CNC) is now heading to the Court of Arbitration in the United Kingdom, the result of which could have dire consequences for both companies.

At the heart of the battle is the price the NGC is prepared to sell natural gas to the downstream companies, the continued shortage of gas and recent contracts signed by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley which wedded the NGC to pay higher prices for gas from both bpTT and EOG Resources. Ironically EOG Resources is a major shareholder of CNC.

The T&T Guardian has learnt through multiple sources at both companies and the Ministry of Energy that the action has already been filed with the UK Court of Arbitration and is expected to be heard within months. The option to approach the UK court is provided for in the original Gas Sales Contract.

Speaking on CNC3’s Morning Brew breakfast programme, chairman of the NGC Jerry Brooks hinted that the matter was now in arbitration and warned that the price that CNC was prepared to pay would result in billions in losses to the NGC and threaten thousands of jobs.

He also suggested that the days of cheap natural gas prices were over and companies had in the past made double digit profits.

But as the war of words heats up, CNC, in a strongly worded press release, called for an independent auditor to look at what is called the value chain and see where most of the money is made.

In T&T the NGC buys gas from Upstream companies like BPTT and EOG and then sells the gas at a profit to companies like CNC and other petro chemical companies. The NGC charges a basic price and when the price of methanol or ammonia rises globally the NGC makes further profit in a windfall arrangement. “It’s time for the NGC to be transparent and stop hiding behind vague statements that don’t have any basis in reality,” said Jerome Dookie, CEO of CNC.

“We do not agree with Mr Brooks’ position and completely reject his statements that accuse CNC of having unreasonable expectations, double digit returns and the potential for billions of dollars of losses for the NGC.”

In shutting off the gas it is understood that CNC believes that the NGC is in violation of its original contract which it believes guarantees an automatic five-year extension as part of their last contract and therefore the NGC’s assertion that the contract came to an ultimate end last year October is to be challenged.

MHTL was once part owned by the Clico group and when the Government took control of Clico Proman said it had a right to buy the 51 per cent shares and the matter went to arbitration and T&T lost and was forced to sell the shares to Proman. Once again the Government, through the NGC, is going to face Proman and its partners in a court of arbitration unless a solution is found to the standoff.

A & V Oil and Gas Ltd has failed in two successive attempts to obtain an injunction blocking State owned Petrotrin from terminating its agreement and withholding a $83 million payment over allegations of inflated billings.

Last Monday, A&V filed a lawsuit against Petrotrin over the issue and applied for an injunction against it.

Two days later, High Court judge Avason Quinlan-Williams refused as she ruled that A&V had failed to prove that Petrotrin was not entitled to take such action.

In her seven-page decision, Quinlan-Williams said: “A&V did not satisfy the court that they have a real prospect of success in succeeding in its claim that Petrotrin wilfully terminated the contract and withheld the sum of $83,929,671.34.”

She also said that A&V’s CEO Haniff Nizam Baksh had admitted that under the terms of the agreement, Petrotrin was entitled to withhold the money, which is close to the figure which it claims it overpaid A&V.

A&V filed an appeal and sought an interim injunction pending its determination. A chamber court hearing was held yesterday morning with only the parties’ lawyers and representatives being allowed inside. It ended with Appeal Court judge Prakash Moosai upholding Quinlan-Williams’ decision.

In her decision, Quinlan-Williams said that Petrotrin was justified based on the findings of internal and external audit reports.

“Applying an objective test of what reasonable grounds means Petrotrin had reasonable grounds for suspecting that A&V had misconducted itself based on the information contained in the internal audit report,” Quinlan-Williams said.

She rejected A&V’s claim that Petrotrin was required to disclose the external reports, prepared by global oil and gas consultants Gaffney Cline and Kroll Consulting, as she said that they were privilege information.

She suggested that it was also not entitled to the injunction as the contract contained a multi-tiered and explicit dispute resolution process which includes negotiation, mitigation and arbitration.

Avason-Quinlan noted that the parties were still locked in the negotiation stage. She said that she felt that there would be no adequate remedy to compensate Petrotrin, if the injunction was granted and it (Petrotrin) eventually won its dispute with A&V.

As part of the rulings, A&V was ordered to pay Petrotrin’s legal costs for both. A&V is being represented by Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, Ronnie Bissessar, Vijaya Maharaj and Varin Gopaul-Gosine. Deborah Peake, SC, Ravi Heffes-Doon and Marcelle Ferdinand are representing Petrotrin.

MORE INFO

In 2009, A&V was granted a 10 year licence from Petrotrin to operate its onshore oil fields in Catskills, Moruga.

The scandal involving the two companies was first raised in September, last year, by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who revealed that Petrotrin’s internal audit had shown that A&V inflated its crude oil production figures leading to over-payments.

She also questioned the link between the company’s owner Haniff Nizam Baksh and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.

Rowley admitted to knowing Baksh and contacting him when the news broke, but has denied any wrongdoing.

Baksh and his son-in-law Billy Ramsundar, who is a police corporal, have been charged with assaulting the T&T Guardian’s senior photographer Kristian Da Silva and destroying his camera valued at US$1,600.

The incident occurred on September 15, while Da Silva was on taking photographs of the company’s headquarters at Nizam Avenue, San Francique.

Vidya Deokiesingh has been fired from Petrotrin seven months after a scandal broke at the cash- strapped State oil company in which he was fingered in an internal audit report as having facilitated fraud at the company which resulted in an over-payment by Petrotrin to lease operator A and V Oil and Gas to the tune of TT$80 million.

Deokiesingh received his letter of termination on Wednesday.

He was told that the decision followed investigations by the company’s internal audit department and confirmed by external consultants, and an independent industrial relations investigation consistent with the company’s policy.

Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet confirmed that Deokiesingh had been terminated, telling the T&T Guardian that the process was “thorough,” and the company followed the industrial relations policy “because such a situation had the likelihood of ending up entangled in legal things for years. I wanted to make sure that we had all of our T’s crossed and I’s dotted.”

Efforts to reach Deokiesingh proved futile as calls to his mobile went unanswered.

An investigation into Deokiesingh’s role in the scandal was launched in September last year shortly after Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar revealed the findings of an internal Petrotrin audit report dated August 17 at a political meeting of the UNC.

The report revealed that crude oil supplies received from the Catshill field operated by A and V Oil and Gas had spiked by as much as 150 percent in a ten month period and that Petrotrin paid more than TT$80 million for oil which it never received.

The findings of the Internal Audit Committee report were subsequently confirmed in a report submitted to the company by independent external consultants Kroll Consulting Canada Company (Kroll).

A report commissioned from global oil and gas consultants Gaffney Cline also found that the Catshill reservoir was not capable of producing the volumes in question.

Ironically in the period under investigation on May 15, 2017 Energy Minister Franklyn Khan had singled out A and V Oil and Gas for special praise during the Senate debate on the Finance Variation of Appropriation Bill.

Khan said: “I want to go on record and today praise one company that has done tremendously well on a programme called the Incremental Petroleum Service Contracts. It is a company called A&V Drilling based in Penal. They took the Catshil field about three years ago. It was farmed out to them by Petrotrin, making a 130 barrels of oil per day. You know what is A&V Drilling production in Catsil now, 4,000 barrels per day. And you know why it is 4,000 barrels a day? Because they have drilled 32 wells since they took over the field. “

Deokiesingh was transferred from his substantive post a Hospitality Officer in the Facilities and Management division of Petrotrin to the Exploration and Production Department as Crude Procurement Specialist.

Persad-Bissessar raised questions “what made him a custody transfer officer at the time the fake oil taking place? Who authorised it? Why was he transferred from hospitality to be a specialist in custody transfer of oil?” She asked of the state oil Company.

Deokiesingh unsuccessfully contested the Siparia seat for the ruling Peoples National Movement in the 2015 General election was one of two defeated PNM candidates to be appointed as Directors of the Board of Lake Asphalt a post from which he was subsequently asked to resign.

In the wake of the fake oil scandal Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley admitted to calling Deokiesingh and the owner of A and V Oil and Gas admitting to having a “personal friendship” with Nazim Baksh the owner of A and V.

Within days of the fake oil scandal breaking, Deokiesingh went on voluntary leave in the period September 11th to December 4th.

He returned to work on December 6th prompting protests by workers at the Company’s Santa Flora Division who objected to him being sent to work in the division while he was under investigation.

WHAT THE INTERNAL AUDIT REPORT SAID

The internal audit report said: “The evidence suggests that there has been fraudulent activity in the Catshill Field in that the operator (A&V Oil and Gas Limited) in collusion with a Petrotrin employee has been over stating Catshill’s production for at least six months.”

The report identified the six month period as January to June this year.

The report estimated production for the month of June would have been “over-stated by about 90,000 barrels which works out to an overpayment of US$2.97 million.”

But for the six month period January to June it estimated that “Catshill over stated its production by at least 350,000 barrels and Petrotrin would have overpaid US$11.5 million.”

As a result it said Petrotrin had paid royalties of approximately US$1.86 million to the government for crude oil “not received during the period 2017 January to June.”

The audit conducted by Petrotrin’s Chief Audit Executive Rajkumar Bissessar noted that the increase in “production” from Catshill “coincided with Deokiesingh’s stint as the Crude Procurement Specialist,” with responsibility for the fiscalisation of the Catshill field.

It pointed to “many anomalies” in the sales tickers signed off by Deokiesingh.

According to the report, “There were many instances where the volumes of crude specified in the sales ticket could not be pumped in the stipulated time frame, given the available pump flow rate.”

The report pointed to GPS records which it said indicated “there were times Mr Deokiesingh was not present at the Catshill location when the fiscalisation was being done.”

This according to the report meant that “he signed the Sales Tickets after the fact and accepted the figures specified by the Operator.”

Distressed over the shut down of Caribbean Nitrogen Company on Wednesday, several employees said yesterday they are hoping to find employment abroad if they fail to secure a place on the local job market.

They were speaking a day after CNC announced the company’s plan to shut down its ammonia plant because of the non-supply of natural gas from National Gas Corporation (NGC).

CNC is a business unit of Industrial Plant Services Limited (IPSL), a privately owned organisation that provides plant management services to clients in the petrochemical sector both locally and globally.

When the T&T Guardian visited yesterday, employees dressed in coveralls were seen walking around on the compound. Security guards kept strict surveillance and one employee said they were warned by company officials not to give information to the media.

A contractor, who works inside the plant, said he was worried about the future.

“I used to work at Damus and I got laid off. I had to wait for a year before I got back a job and now we hearing this company is closing down. I don’t know how we going to ride this one out,” an employee said. He explained that hundreds of people employed indirectly with CNC will also be affected, along with 400 workers employed at the ammonia plant.

Another worker, who provides supplies to the company, said there was a feeling of dread among the staff who are non-unionised.

“People are wondering how they will manage. Because we supply supplies for upstream and downstream products this will affect us in the medium and short term,” the source said.

He added that the energy industry was facing an uncertain future.

“Last year, the M1 plant shut down and now the CNC plant shut down. We are hoping that the CNC and IPSL could reach some agreement with NGC to start back their production and have the plants running plants as normal,” he added.

Another worker said, “Things are difficult now and many people with degrees have to work as security guards now so many of us are now looking for opportunities abroad in the Unites States and Canada. Some of us are doing it sooner rather than later. I think people should have a backup plan if they lose their jobs,” he added.

Meanwhile, president general of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union’s Ancel Roget said CNC workers were not unionised and he did not know what their contracts entailed. Describing the situation as sad, Roget said the OWTU had warned that plants in Point Lisas would be shut down because of mismanagement within the energy sector.

“We put that shut down squarely in the hands of the Minister of Energy and he has to be held accountable for the number of people who are being sent home,” Roget added.

Also, UNC chairman David Lee questioned whether other companies in Point Lisas will face closure.

He said, “Reports from the management of CNC suggest that for over one year the company has been making numerous concessions as they try to achieve a permanent supply of gas. Therefore for over one year the NGC Board and the Ministry of Energy would have been aware of the dire consequences and loss of jobs that would result if nothing was done. Yet they chose to take no positive action which has led to this point of disaster for the company and its workers.”

Chairman of the National Gas Company (NGC) Gerry Brooks is urging officials of the Caribbean Nitrogen Company (CNC) to “come back to the table, and look at NGC’s offers which he said “is a fair offer which allows CNC to make double digit returns but avoids NGC and the people of T&T suffering billions of dollars in losses.” He said it can save the jobs of the company’s 400 workers.

Speaking on the CNC3 Morning Brew yesterday, Brooks said CNC’s contract with NGC expired on October 18, 2017, “since that time the NGC has facilitated four extensions of the contract to allow the parties to arrive at a mutually acceptable position.”

He said, “Notwithstanding that they were out of contract we continuously extended to try to facilitate discussions, tailoring our offers continuously.”

During those discussions, Brooks said, NGC took into consideration the country’s gas curtailment problem and “the reality of increased gas pricing.”

He said NGC sought to “moderate those increases in a way that CNC shareholders will get a fair return, but that the NGC will not suffer billions of dollars of losses and the people of Trinidad and Tobago will not suffer billions of dollars in losses.”

According to Brooks, the offer was “revised on multiple occasions, since we first started meeting CNC.”

Brooks said, “We have been very reasonable, we have been very careful and researched, doing what we call gas value chain analysis, but we must also be a responsible company acting on behalf of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.”

He said the deal which CNC had put on the table would have seen “CNC winning,” but which would have resulted in T&T suffering “two to four billion dollars in losses, the country cannot afford that, the NGC cannot afford that,” he said.

On the other hand, he said, NGC offer will allow for a win, win situation. “We feel that nobody will lose. All of our margins will be reduced, but we will be able to survive,” Brooks said.

Brooks said gas supplies locally have fallen from 4.25 billion cubic feet to 3.2 billion cubic feet, and NGC has been “working assiduously with up-streamers and the government to improve that supply.”

He was confident that the supply will improve this year “as a consequence of considerable work done with BP on TROC, on Juniper, with BHP, with Shell etc,” but the current reality he said is that there is a shortage of gas of 2-3 hundred million cubic feet.

He said as a result there is need “to reset the architecture from a policy perspective. So what we are trying to do is that we provided gas certainty between 2019-2023 period, those are the agreements that the Honourable Prime Minister negotiated when he went to Houston,the EOG supply and the BP supply.”

The irony is that EOG Resources is one of the three multinational companies that own CNC. The other subsidiaries are the Proman Group and Koch Ag & Energy Solutions, LLC.

Asked whether NGC was willing to get into a “showdown” with these international players, Brooks said “that is not the approach of the NGC.”

He said the Board and management of the company “are interested in ensuring that we find an arrangement from a policy perspective and from a company perspective that allows all to navigate this period and to continue to grow and to develop.”

“What the NGC will not do,” he said “is to put at risk thousands of jobs in Trinidad and Tobago because we have struck a bad deal in the name of signing a deal.”

Brooks said it was in the interest of getting a deal beneficial to all sides that the NGC “facilitated and offered those extensions holding out the olive branch with a view to trying to arrive at a mutually acceptable arrangement, we listened very carefully to CNC’s request and we tailored and modified our offers to accommodate their request.”

Pan Trinbago president Keith Diaz says there is a need for consultation among his organisation and the Ministries of Community Development, Culture and the Arts and the Ministry of Tourism to discuss Carnival related events.

“Culture is what helps our people to move forward in all walks of life and represent the people and we have the richest culture in the Caribbean so we have to know how to develop those values,” he said in an interview yesterday.

Diaz said Limbo, Calypso, Soca and the Groovy Soca were all different aspects of T&T’s culture and this needed to be marketed now.

“I can’t do it by myself and call for consultation. I support Calypso, Soca and Chutney. Because we were criticised last year we made changes, that is why we came up with certain things for us to make a way forward.”

“We need to hook up with the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Culture and have discussions in a big way by the end of April for next year,” he said.

Diaz said discussions for next year’s Carnival should not be in the months between October and December.

“So people will understand what is transpiring and our culture will generate good foreign exchange. We need to sit down and discuss this,” he said.

Referring to the travel advisory issued by the Canadian government last week, in which it claimed T&T was a high risk, Diaz said: “It have other countries that have more serious crime. In Canada it have crime and in America and all over the world have crime. That is an answer for the Government of T&T. In our event for the past years it was no violence in Panorama. There are thousands of people in Panorama.”

On Sunday, the Panorama semifinals of both medium and large bands will be held at the Queen’s Park Savannah at the price of $250.

Diaz said there will be 40 large and 40 medium bands in the line up for the event at the Queen’s Park Savannah. He said everything was in place for competition this weekend. He said the National semifinals for the Small Bands competition will be on Saturday with 30 bands taking part along Ariapita Avenue to Park Street and Victoria Square, Port-of-Spain

“Patrons can pay $100 and come in. We have to try to make money to raise funds for the year. We are looking to help ourselves with money for salaries for the Pan Trinbago staff for a year because we don’t have a subvention so we have to take the initiative and capitalise now,” he said.

Prison officer Devendra Boodooram, 50, who was killed on Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain, yesterday felt so safe in his duties that he told his family on numerous occasions that should a riot break out he will be protected by the inmates.

Yesterday, around 5 pm, following death threats posted on social media after his colleagues were recorded kicking prisoners while the inmates were tied up, a gunman walked up to his vehicle and shot him at least four times in the head.

The killer, who was wearing a long sleeved grey jersey and short pants, ran up Frederick Street and across Oxford Street heading toward Chafford Courts. Police said the killer came out of a vehicle that was seen near the prison moments before the murder

Following the killing, a 47-second voice note began circulating on Whatsapp warning prison officers to remain indoors and be vigilant as the criminal element said they were targeting four prison officers by the end of today.

Prisons Commissioner Gerard Wilson said his officers needed to be vigilant and the most that can be done was to put things in place and protect officers as much as possible. He added there was nothing that can be done about lawlessness.

"We will do what we can do, we cannot be with every officer all the time so common sense has to prevail and people need to be careful of what we are doing," Wilson said adding that the killing is directly linked to the recorded incident days ago.

Seven inmates received medical treatment following the beating and Wilson appointed an Assistant Commissioner of Prisons to investigate the matter.

In a telephone interview with the T&T Guardian yesterday, Boodooram’s wife, Asha, said her husband spoke with her minutes before his death informing her that he was going to Ladies Night Out with some co-workers.

“I talk to him minutes before he leave work, he tell me he and them fellas going and make a cook and then he going Ladies Night Out. I tell him OK. So when I hear about it I said it couldn’t be him because I just spoke with him,” Boodooram.

By 7.15 pm when the T&T Guardian telephoned her, Boodooram said no official from police or prison had contacted her.

She added that her husband was the best any woman could have. The father of two girls, one a scholarship winner who currently attends Florida International University, worked as a prison officer for the past 24 years.

Boodooram said her husband at first tried out to be a police officer but failed and when he applied to be a prison officer he was successful.

She said the death threats made against prison officers was not taken seriously by him as he was not on duty when the prison search took place on Tuesday where the inmates were kicked and beaten and he worked in construction.

Boodooram said her husband worked at the Port- of- Spain Prison for the past three years and spent many years before at Carrera Island Prison. It was while working on the island that he boasted that the inmates would fight for him.

"He was a good worker. Even the inmates would say so. He got killed because of a job?!" Boodooram said in between her sniffles.

She said the family had planned to visit Caura River tomorrow but the unavailability of some family members had postponed the outing.

Boodooram is the third prison officer to be murdered in the past four months.

On October 8 Richard Sandy was shot dead in a bar in south Trinidad. On October 26, Glenford Gardner was killed at Sea Trace, Bagatelle, Diego Martin. Following those killing prison officers who had already applied for their Firearm Users License were told that they will be given priority by the Police Service, while the Prisons Officers Association (POA) and the Government negotiate other legislative issues aimed at protecting prison officers both on and off duty. The assurances given to the association during a marathon meeting with National Security Minister Edmund Dillon, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and then acting Prisons Commissioner William Alexander.

In an immediate response to the killing, Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon condemned it. Dillon noted that sacrifices are being made on a daily basis by law enforcement personnel who are putting their lives on the line to maintain law and order in the country. The minister also expressed his sincere condolences to the relatives, friends and colleagues of Boodooram.

Political analyst Prof John La Guerre and Opposition Senator Wade Mark yesterday called for an investigation as to how a confidential letter sent from the Office of the President to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, which contained a grave error, was leaked to the media.

Both men also felt that a probe was needed to find out who at the Office of the President was responsible for such an error, stating that action ought to be taken against the person responsible.

A letter was sent by President Anthony Carmona to Rowley which proposed the appointment of Dr Noel Kalicharan as “chairman and member” of the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) led to a letter of objection from the PM on the appointment, as he suggested that the incumbent EBC chairman Mark Ramkerrysingh be left in the post.

On Thursday, the Office of the President took responsibility for the faux pas, stating that the error occurred as a result of a “cut and paste” error at its offices, as they promised to correct the mistake in a new letter to the PM.

“It’s concerning that such a confidential letter was leaked to the media. I think an investigation is warranted. Secondly, it brings into question the vetting process that should take place in any Government organisation, especially matters of that importance and the personalities and offices involved are concerned,” La Guerre said.

La Guerre said there have been constant leakages of confidential letters from high office holders to the media, many of which had been under deliberations.

“Certainly there should have been some kind of consultation between the Prime Minister and President to come at a consensus of an appointee before a letter is dispatched. In that way, there would be no miscommunication.”

La Guerre said Rowley hinted to Carmona in his letter that on the eve of his departure he should not appoint anyone.

“Certainly the letter did not produce an image of comradery. It is a strain on the relationship especially now that it is public knowledge.”

Mark said there was no reason for Carmona to make such grave mistake because he knows the Constitution inside-out.

He said Carmona would have known that for a chairman to be removed before the five-year term, he/she has to become mentally incapacitated or terminally ill according to the Constitution.

“So the President could not have made such a foolish error. The proper thing for the Prime Minister to have done was to communicate with the President. Instead, he wrote a letter. He scolded the President telling him not to appoint anyone for the next two months because he was on his way out and leave everything for President-Elect Paula Mae Weekes to handle.”

Mark said he found this to be unacceptable and inexcusable conduct.

Mark questioned how the letter has leaked.

“Elementary protocol would state that communications between the President and PM are highly confidential information. If you didn’t leak it, you call an investigation to be held into this leakage. An investigation should be held to determine who leaked it to the press.”

Mark said he holds no brief for Carmona, but he wanted to deal with respect to offices.

Energy Minister Franklin Khan is optimistic that negotiations between Caribbean Nitrogen Company (CNC) and National Gas Company (NGC) will come to an amicable settlement next week, stating it was not a permanent shut down by CNC.

Khan was responding yesterday to questions in Parliament, three days after CNC announced plans to shut down its ammonia plant because of the non-supply of natural gas from NGC. The shut down has led to 400 of CNC’s workers losing their jobs.

Asked about the losses incurred as a result of the shut down, Khan tried to avoid answering the question, saying that there was a commercial negotiation between the two companies which were at a sensitive stage, as the House erupted into an uproar.

Though he did not have precise figures, Khan said for a two-day shut down “the actual figure would be very small. In any event, NGC is selling the gas somewhere else.”

He said it was not a permanent shut down of CNC.

“It is not. This has resulted in the breakdown of a commercial operation for a gas sale contract. Most matters of which have already been settled. The last matter to be settled is the actual price of gas.”

Khan said, “I am of the firm view that the parties will return to the table next week….and hopefully there would be a compromise on both sides and we would have a settlement of this matter.”

Khan said the contract expired last October.

“They were given three extensions. The last extension finished on 24th January,” stating that NGC has been trying its best to bring the matter to an amicable solution.

“But for heaven sake, let a commercial negotiation remain in the realm of commercial negotiation... do not bring it in Parliament,” Khan pleaded.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, who also responded to questions on the issue, was asked by Oropouche West MP Roodal Moonilal what steps Government had taken to prevent the continued shut down of CNC.

Rowley said the issue surrounding the operations of CNC and NGC was a commercial arrangement.

“And in so far as the Government owns NGC that is as far as it goes at the moment. We trust that negotiations will continue in the appropriate quarters.”

He said NGC’s function was to negotiate fair contracts and that “we get a fair benefit for gas extracted from our fields.” Given that 400 jobs have been put on the line, Moonilal asked the PM when he found out about CNC’s impending crisis.

“I am not aware that the issue is one of workers and time of knowledge. This is a commercial contract to be negotiated and the issue of workers arise with respect to the operations of CNC and they are not directly linked…because whether there are workers or no workers…contract or no contract these operations remain negotiations between two commercial entities.”

Rowley made it clear that the operations between NGC and CNC did not require Cabinet sanction.

Asked if the ministries of Labour and Energy should intervene to bring a resolution to the matter, Rowley said he did not see a role for labour or the wider Government.

However, Rowley said depending on the issue there would be a role for the Energy Ministry, minister, Government and “possibly Parliament.”

Chaguanas West MP Ganga Singh queried from Rowley if Government was taking a hands-off approach on the issue.

“Certainly not,” stating that there is a minister responsible for NGC. The fact that we are not jumping into a contract to interfere with the negotiations, as we are being encouraged to do, does not mean that we are taking a hands-off position. We are taking a hands-on through the NGC.”

Asked if Government was supportive of an independent audit of NGC gas supply, Rowley said the client of NGC had demanded that they open its books to determine if they were having too much or too little profits in its operations.

He said an independent audit of NGC should be of interest to all to determine whether “NGC should be in business at all.” Moonilal enquired if there was need for political intervention to save the jobs.

“This matter is not one about saving 400 jobs. It is one that is much larger than that.”

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi yesterday referred the Anti-Terrorism Bill to a Joint Select Committee comprising eight members with a report to be submitted by March 31.

Leader of Government Business Camille Robinson-Regis announced that five members of the House, among them Al-Rawi, Marlene McDonald, Prakash Ramadhar and herself, while three members from the Senate will be selected to form the committee.

Al-Rawi’s referral came two weeks after Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar invited Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to discuss two critical pieces of legislation— the failed Anti-Gang Bill and the Anti-Terrorism.

Up to Wednesday no talks had taken place with both sides.

Yesterday, Al-Rawi, in delivering a statement in Parliament, stated that the bill seeks to target terrorist financing and activities, set out legislative mechanisms to meet international obligations and improve platform for T&T’s contribution to fight against global terror.

The bill was first laid in Parliament last February.

Having established an Anti-Terrorism Desk within the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs, Al-Rawi said the Government in December 2015 obtained its first order of the High Court designating one national in accordance with the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) and freezing his assets.

Since then, the AG said they have obtained orders in respect of a total of 353 entities and individuals, including all 347 designated by the United Nations 1267 Sanctions Committee and six individuals with a local nexus.

Further, they have gone to submit requests to three jurisdictions to designate entities/individuals in accordance with the UNSCR and the Financial Action Task Force recommendations.

“The Office of the Attorney General has also successful pursued and obtained the first listing of a suspected foreign terrorist fighter and ISIL spokesman and recruiter being added to the United Nations list.”

He said the bill contains comprehensive measures for 14 proposed changes, among them to submit names of suspected terrorists to the United Nations Security Council and its subsidiary bodies, address specific risks posed to children including recruiting and taking them to conflict zones and strengthening the law relating to the provision of services for the financing of terrorism.

Out of an abundance of caution, Al-Rawi said the Government inserted a three- fifths majority in the bill.

“As such the bill has been referred to a Joint Select Committee of Parliament for consideration on a tripartite basis, specifically with a view towards facilitating alacrity in the passage of the improvements of the anti-terrorism law.”

The gas supply impasse between Caribbean Nitrogen Company (CNC) and the National Gas Company (NGC) took a downward spiral yesterday after the Energy Ministry warned CNC that it will not be bullied to act in a detrimental manner to the people of T&T.

Accusing CNC of “petulant and threatening behaviour,” the Ministry said “it noted with a high level of concern the language being used by CNC in its public utterances with respect to the breakdown of commercial negotiations (with NGC).”

CNC announced on Wednesday that its anhydrous ammonia plant at the Point Lisas Industrial Estate had to be shut down because NGC failed to supply gas. This resulted in the termination of 110 permanent workers and over 300 workers indirectly connected with CNC’s operations.

But the Ministry in a statement yesterday said, “It is no secret that there have been, and are, gas curtailment issues currently affecting our hydrocarbon industry.”

“ It is also not a secret that NGC from 2019 has to pay significantly higher prices for gas. The behaviour of CNC which has shareholders who hold significant shareholding in other plants in Point Lisas is instructive and disappointing,” the Ministry said.

Saying there is no entitlement to gas supply without an agreed and executed contract, the Ministry said, “It is the Government’s understanding that NGC’s gas supply agreement with CNC expired and the parties were unable to agree pricing issues for gas supply from 2018 to 2023.”

“The gas supply situation and in particular, the pricing of gas has changed significantly and the Government has been, and will be, engaging upstream gas suppliers and downstream gas purchasers to address this,” the Ministry added.

Whilst NGC and the Government remain committed to supplying the downstream hydrocarbon players with gas, the Ministry said “it will not be bullied by CNC, its affiliates or anyone for that matter, to act in a manner that is detrimental to NGC and ultimately the citizens of T&T.”

“Transfer pricing and avoidance of tax issues have long been a part of the behaviour of some in the industry and these are also issues being looked at by the Government. The Government encourages CNC to stop its petulant and threatening behaviour and return to the table of negotiations with NGC.”

On Thursday, NGC chairman Gerry Brooks also appealed to CNC’s management to let good sense prevail and to reconsider its latest offer. Brooks said since the agreement between both companies expired in October 2017 the NGC had facilitated four extensions of the contract with CNC.

But CNC’s Chief executive officer Jerome Dookie said NGC was continuing to make misleading statements.

“We do not agree with Mr. Brooks’ position and completely reject his statements that accuse CNC of having unreasonable expectations, double digit returns and the potential for billions of dollars of losses for the NGC,” Dookie said. He also questioned how can NGC could invite CNC to return to the negotiating table yet cut off the company’s gas supply at the same time.