More than 30 people, including parents and students, were taken to the St Joseph Police Station following a brawl between female students of the St Joseph Secondary School outside the school yesterday.

Around 8.30 am the police responded to the report of a brawl outside the school. 

There they found a large group of people screaming and students fighting.

The fight, which happened between Form Four and Form Three students, apparently started when a student’s phone was stolen. One group of students beat up another female student, and her friends joined in the fight.

Meanwhile, the police stated, the parents were all arguing. In total 32 people were taken to the St Joseph Police Station—nine students and 18 adults. 

Two of the adults, including one 20- and one 22-year-old woman, were physically involved in the fight, police said. 

Five students were suspended for the fracas, and school officials are still carrying out their investigations.

All the other people were released, but they may still be charged pending the completion of the school’s investigation, the police probe and the submission of medical reports.

Rosemarie Sant

GML ENTERPRISE DESK

“I did absolutely nothing wrong. It was in the best interest of the company, Petrotrin, and the country. But if I had to, I would do it all over again.”

These are the words of former Petrotrin chairman Malcom Jones as he responded briefly to the state’s decision to drop a US$109 million case against him. The legal action was initiated by former attorney general Anand Ramlogan in 2013. The then People’s Partnership government accused Jones of breach of his fiduciary duty and alleged mismanagement in the construction of the World Gas to Liquid Plant (WGTL) at Petrotrin’s Pointe-a-Pierre site. 

The decision to drop the case means that the State has to pay Jones’ legal costs amounting to $3.1 million dollars.

Jones did not comment extensively on the allegations made against him, only telling the GML Enterprise Desk, “There was a rationale for the plant. Nobody wanted to know, nobody asked a question.” He said he had been in the business 45 years and knew what was needed. “There was a need for it,” he insisted. Asked about that need, he said. “I will not get into that. At some time in the future I will talk. I know why it was done. When people passing their remarks nobody saw it fit to ask me anything.” Jones stressed it was not a business decision. He described the headline in a daily newspaper “Mercy for Jones” as “demeaning.” He said, “It should never have occurred, so there is no mercy.” Asked whether he was politically victimised, Jones said, “I don’t want to go there, whether I was politically victimised, I am not a politician.”

Jones said, “My job was to do what I had to do. I thought I did a fair amount to the best of my ability.” Jones was appointed in October last year to the government’s Energy Steering Committee. 

On Monday, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said the case against Jones for breach of fiduciary duty, arising out of the failed GTL project, which had been brought under the People’s Partnership government, had collapsed before it had been heard in court.

The State withdrew the US$109 million lawsuit against Jones.

The legal fees in the GTL/ Jones matter amounted to around $45 million. Al-Rawi has made it clear that there was no political favouritism behind the decision to drop the lawsuit against Jones.

The United National Congress has expressed concern about the decision to discontinue the case, saying it was filed after extensive forensic investigations and called on Al-Rawi to make a “full and frank disclosure of the government’s true intention about the future conduct of these cases so that the public can judge whether there was more in the mortar than just the pestle.”

In 2013, former attorney general Anand Ramlogan brought the suit against Jones. Last October, the People’s National Movement-led government appointed Jones as part of a Cabinet-appointed standing committee on energy.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

In September 2005, Petrotrin entered into a project agreement with World GTL (WGTL) to build and operate a gas-to-liquid plant on Petrotrin’s refinery compound at Pointe-a-Pierre. WGTL Trinidad was incorporated as the project company which entered into a credit agreement with Credit Suisse for a loan.

Petrotrin was claiming that there was a breach of fiduciary duty in the management of the construction of the GTL plant at Pointe-a-Pierre, which was contracted to be built at a cost of $2.7 billion to convert natural gas into a more ozone-friendly liquified form of diesel.

United States-based World GTL Inc was contracted to equip the plant with the necessary technology and make it operational. Though completed, the plant remained non-functional due to the lack of the appropriate technology and it has since been deemed scrap iron. Petrotrin initiated arbitration proceedings against the company which it eventually won. 

The lawsuit against Jones alleged mismanagement by the payment of US$190.4 million (TT$1.12 billion) towards construction of the plant, in excess of the cost of its construction. It claimed that despite concerns raised in some quarters Petrotrin went ahead with the project.

A few months ago when Angelo Bissessarsingh’s cancer threatened to cut short his service to us here in T&T, it was unlikely that we would get a chance to journey back in time with his new book, Snapshots of the History of Trinidad and Tobago.

However, his determination to live will hopefully see him receiving the key to the City of San Fernando, and if Mayor Kazim Hosein has his way, a national award.

Hailing Bissessarsingh’s contribution as a historian at a book signing, on Wednesday, at the atrium of Gulf City Mall, San Fernando, Hosein said his passion and vibrancy were a real inspiration to all.

Hosein said the key will be awarded at a ceremony at a date to be announced.

Bissessarsingh’s contribution to edifying citizens about local history deserves greater recognition, and with this in mind, Hosein said, he plans to write to President Anthony Carmona, recommending him for a national award.

“We are finding that there are fewer and fewer role models for and among our youths these days, so when a young person excels, we must celebrate it and we must use it as an opportunity to encourage others to urge them to go for their goals.

“When I was at your launch in West Mall, I was walking through the crowd and I was hearing a lot of people saying you should be nominated for the President’s Award.

“I am a small person and I cannot make that call but I would do my part in trying to make it happen. I will do the necessary form to make sure that I write the President, recommending you for a President’s Award. 

“As such, I am pleased to announced on behalf of my office and the San Fernando City Corporation that we intend to present you, Angelo, with a key to the City of San Fernando, which will be bestowed at an appropriate ceremony at a future date,” Hosein said.

Giving reasons for the honour, Hosein said San Fernando City Corporation honours those who display an unparalleled strength of character and whose values align with those of the people of San Fernando.

The last person to receive the city award was Naparima Girls’ High School student Ashisha Persad who won the President’s Medal for her achievement at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (Cape). 

Bissessarsingh’s book was launched on February 18, at West Mall, Westmoorings, and is available at Nigel R Khan bookstores.

Prime Minister Keith Rowley yesterday gave the assurance that T&T is not bankrupt, even as he acknowledged that the Government has a problem in paying its debts to public servants and contractors/suppliers on time.

“It is not a simple matter of if you can’t pay, you are bankrupt. The Government does not go bankrupt,” said the Prime Minister, referencing his uncle who worked at the port who always said his money can’t finish, it will only run low because he has a monthly pension.

“The Government is in that situation where it might not be able to pay today, but its ability tomorrow is there because the Government has a revenue stream and different pockets and it is an accepted structure of public accounting and management that the Government has many pockets and you are not allowed to empty all at once.”

Asked if the inability to pay its debts as they became due meant T&T was bankrupt, Rowley said, “Certainly not, certainly not. It has a cash flow problem.” 

The Government owes employees of the country’s regional health authorities and members of the protective services an estimated $5 billion as a result of the 14 per cent wage settlements agreed to by the previous administration last year.

All of the money was due to the public officers last year. 

At a news conference at the end of the six-month-old administration’s first retreat, which was held at the Magdalena Grand Beach Resort at Lowlands in Tobago, the Prime Minister was asked about the payment to the public servants, in the context of the perception that the Government was slow to deliver.

Rowley said, “In every instance that you may be able to point out, that delivery requires a fiscal consideration and you have to see each of those considerations against the background of the ability to pay.

“I don’t want the country to go away from that mooring: the ability to pay for what has been done is the challenge.”

He said the first few months of the life of the Government had to be about finding out what was the true state of the country’s situation and even though the People’s National Movement anticipated difficult situations, “in fact, the real numbers and the Minister of Finance Colm Imbert’s ability to pay has been worse than we anticipated.” 

He said citizens must understand that there is a limit to what the Government can do without money and that the Government could not go “barreling along with oil at US$29 a barrel and the overdraft at its limit and no money in the current account. There is only so much you could have delivered in that situation.” 

He said what the Government was doing now was attempting to rectify its ability to access the cash to fund its debts.

Questioned whether the government’s inability to pay its debts when they become due does not constitute bankruptcy, the Prime Minister said T&T’s system of governance acknowledges that the Government has a series of pockets of money, some of which it cannot dip into. 

He referred to money in blocked accounts in the Central Bank and the country’s US$9.7 billion in foreign reserves.

He said Imbert would be able to indicate when he would be in a position to settle the backpay owed to public officers when he delivers the mid-year review in three to four weeks time. 

On the issue of the payment of debt owed to contractors and suppliers, the Prime Minister said that one of the decisions taken at the retreat was that the Minister of Finance would issue instructions to state-owned enterprises and statutory companies improving the financial oversight by Corporation Sole, line ministers and the Cabinet.

“We have seen, in recent times, a great deal of state exposure outside the knowledge or oversight of the minister or ministry. That is a serious deterioration in good governance and opens the door to all kind of problems,” said Rowley.

The Prime Minister had revealed at the post-Cabinet news conference last week that some state enterprises entered into contracts without having money in their accounts.

He also emphasized that some of the debt owed to contractors and suppliers would need to be audited.

The Prime Minister denied reports, attributed to him, that he told the post-Cabinet news conference on Thursday that the building of a breakwater that could lead to the creation of a beach at the Magdalena Grand Beach Resort would cost $1 billion.

The Law Association is set to discuss the recent announcement by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi that state company Petrotrin had discontinued legal action, which was started under the former People’s Partnership administration, against its former executive chairman Malcolm Jones in the controversial World Gas to Liquids Ltd (WGTL) project.

In an interview yesterday, Law Association president Reginald Armour said the matter would be up for discussion by the association’s executive when it meets on Tuesday.

He did not comment further.

Al-Rawi, in a release last week, said that the $1.2 billion case against Jones had been discontinued after new documents containing comments from Queen’s Counsel Vincent Nelson were obtained.

Jones was accused in 2013 of a breach of fiduciary duty and alleged mismanagement in relation to the construction of the GTL plant at Petrotrin’s Pointe-a-Pierre site, which was scheduled to be built at a cost of $2.7 billion to convert natural gas to diesel, but instead cost an extra $1.12 billion in addition to the original estimate.

Al-Rawi said the matter was determined on the basis of Nelson’s advice that the matter could not proceed.

Nelson was the attorney whose original advice led to the initiation of the lawsuit. 

Al-Rawi said at the date of trial of the matter Petrotrin had no evidence before the court as no witness statements were filed by it. 

Following Al-Rawi’s release, attorney Varun Debideen, one of the attorneys assigned to prosecute the former Petrotrin executive chairman, wrote to Al-Rawi rejecting claims that he acted unprofessionally.

When Gulf View resident Ollen Storey found out yesterday that she and her daughter tested positive for the Zika virus she was shocked.

“Even when we did the test at the La Romaine Clinic I did not expect that we would test positive,” said 71-year-old Storey at her Gulf View Drive, La Romaine, home yesterday.

Storey and her daughter bring the total number of confirmed Zika cases in the country to three. 

A 61-year-old Siparia woman was the first person in T&T to contract the virus.

During the interview with the Storey family yesterday afternoon, the Ministry of Health Insect Vector Control Division had a team in the area spraying for mosquitoes.

Storey’s husband Robin said his wife and daughter had to have contracted the mosquito-transmitted virus in the southern city. “We did not leave the borough,” said Robin.

Robin said when his wife and daughter began feeling unwell days apart they thought it was either the dengue or chikungunya virus. Their symptoms included skin rash, red eye, joint pains and weakness.

Storey, an employee at Petrotrin, said she began feeling unwell on February 20 and went to Petrotrin medical centre on February 24 where tests for dengue and chikungunya were done, but she tested negative. She said she was given antibiotics and referred to the La Romaine clinic to be tested for Zika.

Storey said both she and her daughter went to the La Romaine clinic on February 25 where they were tested for the Zika virus. 

“Only this morning I was telling my daughter I wonder what it is we really had. I did not expect to test positive. And only about half an hour after the phone rang and they (clinic employee) said we tested positive.”

Storey said she was slowed down a bit by the weakness, but she went about her usual business. 

San Fernando Mayor Kazim Hosein who visited the family said he immediately contacted the City Corporation’s public health department and together with the Ministry of Health they began spraying the area.

He said, from Monday the corporation will be putting up notices on open overgrown lots and if the owners fail to clean it in seven days, the corporation will fine them $1,000. 

Ministry advises the following steps:

Dispose of all unwanted containers/items in the yard or environs which can collect water and become mosquito-breeding grounds.

Cover water containers such as barrels, drums or buckets with a mosquito-proof covering.

Ensure that your drains and gutters allow the free flow of 

water.

Empty and scrub the sides of water vases or use dirt or sand instead to support flowers.

Cover extremities when out in the evenings.

Use bed nets that are tightly tucked under the mattress for protection at night.

Use insect repellant that contains deet as an active ingredient.

A handyman was shot to death while doing work at Copper Bar, in Quare Road, Valencia, yesterday when gunmen stormed the bar allegedly in search of the owner.

According to police reports, Steven “Sick” Villaroel, 48, from KP lands, Valencia, was killed when three gunmen entered the bar around 1 pm yesterday.

He was shot multiple times about the body. 

An employee of the establishment said Villaroel, who was a one-handed amputee with an injured leg, was up a ladder welding a frame and couldn’t run when the gunmen burst in. 

Meanwhile, Seon Edwards was gunned down while liming close to the same bar on February 26. A white Tiida pulled up and gunmen opened fire on Edwards who died on the scene.

Isha Phill, Akeem Durity and Ometa Lezama were hospitalised with gunshot injuries while liming at Copper Bar in Valencia on January 22 when a man entered the premises and started shooting randomly.

Serious allegations have been levelled against staff and students at the Chaguanas North Secondary School connecting them to Isis operations and other high-scale illegal activities. 

The Sunday Guardian received information from sources within the institution after the Central school made headlines in mid-February.

Alleged reports of criminal behaviour among a core group of students have since led to two students being charged and about two dozen others removed from the school. 

However, the levels of criminality are escalating and staff is deeply concerned for its safety. 

Students carrying out blatant acts in the system were said to have come from primary schools and that the larger secondary school environment was reason for them to enhance their already acquired skills.

This newspaper was told that there was an Isis sleeper cell operating out of the school and that students were being recruited, mainly Form Four boys. 

However, this allegation was immediately dismissed by former senior superintendent of the Central Division Johnny Abraham when contacted.

He said: “Nah, that has to be ole talk. I have no information about that.”

Sunday Guardian was told that the Ministry of National Security and Special Branch were alerted to this information around the start of the school term in September 2015. 

“The school is living in fear,” the source said.

The school, which sits on nine acres of land, has a staff of 90 and roughly 900 students. MTS personnel were reduced from eight to four in the last few years. However, their complement has since gone back up following the Minister of Education’s visit.

So far, the days have been “normal” and police patrols have been continuing. 

“Whenever they stop the police patrols, teachers will stop work,” said the source.

Other students have been preparing for examinations in May.

ISIS ‘student’ recruiters

Apart from the 24 students who were removed from the school since the incident happened, the source said there was another group deemed “rogue elements” who were still in the system, and said to be recruiting Form Four students.

“They have been recruiting all the time. The 24 we know of are those who were up front. 

“For instance, the 16-year-old who issued the threat to the teacher was not one of them.”

The source said the situation began taking a turn for the worse and was seen more as a national security matter than an education one.

“It’s all about the money.”

In order to be taken seriously by the relevant ministries, the source said staff were forced to stop teaching. 

Bullying is a main trend among the delinquent and rebellious group and while talks about gun possession were in the air last term, none was found on the compound. 

However, Sunday Guardian was told three AK47s were said “to be involved” in all that is happening at the school.

Asked what was being done about these students who were turning to a life of crime, the source said they came from the primary school system that way.

“When they come to a large school such as Chaguanas North, the only thing you can do is to improve your skills. 

“I hope the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of National Security do the correct thing and quick. We were sitting on a time bomb and we tried to quell it in our own way. 

“This time we could not. This was the breaking point and the Isis matter has made it even more difficult and I understand that there are Isis connections at other schools, so I am paying attention.”

Heightened criminal behaviour

One day after a student was attacked inside of a toilet cubicle, CCTV footage was allegedly removed from the corridors. The source said footage is normally deleted seven days later. 

When we asked who would remove the footage, the source said: “Let us just a say a member of staff.”

Sunday Guardian was told that teachers abandoned classes since November because of the daily disruptions by students engaging in violent acts. 

This was after two teachers suffered burns on their bodies when students allegedly threw scratch bombs in the main office. 

The male and female teachers were unable to make official police reports since it would have been difficult to prove which student threw the scratch bomb.

However, the teachers could have sought redress by pursuing legal action against their employer, the Ministry of Education, which they did not do.

“Teachers are genuinely scared. 

“If the ministry did not step in when it did in February, they would have started using up their days to avoid being on the compound.

“Students’ violent behaviour went up a notch. This is now criminal activity. They have moved up.” 

The source said, last year the school had 750 suspensions while in 2005, there were around 60. 

On Carnival Friday, a female student suffered a “buss” head as a result of a stone-throwing war between the Chaguanas North and South schools. 

Last year, a student suffered a broken nose and received a gash when the “Isis group of students” thought the student made a report against them. 

Dillon could not be reached for comment

Efforts to reach Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon on his mobile proved futile.

President of the Prison Officers’ Association Ceron Richards yesterday gave the Government “a failure” grade for not addressing its issues.

He bashed Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and his Cabinet, calling them “impotent,” while addressing the media opposite the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca. 

“They are not doing their jobs and are wasting our time,” he said.

Richards was in the company of about 60 prisons officers who came out to show support after noon before heading to take up their shifts.

He said the association and its members had grown “increasingly frustrated and demotivated” and were left with no choice but to gather and let the country know what sort of support they were receiving.

“Today (Saturday) represents day six and not a single word coming from the Government as to how they intend to treat with this matter of safety and security for prisons officers on and even off duty,” he said.

He said the association would continue to host press conferences every two days to report on government’s “impotence” in dealing with their concerns.

Yesterday’s press conference was the third to be called since prisons officer Fitzalbert Victor was killed on Monday.

Some of what the association is calling for include the removal of officers in high risk areas, updating of legislation as it relates to safety and security, a law enforcement safety act and a housing policy.

Richards claimed the PM was approaching their concerns in an arrogant manner.

“If he is purporting arrogance, he came to the right place. 

“This is a movement that has started and we will continue until the Prime Minister gets down to earth and come and treat with the issues as they are.”

The government’s performance since assuming office on September 7, 2015, has been evaluated as “poor” by one political analyst. 

Indera Sagewan-Alli said it was now six months post the general election and there was a sense the country is on auto-pilot, floating along without a sense of direction or destination. Tomorrow, the Government, led by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, marks its six-month milestone in office. Rowley and his Cabinet have been in Tobago on a retreat since last week. 

Sagewan-Alli said there was great uncertainty and fear among the population and a feeling the Government has gone underground, unable to provide the kind of leadership and decision making that is needed to inject a sense of confidence. 

She told the Sunday Guardian, “The economy of Trinidad and Tobago is in economic decline as a consequence of the contracting energy sector. “The Government is helpless to change the current course as it has no control over international prices of oil and gas, the response of multinational oil and gas companies and consequently its revenue inflow. “Moreover, the PNM has never managed the country in hard times and it appears that it is challenged to the task.”

In her view, the government’s two responses to the economic downturn was to find ways to squeeze more taxes out of the citizenry and to raise revenue through increased debt and draw downs from national savings. She said even before this recession, the middle and lower income earners were already stretched to the limit. “Now, the increased VAT net, re-introduction of property tax, threats of increased utility prices, coupled with price increases caused by the devaluing currency, and fear of job losses make for a fearful citizenry. 

“While the Government might have no choice in these regards, the population needs to feel that things are being put in place to get the economy out of the crisis,” Sagewan-Alli said. To date, she said, other than Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley advising the population to eat cassava, there has been silence on the way forward. She cautioned that increasing the country’s debt profile while whittling away at national savings to meet recurrent expenditure was a recipe for further economic decay.

Basdeo: Seven out of ten, they’re still on probation

For political analyst Dr Maukesh Basdeo, the government’s performance was rated seven out of ten. He said his reason was that it’s a six-month period and that it was difficult to provide an overall assessment. Basdeo stressed that the Government was in a probationary period. Apart from that, the Government has been burdened with two major issues—crime and the economy. 

He said crime was a major challenge given government’s policy regarding the Ministry of National Security where the Ministry of Justice was dissolved. However, the allocation to the ministry in the budget showed their priority regarding crime since it was one of the largest allocations. “But crime has continued to be a challenge, not only for this administration but the last two administrations. Basdeo said the last two months have been very difficult in the area of crime and the other issue was the decrease in the price of the country's main commodity earners—oil and gas.

Cuffie needs to improve articulateness 

Meanwhile, several ministers have remained out of the spotlight—MP for San Fernando East Randall Mitchell, who is the minister of Public Administration has barely been heard of, as well as Fitzgerald Hinds, Minister of Works and Infrastructure; Ancil Antoine, Minister of Public Utilities; and Dennis Moses, Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs. Communications Minister Maxie Cuffie has been designated a single spokesman to communicate with the population. In assessing Cuffie, political analyst Dr Winford James said he was giving it a go, but was not informing on many ministries and departments. 

“And further, it would be to the benefit of all if he improved his articulateness.” Asked what the Government was not doing that it should be doing, James said it seemed to be doing well enough since there was no big public outcry, no big demonstrations or no significant public agitation. “But this won’t last forever. They need to engage the public imagination with some huge innovative approach and/or some huge project that is defensible in the ongoing difficult circumstances.”He added that all ministers have the potential to do better, but far more information was needed on what they were doing, especially ministers whose portfolio has a high visibility, like Hinds, who needed some high visibility projects that would excite the public imagination.

Sagewan-Alli’s said appointing Cuffie to speak on behalf of the other ministers “is a far cry from the open and transparent governance promised on the campaign trail, especially since the minister is too often unable to respond with the necessary details to adequately explain things.”

She said while the former administration was guilty, certainly in the early days, of having too many conflicting voices, the new Government has basically muzzled ministers from communicating with the public which did not engender a sense of assurance that they could lead the country out of the current crisis.

Neophytes, OJT’s on the job

On whether the Cabinet has neophytes, James said while there were, there was no evidence that they were sycophants. Sagewan-Alli felt the Cabinet comprised more neophytes than experience. Referring to Rowley’s statements on the appointment of former Central Bank governor Jwala Rambarran that “it’s not an OJT,” she said the same could be said of some of his ministerial appointments. 

She said, “To explain this as the inclusion of youth in decision making is inadequate. “You see, youth without experience should not hold positions of CEOs but be understudies to the CEO so that they can acquire the necessary experience to one day take over. In this instance though, it is evident that many of these appointments are for cosmetic purpose.”

PMs will err, they are human 

Regarding inappropriate statements made by the PM, such as the “parents breeding monsters” and his back-tracking comments on the Raymond Tim-Kee matter, James said prime ministers will err at times. He said they were humans even though people tended to deify them. James said, “The trick is for them to keep reflecting, to recover quickly, and to be honest and forthright in correcting mistakes. The public will see the honesty. I thought he recovered nicely in the Tim-Kee matter. “But it is not prime ministerial to call children monsters, even if, in a fit of high emotion one might privately allow oneself to think they are.”

He said children are the product of domestic and social conditions and once they were definable as children, it was the duty of adult society to rehabilitate them, to take the high ground and do things to make them grow, and to adopt healthy approaches towards them. 

“Calling them names just won’t do. PM Rowley did not choose his words judiciously and one reason could be that he spoke off the cuff, not from a prepared speech.”

Asked how they dealt with these matters, James said Government has acted “with super cautiousness” as in the cases of Energy Minister Nicole Olivierre; “with protectiveness” in the case of Housing Minister Marlene MacDonald; “with reasonableness” in crime and “superficial toughness” in regards to school violence.

On the government’s quiet or conservative approach, the opposite to the last adminstration’s, James said the PNM Government was not a noisy bunch, “at least, not yet.”

He said the more persuasive reason may be that the parlous economic circumstances were hamstringing their ability to act decisively. 

There is now a ray of hope for victims and business owners who suffered injury, loss of life, and loss of millions in the El Pecos and Kleen Rite explosions. Energy Minister Nicole Olivierre said she will be taking a note to Cabinet this month, as she looks to “make traction in an industry which has inherent risks and dangers.”

In the case of the El Pecos explosion, which occurred 13 months ago, 12 people were injured. John Soo Ping Chow, who sustained severe burns in the explosion, died four months later on June 5, at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. While in the Kleen Rite explosion several people were injured. 

Olivierre told the GML Enterprise Desk that “another explosion must not be allowed to happen.”

Since the Kleen Rite explosion she has taken a keen interest in the LPG industry. “I was very concerned about the frequency at which it was happening, two was just too much and a life was lost. This is a serious matter, one fatality is just too much.”

Relatives of Soo Ping Chow and the owner of El Pecos, Richard Camacho, as well as employees injured in the El Pecos blast have been awaiting closure, but fire chief Kenny Gopaul claimed the missing link in the investigation was the forensic report.

Olivierre said she understands that the “forensic department is overwhelmed and has a backlog,” but said she was not in a position to leave this issue hanging. 

“We need to recognise there are dangers, we have been blessed so far and there has been no major disaster, but we don’t want to fall prey to that.”

Under the Petroleum Act, LPG operators fall under the purview of the Ministry of Energy. 

Olivierre said she remains concerned that the forensic analysis requested on the hose which was being used during delivery of the gas at the El Pecos explosion has not been completed. 

But with or without it, she said, she has mandated staff at her ministry “to prepare a note to Cabinet with the findings into the fatal explosion which it has compiled so far, with reports from the Ministry, NP, the Fire Service and the Police Service.” 

That note, she said, would also include some of the eyewitness accounts of what happened on February 5, 2015. 

She insisted “a lack of a forensic report should not delay any action since we cannot afford for this to happen again. 

We need some traction, there has been a lax attitude to the industry which is not appropriate and that must change.” 

Olivierre said she was hoping once the note goes before the Cabinet that there will be some further direction on what should be done in terms of regulating an industry which has “inherent dangers and which is inherently risky.”

Although she intends to go to Cabinet on the issue, the minister said she was also being “pro-active” and has written to NP, Ramco and North Plant LPG Co-operative Society Ltd giving them two weeks to provide information on “their bulk customer data base, so we will know all the sites, those known to us and those which we are not aware of, so that we can ensure our inspectors can visit each site to ensure they are complying with the necessary API regulations and to allow us to get an idea of the total state of the industry.”

She said in the recent past, several “restaurants have been blossoming and we are not sure whether they receive bulk LPG. If there is a large number we may need to go on a communication blitz to tell them what they need to do to ensure that they comply with the regulations.”

API standards require among other things that the tank is an approved vessel from an approved supplier, that there is a firewall around the tank, and that there is a minimum distance between the tank and any building on the premises. 

She said while it was understandable that some of these businesses may be renting from landlords, the onus is on them to ensure that the proper safety measures are in place.

Dr Varma Deyalsingh, secretary of the Association of Psychiatrists of T&T (APTT), is appealing for companies that terminate its workers due to the recession to be held responsible for their mental health for one year as part of the companies’ Employee’s Assistance Programmes (EAP). 

He made this suggestion following the decision by several companies—Construtora OAS, Arcelor Mittal and Centrin to lay off staff, and after Yvonne Arjoon survived a suicide pact with her common-law husband Ralph Boochoon last Sunday, after they were unable to repay thousands of dollars they owed to their suppliers. Boochoon died at the San Fernando General Hospital. This, Deyalsingh said, was conveyed to Minister of Labour Jennifer Baptiste-Primus for her urgent consideration.

Speaking to the Sunday Guardian on Thursday, Deyalsingh said “Throwing a person on the breadline who has been with a company for years, sometimes without consultation, can create a psychological backlash in that person’s mind. 

He said the company’s EAP must now be able to assist individuals mentally and emotionally to fit into society and if needed, to direct them to mental health clinics.

Deyalsingh said free psychiatric help was available at wellness clinics and 31 other clinics throughout the country that offered counselling. 

He said the onus should be on companies because individuals who are fired may not have money to seek help by a psychiatrist if he has no money to eat or buy medications.

Deyalsingh said that company would be abandoning its former employees to just rot in their own mental illness.

He said some self-employed people such as gardeners who can’t provide for their families in a downturn in the economy may want to kill themselves. 

Deyalsingh said long ago, there was the support system of the family, the church and other places of worship where someone could turn to with their problems. 

He said alcohol was a depressant and was a lethal combination for someone who had just lost their job and contemplating suicide, and the probability of someone’s relative who committed suicide taking their own life also increases.

Deyalsingh said another fallout was if people cannot get social amenities, some people may turn to crime. 

He said people with any sort of stress can internalise or externalise their emotions.

Deyalsingh said if they externalised their feelings, the country is still lucky that it is not like the US in terms of people “going postal” after being fired and returning to their former workplace and shooting their former co-workers, school or mall. 

Doctors were unable to re-attach the right hand of a 35-year-old New Grant woman who was almost chopped to death during a brutal attack at her home on Saturday morning. 

Jennifer Rampersad, an accounts clerk, who sustained several chops about her hands and head, remained warded at the San Fernando General Hospital up to last night. But her attacker is still at large.

At around 1.40 am on Saturday Rampersad’s mother, Irene Soodeen, was jolted out of her sleep by her daughter’s screams at their Sancho Road home. She ran out of her room to find Rampersad lying in a pool of blood in the corridor with gaping wounds to both hands and to the back of her head.

Police said her right hand was hanging by the skin at the wrist and two fingers on her left hand were almost severed. Surgeons later had to amputate her right hand from the wrist and the thumb and index finger on her left hand.

When the T&T Guardian visited the family’s home yesterday, Soodeen and other relatives had just come back from visiting Rampersad at the hospital. Recalling the ordeal, Soodeen, 72, said she was asleep when he heard her daughter bawling.

“I was strong asleep in bed. All I could hear is my daughter bawling ‘Mammy, mammy come and see what somebody doing me.’ I thought she was having a nightmare, when I come out all I see is she bathe in blood,” Soodeen recalled.

“She tell me to search the house, a man in the house. She said the front doors were wide open. She get up off the ground and I try to help she outside and she fall down on the step. We remain there in a pool of blood until the police come.”

The elderly woman said she initially cried out for help but no one came to their assistance. “I bawl and bawl and bawl until I think a neighbour hear me and call the police. They came very fast. It was not easy for me, God give me the strength to stand up and bawl.”

She said her daughter had been living there for 19 years and five years ago her husband died. Soodeen said she moved in with her daughter two years ago and a few months ago her grandson Adam, 22, began staying with them. Rampersad has no children.  

Soodeen said she had no idea who would want to attack her daughter, noting was a hard worker and a very nice person. 

Afraid that the intruder might return, Soodeen said she and her grandson decided yesterday to say by relatives. Rampersad's niece, Lisa Suraj, said her aunt was transferred from ICU to the ward yesterday evening, but she was not speaking much. The family has since changed the locks in the house.

Visiting the scene was a party of police officers from the Princes Town CID and Tableland Police led by Supt Rajkumar from the Princes Town CID. However, investigators have been unable to speak to Rampersad because of her condition. But officers said they found no sign of forced entry into the home, leading them to believe that Rampersad may have known her attacker or the person had a spare key to the house. 

Ag Sgt Ramlogan is investigating.

This latest attack comes as several women’s rights groups and activists have been raising concerns about the level of violent attacks against women and days before International Women’s Day is celebrated. Only on Friday, geriatric nurse Aamina Mohammed was found with her throat slit at a construction site in San Fernando. 

Woman in suicide pact dies
The Couva woman who tried to end her life a week ago, when she and her husband drank poison, has died. Yvonne Arjoon died at the San Fernando General Hospital around 10 pm on Saturday, police said.

Arjoon and her husband Ralph Buchoon, both 42-year-old fruit vendors, were under financial stress and felt that ending their lives was their only escape. The couple drank paraquat at their Perseverance Village home last Sunday. 

Her mother Leela said she had heard her daughter bawling and when she looked through the window of their apartment she saw Buchoon frothing. Her daughter later confessed that they drank the weedicide. Buchoon was pronounced dead on arrival at the Couva Health Facility. 

Hours before she died on Saturday, doctors had told her family to prepare for the worst because her kidneys were failing. 

Businesswoman Vicky Boodram, who is already facing 109 fraud charges, was yesterday slapped with 39 more charges involving money amounting to $600,000, arising from a series of unrelated fraud allegations. Boodram is expected to appear before a Port-of-Spain magistrate today.

The travel agent was arrested by Fraud Squad detectives last Tuesday when she attended the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court, where she is facing charges arising out cruise ship packages. She was then taken to the Port-of-Spain Fraud and subsequently charged.
Boodram, who is out on $2 million bail, is also charged with two money laundering offences.

The current offences, which include larceny by trick and uttering forged documents, involve multiple victims and different transactions. The offences were allegedly committed between 2014 and 2015. It is alleged that Boodram advertised a concert featuring a top Indian singer. Several people bought $1,000 tickets but the concert never came off.

It is also alleged that she advertised on a gospel radio station, homes for sale around Christmas time. It is alleged that she took a downpayment from several people for the homes, which she never delivered.

In another instance, it is alleged that she stole personal cheque leaves from an attorney and a justice of peace. The other charge alleged that she tried to use those cheques to pay for advertisements on the radio station. Investigators said she is also charged with trying to purchase a vehicle with a forged cheque.

Investigations were headed by Sr Supt Dookie, ASP Kent Ghisyawan, Insp Abbot and Insp Dipchan. Charges were laid by WPC Bernard, WPC Headly, WPC Kissoonsingh and Cpl Lutchman. - Sascha Wilson

An 11-year-old primary school student is expected to appear before an Arima magistrate today charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. Police said on Friday, the Standard Four student, who attends a primary school along the east/west corridor, allegedly had a quantity of marijuana in his possession.

Investigators said around 3 pm, the student, who did not attend classes during day, went into the school with the parcels of marijuana and began showing it to his friends. Another student alerted the security guards on duty. 

The student was searched and 23 grammes of marijuana, a lighter and two cigarettes were allegedly found on him. The security guards immediately notified police, who responded and took him into custody. Lawmen said the student’s house was searched but nothing was found on the premises. Officers said the boy was taken into custody at the Arouca Police Station where he stayed over the weekend. The marijuana will be taken to the Forensic Science Centre, St James, for testing after the matter today. PC Liam Paul from the Arouca Police Station is investigating.

In a brief telephone interview yesterday, first vice president of the T&T Unified Teachers' Association (TTUTA), Antonia De Freitas, said the issue of possession of drugs was a criminal offence. De Freitas said the need for police intervention was necessary to find out where the marijuana came from. “He won’t pick it up off the street, it had to come from somewhere and is a source of investigation and counselling. 

We tend to focus only on violence and discipline in the secondary schools, but it prevalent at the primary level and we need to have full intervention there as well,” she said. Attempts to contact Education Minister Anthony Garcia yesterday were unsuccessful  as he did not answer his cellphone.

This incident comes in the wake of several reported cases of criminal activity going on at secondary schools across the country in recent weeks.

As the world celebrates International Women’s Day tomorrow, violent killings and attacks continue against women in T&T, the latest being Aamina Mohammed, 30, a geriatric nurse of Debe and Jennifer Rampersad, an accounts clerk from New Grant.

Mohammed, a mother of two, was supposed to be in the Magistrates’ Court in Princes Town today for a hearing in a domestic violence matter, but instead was found with her throat slit and her body thrown in bushes off Retrench Village Road, San Fernando last Friday. Her killing brought the murder count to 88 for the year to date.

On Saturday, 35-year-old Rampersad was discovered by her daughter suffering from chop wounds. She subsequently lost her left hand from the wrist and the right hand from her palm was almost severed. Investigators believe the attacker is someone she knew as there were no signs of forced entry.

The Police Service has reported that for the period 2005 to 2015 there were 263 murders resulting from domestic violence complaints, out of which 151 were female and 112 male. While it has not been reported that Mohammed’s killing was committed by a male relative or companion, activist Diana Mahabir-Wyatt said yesterday that this could very well be the natural assumption.

“One of the most common signs for women to be murdered is when they leave their husbands. Also interesting in this case was there was no sign of a battle. 

She (Mohammed) was lying on her back with her throat slit and she was fully dressed and had sliver bracelets so she wasn’t robbed. So nobody knows if she was just in a lonely place,” Mahabir-Wyatt said in a telephone interview.

But she also waded into comments made in a daily newspaper by T&T Vital Voices’ Nicole Joseph-Chin, who had said if women learn to appreciate themselves there would be less chance for them to be victims of abuse.

Joseph-Chin was at the time speaking to members of the media at the start of the second Vital Voices Global Mentoring Walk T&T, in commemoration of International Women’s Day at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, on Saturday. She was quoted as saying, “... women’s bodies are actually the catalyst for issues that connect in terms of abuse”.

Mahabir-Wyatt disagreed with the comments, saying, “That is a dangerous statement. “She is connecting abuse with women’s bodies...and the reason why people get killed is because they have attractive bodies and if we appreciated ourselves more then we wouldn’t be abused.

“But I don’t think that after 40 years of dealing with domestic violence in T&T that I could possibly agree that it is just because women have attractive bodies that that causes domestic violence... that is not even barely realistic.” 

She likened Joseph-Chin’s comments to that of former Port-of-Spain mayor Raymond Tim Kee, who had said that women had a responsibility to ensure they were not abused and needed to maintain a level of dignity during Carnival festivities.

Tim Kee had made the statement in response to the discovery of the body of Japanese national Asami Nagakiya, whose body was found under a tree at the Queen’s Park Savannah on Ash Wednesday. She was still dressed in her Carnival costume.

Saying domestic violence was caused by the perpetrator and not by the victim, Mahabir-Wyatt said whether the victim appreciated herself or not does not mean that she would not be abused. On whether there was enough effort by the police in the fight against domestic violence, Mahabir-Wyatt said this could never be enough.

“I don’t think the police could ever do enough to prevent domestic violence. 

“I don’t think it is the police that have to prevent domestic violence, although they should pay more attention when somebody has already reported domestic violence and has already obtained a protection order and what happens even if they have obtained the protection order. 

“This can enrage the perpetrator...they are not sane...they just go out of their heads, take revenge.

“In this case (Mohammed’s), if it was a revenge killing it quite possibly could have been,” Mahabir-Wyatt said.

The Network of NGOs for the Advancement of Women is expected to hold an exhibition at the Brian Lara Promenade and lead a walk through Port-of-Spain tomorrow, starting from 9 am, in celebration of International Women’s Day.

While acid attack victim Rachel Chadee remains in the hospital under police guard, her mother and three children are living like prisoners in their own home. Since their mother’s attack on February 22, pensioner Leela Chadee said she has not sent her grandchildren to school and does not allow them to go outside.

“I don’t know his intention and he all over the place. People seeing him in south and they not telling the police,” Chadee said in a telephone interview yesterday. She appealed to the police to patrol the area regularly and check in with her.

“I am praying every single minute of the day. I pray that they will hold him,” she said. The children, 13, nine and five years old, keep asking when their mother will come home, but Chadee has not taken them to see her.

“I cannot let them see her in that condition,” she said, adding, “We have to be indoors all the time, we don’t know where he is. He is dangerous.” Thirty-year-old Rachel was attacked by her ex-lover, who broke into her La Romaine home armed with a knife, two bottles of acid, rope and rolls of duct tape. He slashed her on her face with the knife, doused her with acid and also forced her to swallow it.

Chadee said her daughter’s condition has improved, but she still has a lot of pain. 

“I was there in the San Fernando hospital yesterday, she coming along. She eating very little because her throat still swollen. She talking but you cannot understand anything.”

She said her daughter communicates with her by typing on her cell phone. San Fernando police are investigating and have identified Ronald Bissoon as a person of interest in their investigation.

Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar says the Dr Keith Rowley-led administration has been running the country on dead auto pilot for the past six months.

“You know there is something called the WWF champion, it is called the wedding, wakes and funeral champion. I think that is what Mr Rowley and his Government, especially Mr Rowley, is being seen as, witnessed as, the WWF champion,” she said on Saturday night.

She said while absolutely nothing is happening in the country and people are losing their jobs, Rowley and his Cabinet were attending the wedding of the daughter of a government minister.  

“I don’t know how much of that is at taxpayers’ expense,” she added.

Rowley has said that it was purely by coincidence that last weekend’s cabinet retreat and the wedding of Health Minister Terrance Deyalsingh’s daughter took place at the Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort in Tobago on the same weekend.

Persad-Bissessar made the comments following a meeting with former cane farmers in Barrackpore on Saturday, as she gave reporters her views on the status of the $7.2 billion Solomon Hochoy Highway extension to Point Fortin, which has been at a standstill since last year. 

Over the last two months, contractors and workers have been protesting over money owed to them by Brazilian construction firm OAS Construtora. When the Opposition leader asked about the highway status in Parliament recently, she recalled they were told that it was under review.

“As you realise that is the typical answer, everything is on review. In the meantime everything is at a standstill, in a state of auto pilot. It is really troubling. 

“Monday will mark the six months of the present Government and in that six months we have seen absolutely no work being done,” Persad-Bissessar said.

“We have seen jobs being lost...to put it in another way, internally, we are seeing Rowley government imploding internally and we are seeing an explosion in the crime rate in the country with the economy on standstill.” She said she has been relatively quiet because she wanted to give the Government a chance to the do the work.

“But I think it has been a total disappointment. 

“In fact, in the lives of some persons it has been not just disappointing but chaotic and traumatic for those families where jobs are being lost and we see plants and infrastructure standing by idle with nothing happening, which is UWI campus being left there, the maintenance cost alone for that, the Couva Children’s Hospital,  projects that were complete, the sports facilities.

“All of these would have assisted with what is known as other ways of gaining revenue, the revenue stream is down from the oil and gas. These were the projects that would have brought in revenue outside the oil and gas.”

She said she was very concerned with the situation and intends to raise her voice now that the honeymoon period was over. “For six months the country is on dead auto pilot status, to restart now is going to take even further time.”

Asked if the Government could pay the  cane farmers given the low oil prices, she said the money was allocated and budgeted in the estimate of expenditure and part of the money was given by the European Union. Before their election defeat last year, she said government had in July paid $27 million to the former cane farmers. 

She said the cane farmers were supposed to be paid two other tranches in December 2015 and this year, but Rowley has refused to pay them. “The priorities of the Government are totally distorted when it comes to helping the more vulnerable people in society. 

“Their priority is talking about building a beach at the Magdalena Hotel, their priority is to talk about the Brian Lara Stadium, their priority is on the vanity projects of all these old buildings in Port-of-Spain,” she said, adding that while those projects are important, right now they should not be the Government’s focus since they will not generate income. 

...to march on PM’s office with cane farmers

Supported by Opposition members and their attorneys, cane farmers will on Wednesday march to the Prime Minister’s Office in Port-of-Spain to deliver a pre-action protocol letter on a promised $103 million payment to them.

Calling on ex-cane farmers to unite, mobilise and gather in St Clair at 2 pm, former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar told them the Government was obligated in law to pay them the money during a meeting at the Cumuto Recreation Ground, Barrackpore, on Saturday night. The meeting was chaired by Association of Combined Cane Farmers Association chairman Balram Ramdial.  

It was under her administration that Cabinet had approved $130 million in compensation for cane farmers to be used for agricultural diversification. The farmers received $27 million last July, two months prior to the Persad-Bissessar’s administration’s general elections defeat. The rest of the money was promised in two other tranches—$75 million in December 2015 and $28 million this year.

Saying that Dr Keith Rowley has refused to pay the money based on legal advice, she said: “Something must be done. We cannot allow a person who came into an election campaign and promised to pay you publicly, we cannot allow him to confuse the issue and really confuffle the issue to say that he will not pay you. Because he is obligated in law and the Government is obligated in law because of the steps we took.”

Andy Cook, 55, a former supervisor who was laid off in March last year, is now washing cars for a living and says he is doing it for the love of his daughter. Cook, who supervised about 40 people on his job at Tube City Ltd at the Pt Lisas Port, Couva, also gave up a degree he was pursuing to help his daughter start her dream of becoming a lawyer.

His last child, she is a 17-year old Debe High graduate who has taken the first steps towards a law degree. “Some people may not want to do a job beneath what they were doing. But I don’t mind. I am doing it for my daughter. I always want the best for my children,” Cook said.

Cook, a father of three other grown children, drives from his San Fernando home daily to WashTec, the car wash company, on Munroe Road, Chaguanas. He foam washes vehicles at the car wash opened a couple of months ago by a “comrade” still employed at ArcelorMittal but fearful of losing his job.

“He is uncertain about his future with the company. He wants to have something to fall back on. He asked me to work for him,” Cook, who is paid a flat salary, said. Recalling the dreadful period right after he was laid off from the job he did for 33 years, Cook said, “I was anxious. I didn’t sleep well for four to five months. 

“But no matter how late I went to sleep, I would still get up the same time I used to get up when I was working.” He said his son, who worked as a despatcher with Tube City, was also laid off. 

“We were the only breadwinners in the family,” he said.

Tube City, a leading multi-national provider of industrial mill services for steel makers, laid off 600 workers in March and another 40 in December last year. The company was contracted to Arcelor Mittal to provide stevedoring and mill services. Tube City management said there was a reduced demand for steel products internationally and its contract with ArcelorMittal expired earlier in the year.

Cook, an executive member of the Steel Workers’ Union and branch president at Tube City, said he spent the first several months fighting the causes of the laid off workers. His wife, who had been home for a long time, found a job. His daughter got a job as an On The Job Trainee teaching assistant with the San Fernando Boys’ AC school on Coffee Street and earned a stipend.

But Cook said although she found a job, she is 17 and he is still responsible for her. 

“She didn’t ask to come here. I feel as a parent I owe it to her to take care of her. Maybe when she crosses 18 she could be on her own. Right now, I still have to be responsible for her.”

Cook said he had completed a diploma in health and safety at the Cipriani Labour College and was about to pay for the final two years to get his full degree when he decided to put that on hold and pay for his daughter’s law classes instead. He claimed workers did not get the full amount of severance benefits when they were laid off in March last year and the money soon ran out.

“I also had loan payments that were in arrears and had to find something to do.” Cook said his faith and martial arts knowledge are now helping him cope with being laid off. 

A woman and two men who were liming at a Marabella bar on Saturday morning were injured as two suspects engaged in a gunfight nearby, police said. The incident took place around 4.28 am at the Belle Bagai bar along the Southern Main Road. 

Jacklyne Cedeno-Samuel, 21, of New Grant, Clement Phillip, 29, and Christopher Perrot, of Vistabella, said they heard loud explosions and felt a burning sensation on their bodies.

Cedeno-Samuel was shot in her abdomen, Phillip was shot on the buttocks while Perrot was shot on the left side of his face. All three were treated at the San Fernando General Hospital where Cedeno-Samuel and Perrot remains warded in a stable condition.

Police received information that two men had an altercation and were shooting at each other close to the bar. In an unrelated matter, almost a year after footballer and expectant father Anderson Cornwall was shot and robbed, a 25-year-old man has been charged with his murder.

Cornwall, 21, a construction worker, of Church Street, Penal, was standing outside the Boardroom nightclub along the SS Erin Road, Debe, when he was approached by two men. He tried to run but one of the men opened fire, hitting him in his head. The men then snatched Cornwall’s chain and escaped in a white Nissan Tiida.

After receiving instructions from Deputy Director of Prosecutors Joan Honore-Paul on Saturday, Homicide detective Akash Ramsoobag charged a Pleasantville welder. He is expected to appear in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court today.