Acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, Joy Persad-Myers, said yesterday that 3,000 applicants have been awaiting the issuance of agricultural leases by the ministry. 

Some of the applicants have been waiting for 15 or 16 years, Persad-Myers said.

Persad-Myers made the disclosure during a Joint Select Committee (JSC) meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries on land and physical infrastructure.

Addressing the committee’s chairman, Stephen Creese, Persad-Myers said in carrying out the duties of the ministry, they have encountered numerous challenges. Among the issues faced are an increase in residential squatting, the inability of legitimate applicants to receive state lands and issues related to state land tenure.

The ministry has also been grappling with land grabbing by associations and organisations purporting to assign lands for agricultural purposes.

“We have also moved to address over 3,000 files with applicants for agricultural lands. That is what we have been trying to prioritise, disaggregate and attend to. This has been a very painful exercise when we go into the individual files with persons waiting for 15 or 16 years for a simple assignment of lease with things like inheritances and regularisation of persons who have been engaged in substantive agriculture,” Persad-Myers said.

To help clear the backlog and fast track these applications, Persad-Myers said the ministry has re-established the agricultural land administration and publicly advertised to fill the positions of Commissioner of State Lands and Director of Surveys, including other substantive posts “to deal with land grabbing, land blocking and squatting.”

Committee member Franklin Khan said nothing seems to happen in the public service.

“There is a tendency to blame the political directorate.”

Khan described the delay in handing out leases as a “disaster.”

He said the Commissioner of State Lands now has 3,000 files on his desk, while another 7,000 of Caroni 1975 land leases also needed to be dealt with.

To avoid this bottleneck, Khan suggested that Caroni 1976 Ltd could have issued its own leases. 

“In an attempt to centralise authority you clog the system,” Khan said.

Khan said the PNM has been focusing its attention on agriculture, which contributes 0.4 per cent to the GPD.

With a $5 billion food import bill, Khan said, agriculture was fundamental.

“If we don’t get land tenure right, agriculture will go nowhere.”

He said the “bureaucracy” in the system should not stop the farming process.

“At the end of the day you have to convince this committee that you are putting systems in place to regularise tenancy,” Khan insisted.

Committee member Hafeez Ali said that land tenure issues were hampering the growth of the country’s agriculture.

He said there were 18 steps an applicant had to take before getting a lease, while it takes a minimum of three years before a lease is handed to a farmer.

“So before we could plant a tomato tree we have to wait three years to do that. I think that is unacceptable,” Ali said.

Ali said the three-year waiting period was a moderate timeframe given by the ministry since he knows of individuals in Barataria/San Juan districts that have been waiting for ten years for agricultural leases.

The committee heard that there are upward of 50,000 farmers legitimately and illegitimately occupying state lands in T&T.

Members of both the Opposition and Independent benches yesterday spoke out against proposed amendments to give the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) a wider mandate to gather information on an increased number of offences, including treason.

This is as the Senate began debate on the legislation, which was passed in the House of Representatives last month. It seeks to give the “intelligence” agency a wider mandate to gather information on serveral additional offences. When it was established in 1995, the SSA was mandated to gather intelligence on drug-related offences only.

Coordinator of the Independents, Dr Dhanayshar Mahabir, in his contribution yesterday, said since it was established over 20 years ago, the SSA had not assisted in the prosecution of any major drug offences.

He said instead that “on grounds of efficiency the SSA needs to be strengthened before we add to it.”

The SSA will be able to intercept information and Mahabir said there was great danger in that, as the information intercepted could be used to embarrass an individual.

He insisted the right of citizens to privacy, freedom of thought and expression would be infringed if the measure was approved.

He said the need for private citizens to have their private space must be respected. “Let us respect the right of people to have freedom of thought as without freedom of thought there can be no progress. We need our private space for freedom of thought.”

Mahabir said without freedom of expression there can be no liberty. He said the legislation could make life similar to life in North Korea. Mahabir also called for the measure to be withdrawn. A similar position was taken by the Leader of Opposition Business, Senator Wade Mark, in his contribution earlier. Mark said the bill required a special majority for approval. The Government did not share that view.

Mark said the Opposition would like the measure to be put before a select committee of the Senate, where several important amendments will be proposed by the Opposition.

Dealing with the perceived breach in privacy under the legislation through interception of communication, Mark said, “It may even serve to compromise a person’s right to a fair trial.”

Mark also said the State cannot “enjoy an unlimited discretion.” 

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has dismissed as unfounded the theory that the country has run out of antidote for scorpion venom.

“Let me make it crystal clear, T&T never had scorpion anti-venom. Never had it, so it is difficult to run out of something which was never available.”

Nevertheless, he said, “I want to reassure the public that if you are bitten by a scorpion, your chances of survival are excellent, once we start aggressive supportive therapy as soon as possible with or without a vaccine.”

He said the crucial thing is timing. 

“You get that person to a hospital as soon as possible, or a health centre so that aggressive supportive therapy could be administered and the outcome is always excellent.”

There have been renewed calls for the availability of the antidote after four-year-old Maraval resident Nicola Dyer survived a scorpion sting.

Deyalsingh said he will not rush to jump on the bandwagon to import the scorpion antidote, until it is tested on a large scale and proven to be safe for use in this county.

He pointed to the worldwide discontinuance of the trivalent oral polio vaccine which has now been found to cause a strain of polio and the information now coming to light that the vaccine used to treat H1N1 may be toxic.

He said vaccines are being developed in Mexico and India, but as there are over 1,700 species of scorpions those vaccines may not be specific to the scorpions in this country.

He said there is a possibility that Costa Rica may have an anti-venom suitable for our indigenous poisonous scorpion and if that vaccine can provide better results than what the current protocol is providing, “we will surely look at it.”

Colonial Life Insurance Company Ltd posted profits of $5.2 billion at the end of December 2014, according to the  company’s latest financial statements. The T&T Guardian obtained the information after it was posted on Clico’s website yesterday afternoon. 

A source said revelation of the information followed very recent queries by interested parties this week to the Central Bank on various aspects of the Clico-CL issue, including when the last financial statements would be published.

In the statements posted online, it was noted that Clico’s profit for the year (2014) attributable to equity holders was $5,132,999 million. The 2013 figure was $406 million.

The statements noted Prescience Insurance Consultants and Actuaries’ November 2015 assessment which put the company’s policy liabilities at December 2014 as TT$20,748,271,000. 

It was also stated that the gain on sale of corporate securities in 2014 was due to the realisation of $5,252 million on the disposal of Methanol Holdings (Trinidad) Limited shares.

The statements also detailed the process which the company has endured since September 2009, when government injected additional capital into the company via acquisition of ordinary shares and preference shares, following the collapse of CL Financial. 

This transaction resulted in government’s ownership of 49 per cent of the share capital of the company. The statements indicated that “company management has worked to manage the effects of certain risks which materialised in 2009. Additionally, the board is working on further developing the governance framework which would allow the company to manage effectively its risks in the future.

Future plans include: Establishment of a formal Risk Department within the company, establishment of a formal Compliance Department within the company, Insurance and Financial Risk Management, Insurance Risk.

Among a multitude of points, it was noted rental income arising from the investment properties owned by the company amounted to $21.6 million (2013: $19.5 million).

CL Financial majority shareholder Lawrence Duprey, who saw the statements yesterday, told T&T Guardian that situation had caused him to renew his call to Government and the Central Bank to examine his plan to repay the debt to the state and regain control of his companies.

Duprey only recently sent a letter to Finance Minister Colm Imbert seeking to open talks for him to regain ownership of his company and has retained Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC to seek his interests.

“You’re now seeing the magnitude of the company we built ... we built a very strong company to withstand the ups and downs of the business cycles and here it is. The value has manifested in these financial results,” Duprey said in a telephone interview.

He said the recent regulators of the companies had failed to recognise the situation and that the companies were strong to the point of surviving the economic downturn.  

“They survived even in the bad times. It’s a pity the founders’ descendents were not allowed to play their true role in the business cycles it should have been,” he added.

Lobbying for management of the companies, he said: “The people who are there now are not really managing per se, since they’re simply benefitting from the strong foundation we put in. 

”If they didn’t decimate it by selling it off, you could see where the companies could have made a strong contribution to T&T - and right now the country needs a strong Clico. It must be allowed to work for the public.”

Policyholder/shareholder Kerry Ramjack, who said the latest financial statements echoed other policyholders’ views, meanwhile told the T&T Guardian that for the first time in years, the “pledged assets” of the company show the actuaries’ certification of $24.5 billion in Clico’s statutory fund and the certification of liabilities regarding policyholders being $20.7 million.

“So if we’re at a situation with two such figures, why is the company still under Central Bank jurisdiction, subject to Section 44d (Insurance Act) and why are all policyholders not being paid their contractual obligations, and last,  why is Clico not being continued to operate as a going concern, because it is in a healthy position?” he asked.

Government’s Strategic Services Agency (SSA) Amendment Bill could mean the end of media freedom, since journalists researching issues, collecting information and dealing with politically sensitive sources could fall under surveillance by the SSA, says Opposition Senator Gerald Ramdeen.

“The effect of the introduction of the new concept of ‘serious crime’ in the bill, together with the Interception of Communication Act and provisions of the Sedition Act, which is tied into it, can be the beginning of the end of the fourth estate,” Ramdeen told T&T Guardian yesterday, during an Opposition press conference at the Parliament.

The Opposition is calling on Government to withdraw the SSA Bill and refer it and amendments being proposed by the Opposition to a select committee or the matter may be tested in the Privy Council if the bill becomes law.

Debate on the controversial bill began in the Senate on Tuesday after passage in the Lower House. The bill, part of Government’s anti-crime thrust, seeks to expand the SSA’s powers, including use of the Interception of Communication Bill to “tap phones” to obtain information concerning a wide range of matters.

But Ramdeen said the problem in the bill was that power allows the SSA director to intercept certain communication. The package also involves the Data Protection Bill. The T&T Publishers and Broadcasters Association had protested the DP Bill, saying it would threaten media freedom and subsequently, only parts were proclaimed. 

Ramdeen said “serious crime,” on which the SSA Bill is based, involved a huge range of offences. He said the way the bill was framed allowed the SSA director unfettered powers and unlimited discretion to intercept the communications of anyone who was simply just carrying out their daily lives but who the director considered was doing an act related to one of those offences.

Opposition Senator Wade Mark said the bill infringed on human rights, especially the right to privacy, and violates the Constitution. 

“This is Big Brother spying on you...,” Mark warned, saying the SSA’s expanded powers could intrude on people’s social media interaction. He added the SSA would be able to “track your Facebook, Twitter account and email without your knowledge” in seeking information. 

Ramdeen, replying to queries about the bill’s effect on the media, said under the Interception of Communication Act, the SSA director had unlimited discretion to intercept the communications of any reporter and claim that the exercise of his discretion fell within one of the four categories identified in the bill.

The Opposition is also against the bill’s proposal for the SSA director to be appointed by the National Security Minister, since the Opposition fears political interference/agendas could be manifested via the SSA.

The Opposition’s list of amendments is headed by a proposal for an independent Intelligence Review Committee to be appointed by the President to “watchdog” SSA’s work, including reviewing information-sharing arrangements and monitoring provision of information. The proposed IRC will also protect intelligence info in SSA custody/control via reasonable security arrangements. 

The man who was killed on Monday night in San Juan is 20-year-old Marcus Friday who went to visit his friend, Karin Grant, 19, when the two were ambushed and killed in what police believe was the casualties of an ongoing gang war in the Bagatelle Road, San Juan, area. 

Friday was identified by his mother, Sabrina Blair, on Tuesday afternoon at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, but was told to return today for the autopsy after arriving at the institution too late for the autopsy to be performed. 

Speaking with the media yesterday, Blair said she woke up at 2 am Tuesday knowing something was amiss when her son, who lived with her at Moses Avenue, San Juan, was not at home.

“Then the phone alarmed at 2 am and I put on the light, looking for him and didn't see him. I was uneasy because he not accustomed doing that. 

“I went to work but kept on calling and he was not answering. I was calling his aunt to see if he reach home too. Then my shift done and as I reach home and hit in front my yard where we living, my whole inside start to turn up and then I know something was wrong,” she said.

Blair added that  gut-wrenching feeling led her to send her other son to the police station as she searched hospitals and neighbours. 

While at the station, a police officer showed Friday’s sibling a picture of the deceased. Blair said her sick feeling went from bad to worse on hearing the news and after seeing her child’s body at the centre yesterday she collapsed.

Of her son, Blair said: “He worked hard and was a very helpful child. You and him could quarrel now and he would come and talk to you normal. He was a child, always playing with people. 

“He went to check the girl. He and the girl are friends. I don't know if it's from school but I know it's long time they talking.”

Blair added: “I can’t explain the feeling. It's a feeling only a mother can feel. I feeling empty inside. I feeling lonely like I lost something. 

“He was my backbone, my everything. I took him out of school because of how I was living, poverty life, but even then he never give me any trouble and was always working to help the family. He ask me to help him buy a car and build a house but he really wanted a car. 

Grant, a cashier, and Friday, a loader at Blue Waters, were believed to be seated on some steps near Grant’s home on Monday night when gunmen ambushed a man passing near the duo. 

The man, police said, was believed to have been the killer/s’ target. With an automatic weapon the killer/s struck, hitting their intended target once in the leg and hitting the duo multiple times. That, police said, happened just before 9 pm. 

Motorists are being given more time to get into the habit of driving within the speed limit of 80kph as acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams is yet to give directives to police officers to enforce the law.

This was announced by public information officer of the Police Service, acting ASP Michael Pierre, during yesterday’s weekly police briefing at the Police Administration Building, Port-of-Spain.

Pierre, however, could not say how soon police officers would begin intercepting drivers exceeding the speed limit and issuing speeding tickets.

“I would like you to know in due course those speed guns would be out there so at this time you (drivers) have some time to practise driving within the speed limit and keeping the roadways in T&T safe,” Pierre said.

When told that police officers were seen atop a flyover along the Uriah Butler Highway on Tuesday using one of the six speed guns acquired, Pierre said it was only a test run... “testing the use of the equipment.” He, however, advised the public to know that the police were going to put it into effect regardless of the fact that no time frame had been given.

“We are asking members of the public when you practise something over a period of time it becomes perfected. I am suggesting practise driving within the speed limit in the meantime,” Pierre said. He emphasised that the law, called the Motor Vehicle and Road Traffic Act, was already written in the legislative book.

“It is not there to look at. It is there for members of the public to adhere to, just like any other law directed to the public. Therefore, we, as responsible citizens, know that when we read what is written there that is what we should adhere to it,” he added.

The order to establish speed guns on the nation’s highways was published on Friday and went into effect immediately, according to the Minister of Works and Transport Fitzgerald Hinds.

Hinds said then it was being implemented to save lives on the nation’s roads, as 55 per cent of the fatalities were caused by speeding. The minister confirmed he signed the order Friday and it was published in the Gazette on the same day.

Efforts to reach Williams for comment yesterday were unsuccessful.

Amid increased calls to legalise abortions which have been sanctioned by former health minister Dr Fuad Khan and advisory director of the Family Planning Association Dr Jacqueline Sharpe, Roman Catholic priest Father Clyde Harvey, however, said T&T must build a society where life was respected even in the most difficult of circumstances, including abnormalities.

There have been fervent calls by some groups to have the procedure legal especially in light of the Zika virus.

At a forum on the topic Abortion: Her body, her choice?, at the Noor Hassanali Auditorium, UWI, St Augustine Campus, yesterday there was a strong call by Khan and Sharpe for the legislature to be re-examined and therefore grant women the right to do with their bodies as they saw fit, especially in instances of rape, incest and where the mother’s life was at risk.

Sharpe, who said the most recent data available were from 2004, showed there were 1,854 abortions which were conducted at the hospitals, of which 333 were spontaneous and five were medical abortions. She said worldwide some 22 million women underwent abortions, whether legal or illegal, annually.

In Guyana, she added, abortion was available on request but for specific requirements, including rape and incest. St Vincent and St Lucia have also changed their laws. Describing abortion as  a very uncomfortable topic, Khan said he had seen the effects of unsafe abortions and called for further discussions to take place.

“Moving forward more religious bodies and more women’s groups should come out and give their views but I believe women should have the right to deal with their bodies the way they see fit,” Khan said. He said legislation was archaic, adding  if a person was caught selling over the counter drugs that person could be jailed for four years for aiding and abetting in an abortion. 

While as a government minister Khan said the topic arose with the former Cabinet but at that time the country was not faced with the ZIka virus. 

However, Harvey, who said the teachings of the Catholic Church  were both clear and complex, said human life must be protected from the moment of conception.

However, he added, that painted a broader picture regarding how life was viewed.

“We have to build a culture in which conversations existed between men and women and not simply between women and their doctor.

“Unless we have a clear understanding of what life is, unless we in our own being seem to be in tuned to what our own life means and out of that attunement, therefore, to be able to be in tune with every other human being, we are going to reduce this to a question of me and my life and something,” Harvey said.

He said in his work with young men of Laventille many of them often said: “She making a child for me,” or “I have to breed she.”

There was an initial happiness and then a withdrawal, Harvey said, adding that demonstrated the lack of understanding of what was life.

“We have to build a culture in which men and women together understand that conception is something engaged in together.

“We cannot simply discuss it in terms of women’s rights  because it is part of a whole. And when we understand that young men pick up a gun and they think nothing of shooting another human being... that is part of the life valuing,” Harvey said.

On Zika, Harvey urged that what mattered was caring for another human being in the first place despite imperfection.

“There is a perfectionism whereby people seem to think that we as human beings must aim to produce what is perfect or not produce it at all,” Harvey  added.

Women’s rights activist, Lynette Seeberan-Suite, who agreed that there must be a change in the law, said the doctors performing the procedure ran the risk of being prosecuted. Members of the audience seemed divided on the topic as some were very passionate against abortion, saying it would create a society of destroying lives rather than savings them.

Two years after former Independent senator Dana Seetahal, SC, was murdered her friends and colleagues are still perplexed as to the reason for her brutal assassination. 

Speaking at a ceremony to commemorate the two-year anniversary of her death at his Port-of-Spain office yesterday, Senior Counsel Israel Khan called on other lawyers to continue to be vigilant in protecting the administration of justice. 

“Even though we still do not know why she was assassinated we have to carry on. If we chose to be coward and drop out of the case that would be the beginning of the end of our society,” Khan said. 

Khan, who worked with Seetahal in the ongoing Vindra Naipaul-Coolman murder trial before her death, said  despite being assigned a police security detail after Seetahal’s killing he still felt unsafe. 

“We are grateful to the security given to us by the State but we know if they want to kill us they can’t stop it. When these fellahs drop us home we are on our own,” he said. 

Khan sentiments were supported by Senior Counsel Gilbert Peterson, who is also prosecuting the Naipaul-Coolman case. 

“My view is the same as with when Selwyn Richardson was killed. Unless we know why they were killed as attorneys-at-law we are all in danger. Everybody is focusing on who did it when we should be focused on why she was killed,” Peterson said. 

Besides Khan’s function, Seetahal’s relatives also held a small memorial ceremony at Woodford Square yesterday. On May 4, 2014, Seetahal was driving along Hamilton Holder Street, Woodbrook, when she was ambushed and shot dead in her SUV. 

Almost 14 months later, accused gang leader Rajaee Ali, his brothers, Ishmael and Hamid Ali; Devaughn Cummings, Ricardo Stewart, Earl Richards, Stephan Cummings, Kevin Parkinson, Leston Gonzales; Roget Boucher and Gareth Wiseman were charged with her murder.  

Ali, Stacy Griffith, Deon Peters and David Ector were charged under the Anti-Gang Act for assisting the group in the murder but are not charged with the capital offence.

The preliminary inquiry into Seetahal’s murder is yet to commence with the next hearing before Senior Magistrate Indrani Cedeno scheduled for this morning.

The “custody” of 21 cellphones purchased by the former justice ministry—which dealt with prisons and related matters—could not be determined after purchase, according to the latest Auditor General’s report. The report was laid in Parliament on Tuesday. It covers October 2014 to September 20 

On the cellphone issue in the former justice ministry, the report stated information relating to the 21 cellphones purchased during 2014-2015 at a cost of $102,342.99 was not recorded in the inventory register in accordance with financial regulations. The report noted that the “custody of these items could not be determined.”

There were also issues with examination of the accounting records of the Maximum Security Prison. The report stated access to accounting records of the Maximum Security Prison was arranged on two occasions but was not effected by the prison authorities. The Auditor General stated that was “direct contravention” of the law.

Documents concerning 12 areas of Prisons Service and related matters, including contracts, overpayments, vacant posts, personal files, were not provided for audit examination.

The justice ministry also failed to produce documents for audit examination concerning a $33 million contract for construction of a perimeter fence and infrastructural works at the Maximin Security Prison.

The ministry also didn’t provide the valuation report for acquisition of a property  at Santa Rosa, Arima, projected to be a “pre-release centre and/or functional prison,” at a cost of $170 million.

In the Police Service, the report stated Cabinet approval was not seen for the hiring of 163 people on two-year contracts with monthly emoluments totalling $2.3 million. Also noted were 296 cases of overpayment, totalling $2.2million, which were not reported. The Auditor General noted the inventory registers at two stations were not properly maintained and “pertinent information was not “recorded or was done incorrectly.” 

The report said urgent attention needed to be paid to strengthening internal controls at police stations to ensure completeness of revenue. 

President of the T&T Publishers and Broadcasters Association, Daren Lee Sing, has put industry practitioners on alert citing possible threats to press freedom, based on proposed legislation contained in the new Strategic Services Agency (SSA) Amendment Bill.

Delivering remarks at Tuesday’s World Press Freedom Day dinner and awards ceremony at the Jaffa Restaurant, Queen’s Park Oval, Tragarette Road, Port-of-Spain, he said:

“While sitting in our journalism workshop, my mobile phone was bombarded with calls and texts not to discuss today’s World Press Freedom Day but instead to ask for comments on the latest bill, the SSA Amendment Bill, which seems to have now included cybercrimes as serious crimes and tenets of the now defunct Cybercrime Bill.”

Lee Sing added: “But while we support the theoretical purpose of the bill, its subjectivity can and may infringe on press freedom. 

“So on behalf of all of us, the artists painting this Trinbago media landscape, I am appealing to our line minister and former colleague in media, Minister (Maxie) Cuffie. 

“There needs to be consultation on this matter and we will be ready to hold discussions with the Government and the Parliament as this bill progresses and before it is brought to life.”

He said press freedom was a right the local industry could not take for granted, citing that around the world this year’s  observance was marked by a series of unsettling events. He said in Egypt, the interior minister marked World Press Freedom Day by storming press syndicates, while there was a whatsapp blackout in Brazil. 

Meanwhile, in Syria, a Kurdish radio station in Rojava continued to broadcast, while under attack, he added.

All systems have been put in place for today’s Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) in which 18,215 pupils have been registered to write the exam.

Seeking to allay the fears of pupils and their parents, Education Minister Anthony Garcia has assured that public utility companies, transport agencies and even the health services were on standby to assist if any hiccups arose during the process.

Speaking during a press conference yesterday at the Ministry of Education, St Clair, officials said 24 additional distribution centres had been set up to facilitate schools that were situated far away from the respective District Education Office.

Chief education officer, Harrilal Seecharan, said 545 centres had been established to ensure that principals could collect the exam papers and submit scripts in a timely manner. Of this figure, 141 are government centres; 345 are denominational centres and 59 private centres.

Scheduled to begin promptly at 9 am, the 9,163 boys and 9,052 girls will write the maths exam during the first 75 minutes. This will be followed by a 30-minute break after which students will re-enter the exam room to write the 75-minute English language exam.

Garcia and Seecharan said special concessions also had been put in place to accommodate 225 pupils who had been identified as differently-abled, including those requiring braille; extra time for slower students; persons who would require medication during the exam; persons requiring more frequent bathroom breaks and persons who have to be seated apart from other students.

Seecharan said that was done “to ensure each child was provided with the equal opportunity to perform at their best.”

Providing some insight into the training and preparation that had gone into ensuring that invigilators, monitors and quality assurance officers were trained in time for today’s exam, Seecharan said special attention had been paid to the physical environment to preserve the students’ comfort.
Identifying “lights, water and furniture” as one area, Seecharan said the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) had also set up a hotline for centre managers to utilise in an emergency.

Referring to the recent decision by the T&T Unified Teachers Association Conference of Delegates that teachers were not required to supervise the national exam as it did not form part of their remit, Seecharan said there were approximately 4,500 and 5,000 people involved in today’s exercise.

This includes school principals, teachers, ministry officials, quality assurance observers and travelling officers who have all undergone intensive training in the last couple weeks.

Security measures have also been increased to eliminate the potential for cheating by both students and teachers. Garcia said any student found to be cheating would be immediately disqualified and each case would be assessed individually to determine the way forward.

Additional systems have also been introduced to aid in the security of student scripts after the exam before they are handed over to the Caribbean Examinations Board (CXC) within the next two weeks to be marked.

Even though the ministry removed the Continuous Assessment Component (CAC) from the curriculum weeks ago, Seecharan said this year’s marking system will take into account the students’ individual scores at the SEA exam as well as their performance grades at the CAC before it was scrapped.

Next year’s SEA exam is expected to once again feature creative writing, maths and English language. 

Pressed to say if the potential Form One students will be on the receiving end of a laptop computer or any other electronic device to aid in the teaching and learning process, Garcia said discussions were ongoing and that there was “more to come on this.”

Assured that each student would attain a place at a secondary school, president of the National Parent Teacher Association (NPTA) Zena Ramatali urged all students “to bloom wherever you are planted.”

Ramatali and president of the T&TUTA, Devanand Sinanan, expressed satisfaction in the ministry’s preparedness measures as they all wished the students good luck today.

Eight days after being beaten during a robbery at a Claxton Bay bar, Curtis Pierre, 16, succumbed to his injuries at the Intensive Care Unit of the San Fernando General Hospital.

Pierre was one of two bandits who held up the PJ’s Recreation Club along Mount Pleasant Road last Tuesday. He died on Tuesday at hospital without regaining consciousness.

Around 2.40 pm last Tuesday, there were over a dozen patrons liming at the community watering hole when Pierre and another man, dressed in short-sleeved coveralls, walked into the bar. The unidentified bandit pulled out a gun and began robbing patrons and Chinese national Lui Luo, who operated a gaming machine in the club, of cash and other valuables, while Pierre tried to enter the bar owner Phoolmatie John’s home at the back of the property.

After kicking down the door leading into the house, Pierre was accosted by John’s son, Niben Beepat, 28, and a struggle ensued. Pierre’s accomplice fled the scene, leaving the teen to face the wrath of angry patrons.

Pierre was beaten until he lost consciousness and then police were called in.

Yesterday, Pierre’s mother Kendra Commissiong told the T&T Guardian that the patrons and bar owners went too far in dishing out vigilante justice.

“I am not saying what he did was right, but they did not have to beat him so badly,” she said. 

“After they hit him the first blow and he fell on the ground they could have called the police. I don’t even know what they beat my son with, all his ears was bust up.”

Commissiong said Pierre, who lived with his mother and 14-year-old brother at Union Village, Claxton Bay, was a student at the Servol Life Centre and described him as loving and caring. She said his sixteenth birthday was last Friday.

“He was my first born child and I knew him as loving and caring, he was very helpful to everyone in the area. He had animals he used to take care of and he had recently started his own kitchen garden. Nobody told him to do those things, he was trying something for himself.”

She said she felt as though her son’s death could have been avoided.

“They are not police, they are not the law…he was a human being. I am saying again, I am not giving him right for what he did, but that didn’t give them the right to deal with him like that. I am sure they would have seen how young he was.”

Police sources said an investigation into Pierre’s death will now be conducted to determine whether any charges should be laid against those who beat him.

An autopsy is expected done at the Forensics Science Centre in St James today.

Police have launched a manhunt for a second suspect in the attempted rape and murder of a 24-year-old Eastern Regional Health Authority employee yesterday.

Nerissa Nickey Goora, 24, a clerk at Sangre Grande Health Centre at River Road, died at hospital after she was stabbed by one of two men who attacked her as she was walking to her Tamana Hill home on Wednesday evening.

Relatives said she gave a description of at least one of the suspects before she was taken away to hospital and police used this description to detain a man yesterday. 

The detained man was assisting police in apprehending the second suspect up to last night.

Goora died of a stab wound she received just above her navel while undergoing emergency surgery at the Sangre Grande Hospital.

Her grandmother, Surujdaye Boodoo, told T&T Guardian she was in her living room around 2.10 pm on Wednesday when she heard Goora frantically calling to her. Boodoo said she went out into the gallery and saw Goora lying on the couch covered in blood with her blouse torn apart.

The shocked woman said she asked Goora what happened.

“Nerissa uttered these words to me while gasping for breath ... ‘Deedee I got stab.’”

Boodoo said Goora told her “a black creole boy who was hiding in the bushes” attacked her and managed to give a description of her attacker before she fell back on the couch and fell unconscious.

Boodoo said she cried out for help, calling to Goora’s father, Ignacio, who lives two houses away, and telling him to organise transport to take her to the hospital.

A neighbour who was passing by stopped and put Boodoo in his vehicle and rushed her to the Sangre Grande Hospital.

Doctors took her to the operating theater immediately but she died on the operating table. 

Ignacio Goora said yesterday he believed his daughter was attacked while walking along the lonely part of Tamana Hill Road. 

He said she seemed to have put up a good fight her against her attackers and managed to evade them and run to her grandmother's home, which is about 300 meters away, even after they stabbed her as she tussled with them.

Noting, Goora always walked home by herself along the road after work, the distraught father said he was still confused by the attack. 

“I always know my daughter to be friendly and she has no enemies,” he said, trying to hold back the tears. 

Nedira Goora, the victim’s sister, said Nerissa brought lunch for her earlier on Wednesday outside the Economy Supermarket. 

“I could not believe that my little sister, who was alive a few hours ago, is dead,” she said. 

 She said her sister’s killing was the first murder at Tamana Hill, noting it was peaceful agricultural village. 

“Everyone lives as a family in here and we’re free to move in and out of the village without any fear. Now I have to be very careful when walking along the road,” the tearful woman said. 

She said they often had to walk home because vehicles stopped working inside the community because of the deplorable condition of the roads. Taxis, she said, drop them along the Guaico Tamana Road and they walk the rest of the way to get home.

“I will miss Nerissa,” she said, noting she calls her 'Smile' because of her positive demeanour.

The woman’s co-workers at Sangre Grande Health Center were also distraught over her killing. Chrystal Sookdeo, one of her close friends, said Nerissa was jolly and making jokes with them and all those who had attended clinic on Wednesday. 

“Her death has traumatised some of us if not all. In the morning Nerissa was alive, in the afternoon she left for the bank and then we received the news that she is dead,” Sookdeo said.

Goora was the second woman to be murdered after leaving their workplace in Sangre Grande recently. 

Police are still investigating the murder of Felicia Persad, of Vega de Oropouche, whose body was found in Mitan River, Manzanilla, last month. 

Persad was found in a leather bag which had been tied to the root of a mangrove tree and weighted down with piece of a decorative concrete pillar. Her killer/killers are yet to be arrested.

RALPH BANWARIE

Finance Minister Colm Imbert said yesterday that Clico still has a deficit of close to $1 billion and the insurer’s 2014 after-tax profit of $5.13 billion was just an “accounting transaction” resulting from bringing to book the proceeds of the sale its shares in Methanol Holdings (Trinidad) Ltd (MHTL).

“Clico’s not in the black—it’s still insolvent,” Imbert added at the weekly government media briefing, where he clarified Clico’s latest financial statements posted on the company’s website on Wednesday, showing a $5.13 billion profit.

Following the publication of its 2014 financial statements, CL Financial majority shareholder Lawrence Duprey on Wednesday had reinforced his recent calls on government to relinquish the companies in the group.

Imbert, however, said the “so-called” profit was simply an accounting “paper” transaction and had arisen due to the sale for US$1.175 billion ($7.44 billion) of the MHTL shares.

He added: “It’s (profit) really bringing to book the proceeds of the sale of the methanol company shares and it’s an accounting transaction.”

Stating that yesterday’s exclusive on Clico’s financials in the Guardian implied the company was “in the black,” Imbert said the accounting transaction did not really assist Clico’s position since its balance sheet deficit at the end of 2014 was $934 million in deficit.

“Although they had a profit, they also had a loss of income of $4.7 billion,” he said.

Imbert added: “So in 2013, the balance sheet (deficit) for Clico was $1.1 billion and in 2014, $934 million in deficit. So there was no significant change—it’s just an accounting transaction.”

“Based on all information available to me, Clico is still insolvent and its liabilities exceeds its assets,” Imbert said.

According to the insurer’s 2014 financial statement, Clico’s assets total $29.316 billion, while its liabilities amount to $30.250 billion. Clico’s three biggest liabilities are: 

• Investment contracts of $12.379 billion, 88 per cent of which are the Executive Flexible Premium Annuities;

• Its traditional insurance portfolio valued at $8.305 billion; and

• Redeemable preference shares worth $4.992 billion, which carry an annual dividend rate of 4.75 per cent of $4.992 billion, or $237 million.

Imbert said the report of the commission of enquiry into Clico and the Hindu Credit Union—done by English Queen’s Counsel Sir Anthony Colman—is expected by month-end.   

Purported insolvency a fabrication—Dacon 

Duprey’s spokesman Claudius Dacon in an immediate response to Imbert, said, the actual content of the accounts is a “powerful admission that the assets left by the Lawrence Duprey team were worth a great deal more than successive administrations had led us to believe.”

“The latest Clico accounts are 16 months old, so it’s hard to get too excited about the results as spectacular as they may appear, because they give absolutely no assurance or comfort for the financial position of the company today. They are an eye opener, however, for several reasons. The most important is that they’ve actually arrived.

“Because the company is now run by the Central Bank, we’ve had nobody to complain to when Clico doesn't comply with the rules that prescribe June 2015 as the date when accounts should have been submitted. This total lack of control and oversight extends to all the reporting and operating activities at Clico.”

Dacon said: “Their appointed managers have been able to use (and abuse) the vast sums of taxpayer money (over $20 billion) and the hugely valuable Clico assets without oversight by anyone. Consequently the largest financial institution in the region with billions of taxpayers’ money at risk is currently unregulated.”

Dacon added: “No Ponzi scheme in the known universe has ever yielded assets worth $5 billion more than book value, as is shown in the accounts. Mr Duprey was right in his request for liquidity assistance, to give the assets time to recover value and the company to return to financial strength. Remember too, that there was a sale of assets two years ago that returned in excess of three billion dollars over book value.”

“It’s beginning to appear that the-then purported insolvency at Clico was a fabrication, created to enable ...government officials to seize Clico’s assets ($4.5 billion) at Clico Investment Bank to repay deposits to state enterprises and their friends at the suffering of Clico policyholders.”

“A review of the statements then made—in the light of this disclosure—shows the taxpayer could and should have been fully repaid at least three years ago. It also suggests policyholders and the public were deliberately misled in 2010 and subsequently by alarming and disparaging statements of propaganda against Lawrence Duprey from those in authority, and who had access to information about the true worth of the Clico assets. Why was this necessary and what were their motives?”

Dacon said: “Hidden from view by the amazing performance of the assets on Clico's books is another stark reality, that under Central Bank direction, Clico has now been transformed into a serial loss maker for policyholders. Relieved of the burden of annual interest payments of about $1 billion, it should be inconceivable that Clico now operates at a loss. “

“Yet that is precisely what these accounts tell us—the insurance operations returned a loss more than masked by the profit on sale of assets which we were told were worthless. The scale of incompetence is alarming and for the sake of taxpayers and everyone else associated with this company, it must be taken away from Central Bank and Government’s illegal control and directorship.”

Police are warning citizens that any attempt to jam their radar signals from speed detection guns with the use of electronic devices is illegal and can cost you ten times the amount of a speeding ticket.

In a telephone interview with the T&T Guardian on Wednesday, Supt Mathura Singh of the Highway and Traffic Patrol said the punishment for having such devices was $10,000 while a speeding ticket was $1,000. 

Singh said that he was scheduled to meet with officials from the Customs and Excise yesterday to discuss the importation of such devices but was unable to do so. That meeting will take place on a later date.

Some of the devices which can be bought online for a low as US$30, can alert drivers from 1,000 yards away about speed gun radars. Drivers can then slow down and when out of the range of the officers, continue at excessive speeds. 

Last night, the Police Service said seven drivers were charged with exceeding the speed limit during an operation conducted by the Traffic and Highway Patrol Branch along the east bound lane of the Audrey Jeffers Highway yesterday afternoon.

Among those charged was a motorist who was ticketed with being five kilometres over the 80 kilometres speed limit, the release stated.

Those charged have until July 19 to pay the $1,000 fine.

Section 62 of the Motor and Road Traffic Act states, a person shall not: (a) equip a motor vehicle with; or (b) use, buy, possess, manufacture, sell, or otherwise distribute, any device that is designed for jamming, scrambling, neutralising, disabling, or otherwise interfering with a speed measuring device used by a constable to measure the speed at which a person is driving a motor vehicle.

In a telephone interview with the T&T Guardian earlier this week, co-ordinator of the Road Safety Project, Brent Batson said police officers will not be standing at the side of the road hoping to catch a speedsters.

 He added that the devices can be operated from a vehicle and there would be times when the police might utilise the tripod mount but that was not the ideal. 

Speaking on the issue at the passing out parade of 167 police officers on Wednesday at the Police Academy, St James, acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams said everything was in place for the use of the speed guns including the certification of officers using them. He warned motorist to “be careful on the roadway.”

“There has been no recent change in the speed limit in the T&T, it is about compliance. People are now concerned about prosecution and I am happy that they are concerned about that because it is impacting the way people behave on the roadway,” Williams said. 

And Works and Transport Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said people have been slowing down as a result of the use of speed measuring devices used by police on the roads, Works Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said yesterday.

Speaking at yesterday’s the post-Cabinet media briefing, Hinds said: “We’re very impressed with the fact drivers have been discernibly slowing down.”

Noting there had been 52 road deaths so far this year, he also said the Police Commissioner had corrected reports about the start-up use of the devices, clarifying that they are indeed in effect. He said public views will continue to be considered by the experts in and out of the Ministry in light of an online petition to increase the speed limit on highways from 80 kph to 120 kph. —with reporting by Gail Alexander

Director of the Children’s Authority Sharifa Ali-Abdullah yesterday revealed that 5,500 sexual abuse, neglect, physical abuse and lack of care and guardianship cases were reported to the authority in the last 12 months.

From May 18, last year to February 17, the authority had initially reported 4,158 cases.

And between February 18 to yesterday there were an additional 1,342 cases of abuse reported.

Of the 1,000 cases of sexual abuse that were reported, 142 children were in sexual relationships with adult men which was being condoned and accepted by society, with 61 of them becoming pregnant or have had a child.

It was also disclosed that 500 of the 5,500 reports were emergency cases, with 120 children removed from the home and put into foster care, children’s homes and other places of safety.

The authority is also treating with 180 children whose parents were victims of crime, or accused of committed criminal offences, while just under 200 child offenders were referred to them — two of which were offences for robbery and possession of marijuana.

These was some of the figures and details Ali-Abdullah outlined at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port-of Spain, during a Child Protection workshop with media practitioners yesterday. Among those who also spoke were president of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers Wesley Gibbings, media consultant Sunity Maharaj and the authority’s chairman Stephanie Daly, SC.

Ali-Abdullah said in the first month of the authority’s operation there were 500 cases of abuse reported.

Since then, she said “we have not stopped counting.” On a monthly basis, the authority receives on average 400 to 500 reports.

In two weeks, Ali-Abdullah said the authority would celebrate it first anniversary with a “heavy heart,” as the number of cases coming to them were shocking and growing. 

She admitted that the number of child abuse and neglect cases were worse than the authority had “anticipated.”

What was also disturbing, Ali-Abdullah said  was that “50” of the 61 children “are pregnant at this time.” 

So far, the authority has approved licences for two of 50 children’s community residences, which they have to monitor.

Ali-Abdullah said that area was challenging since “more than 35 of these homes do not receive any financial assistance from the State. It is something we have been advocating for since these are private-run entities and we are expecting them to raise security and quality standards.”

She said many of the designated homes have been refusing acceptance of children over the age of 12 “particularly pregnant girls with challenging behaviours, special needs children and HIV positive children.”

 Agreeing that the homes need financial resources to run its affairs, Ali-Abdullah pleaded with them to accept the children, especially those who have no where to turn to.

While the authority’s role is to remove children from imminent danger, Ali-Abdullah said once a report comes to them, they are mandated to act and remove the child to a place of safety.

In some cases, Ali-Abdullah said they are stuck with some cases where placement was difficult. She also explained that neglect was fast becoming an issue for the authority.

“We are finding a lot of children who are left unsupervised. We have gotten reports of babies in a front porches, children living in pavilions. There was a child who was living in a abandoned house and had fleas. She was sleeping there after being sexually abused and no place to go.”

Ali-Abdullah also recognised that sexual abuse was fast becoming a growing issue in Tobago.

She said what they have been observing was that a child may come in for neglect “but when we look further, it may be sexual abuse.”

As the public debate on abortion continues in T&T, Medical Chief of Staff of Mt Hope Women’s Hospital Dr Karen Sohan says that the laws of T&T allows abortion for medical reasons.

Speaking with the T&T Guardian during a one-on-one interview on Tuesday at the hospital, Sohan said that such a pregnancy can only be terminated 12 weeks and over, not before, as the organs are formed by 12 weeks.

Explaining the differences between social termination and termination for medical health reasons, Sohan said social termination was illegal in T&T.

“This is where the woman’s health is well and so the baby’s health. Whereas, we have to recognise that wherever professionals practices in a country you have to stick to the laws of a country. We are all familiar with the law in T&T, that a woman is allowed a termination of pregnancy if it affects her health and health means physical, mental and psychological well being. And, this is a very broad category by definition,” Sohan said.

She said that even if a termination is advised for medical reasons under the law, no woman can be bullied to make a decision to go ahead with it. She said that it was up for the mother to make that final decision.

Giving a recent case as an example, Sohan said a woman with stage 4 cancer found out that she was pregnant and the only thing to save her life was for her to undergo chemotherapy, however, the woman declined because if given chemo it would have been a sure death sentence for the baby. Sohan said that the woman was determined to continue with the pregnancy.

“Can you imagine the emotions here? Sometimes we too are drained in trying to counsel mothers like her. When I knew what would have been the end result, this woman made a decision and we respected that,” Sohan said.

In the end, the mother gave birth to a healthy baby, however, she died right after.

Mothers like her, although advised of inducing labour (termination for medical reasons), according to Sohan, are offered medical and spiritual counselling.

“What we try to do is to support them when they are in situations like this as it is a highly emotional and sensitive issue,” Sohan said.

Sohan said that in such cases a conference is held where obstetricians, gynaecologist’s, Chiefs of Staff,  cardiologists, specialist doctors, religious leaders and family members are invited for a deliberation once a recommendation is made.

“As a clinician I can give the woman options. So, we usually say to the woman ‘Ma’am you have options, either you can continue the pregnancy or the option of inducing labour now because we feel this pregnancy carries a significant risk to health. At the end of the day it is the woman who makes the final decision. I cannot bully any woman to accept termination,” Sohan said.

Another reason for legal abortion can be rape, which can affect the woman psychologically and emotionally.

 “Let’s say a teen is raped, these are issues we don’t talk about openly, so it is not brought to the attention that we caregivers have to deal with this and make an assessment. If a child is in secondary school and is raped by a family member how does that affect the psychological well being?” 

In cases where foetal abnormalities occur, including as a result of microcephaly and the Zika virus, Sohan said that much information and knowledge as possible is being acquired so that patients can be given accurate information so that they can make their own decisions properly.

She disclosed that if a woman contracts the Zika virus in the first trimester it does not mean that the same risk is possible if another woman contracts Zika in the third trimester.

“We are beginning to understand that before ten weeks the risk is the highest and that is because the brain cells formed in one area of the brain and have to migrate to another area, they are (still considered) most immature and most sensitive. If one gets infected in the first and second trimester then by 20-24 weeks you will know what is happening with that brain and then its up to a foetal medicine expert to make an assessment as to how severe the brain is affected,” Sohan said.

She also revealed that not all women who get the Zika virus transmit it to their babies and therefore advised on regular quality ultra sounds being done.

Generous Trinidadians have responded to an appeal by Guyanese national Kumar Shivpersaud to help send the body of his murdered friend and countryman Khemraj Persaud back home for burial.

Persaud’s body was flown back to his Berbice, Guyana home yesterday, 10 days after he was murdered. Shivpersaud said his parents will receive the body. 

Funeral arrangements have been made for Saturday.

Shivpersaud, on Wednesday, thanked many individuals and cricket teams Persaud represented in the eight years he has been visiting and working in Trinidad, for their generosity.

“Without their support, we would have never been able to send his body back home to Guyana, because he comes from a poor family.”

Shivpersaud said he was not entrusted with the funeral collection, so he could not say how much money was received. 

“But there is a list of all the names of the people who contributed. Most of it was used to pay Boodoo’s Funeral Home, where the body was stored and for his flight back to Guyana. There is some left and that would be given to his (Khemraj’s) parents.”

Persaud, 30, was shot to death at Duncan Village, La Romaine, on April 25. His friend, Guyanese Sean Boodhoo, with whom he shared an apartment, was also shot and remains warded at the San Fernando General Hospital.

The two men were employed in construction work in T&T.

To date, police have not made any arrests and suspect that shooter may have fled to Venezuela.

Shivpersaud said he hoping the suspect is caught and convicted for the crime but left everything in the hands of the police.

According to a police report, the suspect, while visiting a relative in the apartment building where Persaud and Boodhoo lived, reportedly urinated on a washing machine the men used.

During an argument Boodhoo, who witnessed the act, chastised the suspect. Persaud who was inside the apartment came out and tried to quell the disturbance. However, the suspect went to his parked vehicle, took out a gun and opened fire, hitting both men.

Persaud was shot twice in the head and died on the spot. Boodhoo was shot in the chest and was taken to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. 

Shivpersaud said he visited Boodhoo on Tuesday and he is recovering well. 

Investigations are continuing.

Retrenched OAS Construtora employees are calling on the company to break their silence over retroactive salaries and severance pay. 

Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union shop steward and former safety officer, Jameel Thomas, told the T&T Guardian yesterday that workers have stopped receiving salary payments and are now in the dark as to whether they will receive any more money.

In an interview yesterday, Thomas said according to the retrenchment letters the 850 OAS workers were given earlier this year, they were supposed to receive salary payments in lieu of the 45-day notice from the company. 

“OAS management gave all of the workers a legally binding letter stating that we would be paid at certain dates and that we were to be paid salaries in lieu of the 45-day notice,” Thomas said. 

“We were supposed to receive three bi-monthly salaries on April 7, 22 and May 3. We only received money on April 7 and have not received any since then.”

On March 15, OAS sent home 850 workers and a promise was made to pay the workers outstanding salaries for the periods ending February 29 and March 15. Although workers were not required to work between the lay off date and April 25, they were promised salaries for the period April 7, 22 and May 2. 

Severance benefits, including outstanding fringe benefits and unused vacation leave, are scheduled to be paid on or before May 25. 

But Thomas said now the ex-workers are being left to wonder when they will be paid as repeated efforts to contact OAS management have failed.

He said last Friday a group of about 30 workers visited the Golconda office but were unable to get any information from workers stationed there.

“Workers have rent to pay, children to send to school. We need to know what is going on. We don’t know if the managers in Trinidad or if they left.”

Thomas said inclusive of severance pay, workers are owed between $15,000 to $35,000.