A penchant for fish broth almost cost 50-year-old Amanda Lalla her life on Sunday. Lalla, who lives in Sea Lots, Port-of-Spain, was one of the survivors of Sunday’s accident on the Beetham Highway, which took the lives of mother Haydee Paul and her daughters Ruthie, eight, and Shakira, seven.

Yesterday, Lalla’s daughter Devika recalled her mother was on the way back from the Central Market when a car driven by an off-duty policeman ran off the road near Pioneer Drive and ran into a group of people. “Mammy tell me she feeling for fish broth so she would go with me to the market to buy the fish,” Devika Lalla recounted of the conversation she had with her mother before they left for the market, during an interview at the Guardian building in Port-of-Spain yesterday. 

“I does go market on Saturday, but I went to buy a piece of cheese to make macaroni pie for my two children.” The mother and daughter had met neighbour Ryan Rampersad, 20, as he shut his gate. He, too, was on his way to the market, yards from his home. His mission was to buy lentil peas for his grandmother and bait to go fishing later that day. On reaching the market, the group went their separate ways, only to coincidentally meet again on the way home. 

Sea Lots accident survivors still critical

Two of the three are yet to reach home. Rampersad and Amanda Lalla remained warded in critical condition at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital yesterday. Recalling what occurred after they got to the other side of the highway, Devika said: “We crossed the road and all I feel is piece of car hit me in my leg…I drop my bag and run. When I turn around I see a cloud of smoke, everybody goods on the ground and Mammy lying down on she belly like a frog in the middle of the road.” 

Swearing she, too, would have died had she not run, Devika said she saw Haydee Paul pinned under the car and her daughters Ruthie and Shakira motionless with visible wounds to their heads. “Mammy had a big cut by she neck and there was blood leaking from her mouth, but I see she was still breathing,” she said.

Devika said she immediately called her husband, a fire officer assigned to the Tunapuna Fire Station. “He had time to leave Tunapuna and reach there before an ambulance come,” she complained. “The papers say the ambulance reach in half hour, it must be take an hour and more before it come.”

Family members who arrived at the scene started to become frantic as they witnessed the injured people bleeding profusely in clear sight, Devika said. “We had to flag down a pickup. We put Mammy and Ryan in the tray and take them to the hospital,” she said, adding there was no room for the other injured pedestrian, Abigail Assing. On Monday, Amanda Lalla and Rampersad were taken to the St Clair Medical Centre for CT scans.

Devika said doctors said her mother had suffered brain damage, two broken legs and a broken arm. In the interim, Devika said, she has been taking care of her siblings, 22 and 11. She said the family remains positive and they are entrusting their mother’s life to God. “Mammy was a woman of God, she would always be praying. Look how many lives were lost, there has to be a reason she is alive,” she said. 

Amanda Lalla was taken off sedatives yesterday and doctors are awaiting results of additional tests, Devika said. The family is trying to get friends and relatives to donate blood. Rampersad’s mother, Pearl James, said yesterday he had been sedated since being taken to hospital. However, James said the one-way conversations she has had with her son since then were becoming weary and worrisome. 

“Its torturous knowing that you had a healthy breathing child, walking around as normal, and now this is what reality faces you with,” James said. “My greatest fear is losing my child,” James said, fighting hard to hold back the tears. She lamented the quality of care her son is receiving.

“For simple things they don’t have the equipment. For a CT scan you have to transfer him,” she said, adding the tragedy has had a numbing effect on his two children, aged two years and nine months. “They had to take a CT scan, they took him yesterday to St Clair for the scan, but they don’t have anybody to read it. So they have to wait until they get someone, and I don’t know when that will be. 

“Take him out of there, take him to West Shore, or St Clair where he can get proper treatment.” 

Turmoil surrounding the leadership style of Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) CEO Ameena Ali has led to the resignation of six senior managers in the last month, while another three are now seeking compensation packages to end their contracts early, Guardian Media Ltd has learned.

The legal proceedings against the ERHA could see the authority having to pay out $3 million to bring an early end to the tenures of three senior managers, among them ERHA general manager of human resources Tricia Leela, legal documents obtained by GML indicate. Attorney Vanessa Gopaul, who represents Leela, has sent a letter to ERHA chairman Dr Stephen Bhagan seeking over $1 million in exchange for her client’s premature termination of her tenure. GML obtained a copy of the letter.

But RHA sources say Leela is not the only manager seeking what many at the authority are now calling “constructive dismissal” packages. Manager of legal and corporate affairs Gabrielle Gellineau and the manager of cost and management accounting are also requesting similar compensation for their early departure.

Sources at the authority, who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of victimisation, said over the past month, six managers left due to issues with Ali’s management style. Three of them resigned, two county medical officers of health transferred and one chose not to renew his contact. GML understands that all of the legal letters matters dealing with the departure of the former employees raised “a deterioration in relations” with Ali as the “reason for job dissatisfaction.”

One employee said, “This woman does not know how to speak or treat us…it is as if we are prisoners…speaking to an animal is much better than the way she speaks to us.” In December 2013, reports surfaced that the ERHA board, advised by Senior Counsel Seenath Jairam, had taken a decision to fire Ali as CEO. At the time, issues of her strained relationship with employees were also raised. 

However, Health Minister Fuad Khan stepped in and is reported to have reprimanded directors of the board for not following due process, and Ali was reinstated. Ali was appointed on November 1, 2013, and sources said she is on a customary six-month probationary period which ends on April 1. Contacted yesterday, however, Khan said Ali was being targeted because she was following rules and procedures. This, he said, did not do down well with the managers and directors. 

Khan said the results were there, and directed GML to acquire the audited HR report which Ali had ordered. He also dismissed the claims made by the departing managers, saying it was all in reaction to the findings of the audit. Khan said Cabinet had also taken a decision to revoke the appointments of several ERHA directors. “The revocation letters have not yet been drafted, but the decision was taken,” he said.

Disputed issues

Disputed issues

In a separate letter highlighting her reasons for seeking an early departure from the authority, Gabrielle Gellineau, an attorney, wrote on her own behalf as GM of legal and corporate affairs. The letter said the CEO told her she should “advise” that one Rennick Spencer should be fired. But after investigations, Gellineau said she found there were no grounds for dismissal.

Gellineau also catalogued a breakdown in relations with Ali over discussions about another employee. The letter reads: “Ms Ali told me if she was CEO when that decision was made and I gave her that advice, she would have fired me. Ms Ali repeated that statement approximately three times. Ms Ali then told me that I felt I was on holiday…”

In a separate legal letter from firm KR Lalla and Company, the lawyers took the RHA to task after a board paper, BOD/2014/031, said the manager of cost and accounting, Sushma Brahma Persad, had verified funding for a project at the Sangre Grande hospital. But KR Lalla and Co wrote that their client, Ms Persad, “categorically denies doing so.” The letter reads: “Your actions mentioned above are not only dishonest and unethical but attempts and is designed to implicate our client in a fraudulent misrepresentation to the board.”

CEO’s credentials

CEO’s credentials

Insiders also raised concerns over Ali’s qualifications for the post of CEO. An advertisement on the vacancy list for the post shows a postgraduate degree as a minimum requirement. But questions have been raised as to whether Ali possesses such a qualification. Contacted by phone yesterday, Ali refused to confirm whether she has postgraduate qualifications. “I am sure you can understand that I cannot comment without approval of the board,” she said.

Pressed further on her qualifications for the sake of accuracy, she said, “You can do whatever you want.” But Khan vouched for Ali, saying she obtained the PG equivalent, a legal education certificate from the Hugh Wooding Law School. However, online checks of the law school’s list of graduates from the years 1975 to 2013 did not find the name Ameena Ali appearing. The law school also told GML it does not offer postgraduate degrees. The LEC offered is a diploma and allows those who have attained a law degree to practise.

Departures

BOX 

ERHA departures
Manager ISIT: resigned
Manager OSH: resigned
General manager hospital services: resigned
Manager, financial accounting: contract not renewed
2 county medical officers of health: transferred 

“I feel compelled to say the environmental impacts have not been properly studied.” This is the conclusion arrived at by one ecologist who presented information before the Joint Consultative Council (JCC) on the controversial Debe to Mon Desir leg of the highway to Point Fortin. He has requested anonymity, as he works for an international company and both he and the company are fearful of political backlash, especially with the general election less than one year away. 

The ecologist has scoured through close to 800 pages of Environmental Impact Assessments and supporting documents on the highway, with emphasis on the Debe to Mon Desir leg currently being challenged by the Highway Re-route Movement. He is concerned over how the environment and wildlife will fare in light of insufficient mitigation to the potential hazards defined in various reports connected to the project.

He said,“The question is not whether the highway should be built, the question is when we build such highways and spend so much money, that it is built without creating problems in the future.” But mega engineering projects have been successfully completed in environmentally sensitive areas all over the globe. For instance, Walt Disney World Orlando has been built on swamp land.

Some writers also tell of New Orleans, the sinking city, being more like the world’s most habitable swamp—and subject to years of flood engineering. We challenged the ecologist—What is it with the Debe to Mon Desir leg and does the Highway Re-route Movement (HRM) have a point? He said many of the impacts will be permanent and unavoidable but the residual impacts of the project was deemed to be low.

“I was looking at the mitigations (for impacts ranked as high). For instance, the sensitive and endangered species, when I looked at the mitigations, there were very few… yet the ranking was downgraded to low,” he explained. The Institute of Marine Affairs documented eight such impacts:
1. Loss of habitat
2. Fragmentation of wetland habitat
3. Altered hydrological conditions from inception and diversion of water sources to wetland
4. Loss of permeable surfaces
5. Increased flooding potential
6. Increased pollution from vehicles
7. Increased colonisation of invasive species
8. Increased squatting 

There has been discord between the HRM and the National Infrastructural Development Company Ltd (Nidco) on the issue, with the former saying the route passes through wetlands and the latter denying this—contending that the land-form has since changed. “Neither is correct, because the assessments done by the IMA, the Meteorological Society and the EIA point that it is really in the areas which drain into the wetland itself,” the ecologist said.

According to the Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA) study, he said the highway’s alignment in the contentious segment passes through three major wetland types where the black mangrove (Avicenna germnanis) is the most predominant vegetation—the Oropouche River, Coora River and the marshland at Puzzle Island. The EIA records several rare and endangered animals at risk in these habitat, including Sulphury Fly Catcher (rare), Blue and Yellow Macaw (endangered) and the Scarlet Ibis (vulnerable).

But the ecologist believes not enough protection is being afforded to the country's rich wildlife. “When you look at the endangered animals listed in the EIA, which one has been protected by the EIA? None. In all cases it said they could not be protected and there will be a natural loss based on the project.”

Another organisation to add expertise on the project, he said, was the T&T Meteorological Society, which expressed concern with potential flooding and landslides. It said the removal of vegetation, cutting of slopes, back filling and paving would magnify the drainage problems. “If you are not careful, the work will affect where run off drains… it drains into the Mosquito Creek area, which is a big fisheries bed as well.”

But isn't there an organisation founded in 1995 responsible for protecting the environment? The Armstrong Report catalogued the EMA’s assessment of the EIA, declaring it deficient in the following ways.
1. There was insufficient detail with respect to the socio-cultural environment and more details were needed.
2. There appeared to be a lack of adequate consultation with agricultural land owners.
3. There was no clear provision for the compensation of people who stood to lose property.
4. There was no indication of arrangements for individuals, households, businesses and farmers to be displaced by the right-of-way (ROW), by resettlement or otherwise. 

According to the JCC’s findings, the EIA was submitted to the EMA in February 2009 and was rejected. But the CEC was granted one year later, even though the concerns were not addressed, according to the report. It wrote, “The CEC was issued on April 20, 2010, although the administrative records at the EMA provided no additional information to determine the basis of its decision. 

“The opinion of the HRC is that the EIA was not acceptable and should have been rejected and returned to the applicant. It seems that the EMA relented without having the applicant provide adequate responses.” The ecologist pointed out that the JCC’s ability to get conclusive evidence may have been stymied because of a lack of proper records on the project.

“There are few things on record… in fact, the JCC could find no record of any submittals after the EMA requested further information, yet the CEC was still approved,” the ecologist said. He said the present predicament is a serious situation and laments that the truth is not being told.

“If you know now in hindsight that some of the impacts, based on future determinations, are bigger than you thought… wouldn't it make sense to take another look rather than make a big mistake for the nation?” Like many others, the expert agrees that the highway is a must, but mitigation ought to be strengthened.

The man whose expertise lies at the centre of the Solomon Hochoy Highway extension to Point Fortin, Dr Rae Furlonge, amid all the controversy, stands by the design. Furlonge, a senior traffic engineer, was contracted by the National Insurance Development Company (Nidco) to make recommendations on how to facilitate the demands of traffic but minimise the disruption and impact. He says: “I’m not pulling punches I have nothing to hide and nothing to gain by hiding anything.”

The studies he led uncovered that more than 100,000 vehicles pass in and out of the southland. Further to this, he says while there are many inter and intra southland transits, “we found that a lot of traffic travelling from North to external, past San Fernando to get down to areas on the western and eastern sides of the peninsula.” Furlonge says he used a scientific approach and his views were based on analyses of traffic counts, origins and destination and travel times.

Antagonists are contesting the viability of many legs of the network, saying there was no need to link rural hubs, but his studies showed that Siparia and Point Fortin were the most inaccessible towns. The highway is designed with a practical capacity of 1,600 cars an hour and the route is primarily the same as proposed by consultant LEA-Trintoplan in 2005. Furlonge said the route was designed to fit traffic needs until 2035 and would accommodate an annual two per cent increase in vehicles.

That’s close to two 200,000 vehicles 20 years from now. A second study using geographic information systems (GIS) was undertaken and had similar findings. It involves a computer programme selecting the best route by working in restrictions, such as wetlands, protected areas, historical sites and gas pipelines. “Amazingly, the computer-generated route was very close to what the manual route done by LEA-Trintoplan achieved,” Furlonge said. 

Asked to settle the controversy “does the route pass through wetlands?” he pointed at a map showing the lagoon in blue, with the road nowhere close. “Look where the lagoon area is. This is the highway, the west side, and this is Mon Desir and Debe. Where are you seeing blue?”

His team also analysed the initial route proposed by the Highway Re-route Movement (HRM). “That’s absurd, because you are simply looking at lines and saying let it function to move traffic,” was his initial reaction. The HRM proposed the expansion of existing local roads into arterial roads, something Furlonge says can never take place in a first-world territory.

“You just want to use roads willy-nilly? Those are local roads. People must be able to walk the roads comfortably,” he said. But Furlonge admitted that while the highway was a must, it was not the solution to traffic. He explained the highway addressed the baseline need for connectivity but it certainly was not the solution, especially as the country approached vehicle saturation.

What is needed, he says, are policies to manage road use since each person in the country travelled by vehicle at least once every day.  The highway, he maintains, provides accessibility to the regions to and within the region’s most traversed areas.

•Conclusion of five-part series tomorrow

The Solomon Hochoy Highway extension to Point Fortin project is 34 per cent complete and with several sections already open, traffic experts say the effects are already being felt. Despite the project having its roots with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), at a subsequent meeting with the bank in 2010 it indicated its unwillingness to fund the project.

Several financial experts explained it had become a norm for Government to seek international funding with low-interest loans for mega development projects like these. Former Minister of Planning, Mary King, who was at that 2010 meeting, said the IDB cited improper tendering processes, not enough local involvement and a steep tender prices for their refusal.

The project carried an engineer’s price tag of $3.5 billion, but the Brazilian firm Construtora OAS won the tender for the project with the lowest bid of $5.3 billion, with an additional $2 billion spent on the acquisition of land and relocations—taking the total cost to $7.3 billion. Contracts like this, on international tender, follow the Fidic model, which covers everything from the discovery of fossils to delays, variations and termination.

Commercial advocate Terrence Bharath commented on the possible penalties involved if the project is to be temporarily halted, re-routed or terminated altogether. He explains: “Fidic is an international standard of terms and conditions of contracts used to govern projects across the world.”

He says these universal terms and conditions become important in cases where foreign firms operate on local soil. OAS, he says, having completed many such projects internationally, would be cognisant of the many bumps to be encountered along the road. “Under Fidic, it typically provides that nine out of ten times, if a problem occurs beyond their control: your problem, not mine,” Bharath said.

As a result, the foreign company may be entitled to demand compensation for ordered material, mobilisation and demobilisation. Fidic provides for temporary work stoppages or delays due to natural disasters, wars, and even protests. “The Highway Re-route Movement (HRM) chaining themselves to equipment and stopping work from happening is nothing that is glaringly out of the ordinary," the attorney said.

And while the employer (in this case the State) usually bears the brunt of the cost, OAS must serve a notice to Nidco within 28 days to ask for an extension or compensation. One such incident occurred in 2012. A court affidavit filed by OAS reads: “When OAS attempted to carry out works, they impeded and threatened our workmen and other personnel. This has contributed to delays as OAS was unable to carry on works on the site during this period.”

Compensation might certainly be an entitlement, explained Bharath. GML could not confirm whether OAS pursued that issue. “The size and value of the contract demands some sort of mutual understanding between parties,” Bharath added, saying OAS may not necessarily make demands for every inconsistency. But the company did not take things lightly when an incident occurred later that year.

OAS wrote: “Members of the Highway Re-route Movement and persons unknown damaged pieces of our equipment including GPS surveying equipment valued over £50,000 and hurled abuses at our workmen and other personnel.” OAS did, in this instance, request monetary compensation.

“What the clauses would provide there—one would look to see if OAS was negligent in leaving equipment unprotected, and if they were not, and this was a malicious act, then that cost would be passed on to the State,” Bharath explained. The HRM is calling for a re-route of the Debe to Mon Desir section of the highway, but because the project was a design-and-build package, this would likely involve a price variation.

Bharath says: “There is flexibility always in these contracts for variation, but again the project manager, National Insurance Development Company (Nidco), and the State will ultimately pay. The question is, is the variation so great that it will cause a deviation from what was originally intended?”

But the situation could be more complex, as OAS would have entered into contracts with local sub-contractors. Variations can involve amended terms or termination altogether. “All these companies would have subcontracts with the main contractor (OAS) who then becomes liable to claims under those subcontracts. That (claims) would eventually be passed on to Nidco and the State,” Bharath said.

As Bharath puts it, these contracts are governed by one golden rule: “When these contractors come into your country, they always make it clear in the contracts that whatever happens on your soil and it’s not my fault, I’m always compensated in a certain way.”

more info
According to Fidic it's always the employers prerogative to terminate the contractor, but not without paying these costs:
•Return performance security
•Pay for the amount of work done.
•Cost of plant and material ordered for work
•Cost incurred by expectation of completed works
•Cost of removal of temporary works
•Cost of repatriation of staff and labour

The amount of any loss of profit or other loss or damage sustained as a result of this termination

Multi-media journalist Urvashi Tiwari-Roopnarine has been investigating T&T’s flourishing illegal drug trade for the past several weeks. That journey has taken her to several parts of the country for extensive interviews with several people involved in the trade, people who have been researching it and members of the law enforcement agencies charged with trying to prevent the activity.

Today, she chats with some sources who have been involved in the activity or seen it on a regular basis in part two of her six-part series on the trade titled Cracks in Our Borders.

The geographical location of Trinidad and Tobago is not the reason the country is a preferred transit point for international drug cartels drug researcher Darius Figueira says. Figueira says drug smugglers are mainly attracted to regions where the transit countries are open to infiltration. “What you are looking for is states with porous borders, ridiculously porous borders and in the Caribbean we are noted for our porous borders,” Figueira told Guardian Media Limited.

The United Nations, the International Organisation for Migration and the United States’ Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) all describe of T&T’s borders as porous. The DEA believes the drugs enter transit points via high speed boats to unmanned coastal areas, but Figueira says illicit items are entering in many different ways, including “containerised cargo, speed boats, mixing product in with ‘legal ones’ and swallowers/mules.”

In T&T there are two legal air ports and 13 legal sea ports of entry. But Professor Andy Knight, head of International Relations at the University of the West Indies, says securing the “illegal” ports or unmanned coastal areas is a challenge for law enforcement members. “Trinidad has a long border to monitor along and not enough resources to monitor. It makes it easier for drug runners to use Trinidad as a transit point,” Knight said.

Fishermen across the country serve as the eyes at sea, taking in boats as they go and come. Many of them either merely observe or, lured by the prospect of making a lot of fast money, become part of the illegal drug trade A Moruga fisherman said that region is busy with such illegal activity.  

“Things happen here, things is happening on the South Eastern coast. I does be on the water at night twenty-four seven. I does see movements of suspicious vessels all over the place and I sees not a Coast Guard,” he said. Cedros is also another known popular landing point for drug shipments. A fisherman in the North meanwhile said drug runners entering through unmanned ports was a regular occurrence.

 “I have been fishing many nights and boats with no lights speeding past from Trinidad to Venezuela. Sometimes I in the Bocas fishing and a pirogue will pass and about an hour after a Venezuelan boat will pass.” The illicit cargo, both guns and drugs, is transferred from boat to boat. There’s another method, the drop-off, which sees neither party at the same location at the same time.

Knight has himself gone on the ground to do his own research on this method of operations. “Some islands on the North West are used as drop off points for some of these drugs, and you don’t know if it may be a fisherman in those waters picking up and carrying the drugs. It therefore becomes complex for the Coast Guard to deal with this problem.”

Record haul at Monos Island
In 2005, 1.75 tonnes of cocaine were seized at Monos Islands. The drugs carried a street value of $700 million. An Uzi machine gun, four handguns, two assault rifles and 247 rounds of assorted ammunition were also seized. Two Trinidadians, five Venezuelans and an Antiguan were arrested.

$30,000 a trip
Another fisherman gave an account of what he has seen first-hand. “The Venezuelans come in and would go on the island on a marked spot and hide the drugs overnight. The next team would pick it up and run ashore with it.” This method is not always fool-proof as either Coast Guard members, rival drug gangs or people merely looking to profit indirectly, could get to it before the intended pick-up team, the fisherman later explained.

“There is fellows—like pirates—who specialise in robbing drug runners. As a drug runner you don’t only have to look out for the Coast Guard, cause it have other fellows marking you to take it from you," he said. The profits from “running drugs” prove to be so lucrative that even talented and successful fishermen have been abandoning their trade. “When you go for drugs you could make $30,000 as a runner. I am telling you, as a fisherman who run and go for drugs you could make $30,000 a night. 

“Who would want to take their money and buy gas and bait and when you go out you not guaranteed to catch a fly?” the fisherman rationalised. But while drugs are one evil, he says there is another which make the fishermen think twice to accept a job.
“Fellows who does move drugs fraid guns. Fellows who does take work, strangely enough, once guns involved they want to back out.” He said there was also little fear of being caught by the Coast Guard. 

Yet there is another element to this, as sometimes those given the responsibility for protecting the country’s borders are also perpetrators of the crime. “A lot of drug runners does get caught too, but because the Coast Guard men keeping the drugs they not going to arrest you. They going to let you go, but seize your drugs.”

Griffith responds
Contacted on this allegation, Minister of National Security Gary Griffith said while corruption of members of the Coast Guard was possible, it was important for the fishermen to make formal reports so that such individuals could be “weeded out” from the service. Addressing T&T’s borders, Griffith said he believed they are safe compared to other islands in the region.

“Many times people will criticise us for this road march we continue to hear about the borders being porous, but it is a fact in comparison to many other islands and the size of T&T, we have done pretty well," Griffith said.

Multi-media journalist Urvashi Tiwari-Roopnarine has been investigating T&T’s flourishing illegal drug trade for the past several weeks. That journey has taken her to several parts of the country for extensive interviews with several people involved in the trade, people who have been researching it and members of the law enforcement agencies and government charged with trying to prevent the activity.

Today, she looks at the age-old theory that there may be state involvement in the trade and the system set up to detect illegal drug shipments in part four of her six-part series on the trade titled Cracks in Our Borders.

Head of International Relations at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Professor Andy Knight and drug trade researcher Darius Figueira both believe there is State involvement in the international drug trade.

They argue that the only way narcotics can be successfully moved in and out of T&T as successfully as it has been over the years, with little or no detection, is with the cooperation of the State and its agencies.

“I can’t say for sure which parliamentarians, government sources are being corrupted by drug traffickers, but I’m sure this happens and sometimes it captures the state,” Knight told Guardian Media Limited’s Enterprise Desk.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if, for example, some drug cartels are able to get some politicians by simply giving them cash necessary to fund political campaigns to get him into power.” 

Such an investment by a drug cartel would reap dividends since payback would be guaranteed.

“Once in power, the cartel would one day demand something, whether it’s closing a blind eye or maybe some money is used to corrupt the police force or the military force.”

Even the Jamaican Gleaner wrote of this possibility in a February 2002 editorial, saying party financing from the private sector has significantly decreased over the years.

“The contamination of the electoral process and party finance by drug money has therefore become a clear and present danger across the Caribbean,” the paper wrote.

In 1989, 50 police officers were suspended and then commissioner of police Randolph Burroughs resigned after allegations of their involvement in a drug cartel. 

The International Security Sector Advisory Team’s current country profile of T&T states, “In the early 2000s, the government faced accusations that many high-level officials ...had ties to gang leaders.”

Give to get back

Figueira said this allegation is nothing new.

“That’s the oldest tactic, starting with Pablo Escobar, corrupting officials of the state. And how do you corrupt them, by literally deluging them with money.”

He added, “Every dollar you spend to corrupt the state, you are in fact purchasing impunity. Governments are willing to pick low lying fruit— the easiest application to win the most votes.”

Explaining this, he said the drug of choice in Trinidad—marijuana—may be targeted while the cocaine is allowed to come into the country.

Marijuana can be locally grown and while there is a vast difference in the profit margin between cocaine and marijuana, the latter activity at least has the advantage of allowing the drug cartels to conduct it inland in some of the dense forests available.

The US Department of State’s 2014 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report on T&T also uncovered a new trend where Jamaican nationals in this country barter shipments of marijuana for cocaine for re-export.

MORE INFO

Drug trade researcher Darius Figueira gave an insight into the trading of drugs

• One kilo of cocaine costing US$1,500, if successfully trafficked to Europe, wholesales for about US$50,000. That’s almost 33 times its cost and a profit of over 300 per cent.

• Ten per cent of the profit from drugs goes to traffickers.

GRIFFITH: BORDERS NOT POROUS

Minister of National Security Gary Griffith says T&T borders are comparatively safe.

“Many times people will criticise us for this road march we continue to hear about the borders being porous, but in fact in comparison to many other islands and the size of T&T we have done pretty well,” he told GML.

In 2006, the then government invested in a $130 million Israeli 360 degree coastal radar system. Ten radar sites across the country were erected and the data obtained was supposed to be transmitted to the national radar centre for monitoring.

Years later, reports surfaced that the radars were not functional. In 2011 the system was upgraded and repaired, Griffith said, but it is now all about how the intelligence gained from the system is used.

“Now that we have locked down the radar with that 360 degree what happens next? It’s all well and good people at the radar centre can monitor movements, but how do you respond to it?”

HOLES IN RADAR NET

​

The GML team visited eight of the 10 sites across the country— San Fernando Hill, Toco, Manzanilla, Moruga, Cedros, Point Galeota, Charlotteville and Bacolet. The two others, we were told, are located in Staubles Bay and Chacachacare.

Two of the eight radar sites were not functional. The radar at Manzanilla was motionless and residents said it had been that way for the past 10 years. The one at Point Galeota was missing—the tower stood erect but there was no radar at the top.

Griffith said the locations are not hidden but are guarded.

“For obvious reasons you would not want to pinpoint areas where these things are. There are concerns of sabotage,” he said.

“The more people know, they try to see who working there, they can be—it’s not top secret but we do not expose to the public, to let them know exactly where the radar centres are.”

Told that the two non-functional radars were adjoining each other and meant that almost 50 miles of coastline were unprotected, Griffith said, “Obviously I will not make mention of areas which there may be blind spots, obviously for national security reasons.

“However, if one aspect is down there are others that overlap. There are other radars which would overlap into those which you cited, so it’s not to give the impression that because it’s not spinning, it’s automatically seen that these things are not working.”

Multi-media journalist Urvashi Tiwari-Roopnarine has been investigating T&T’s flourishing illegal drug trade for the past several weeks. That journey has taken her to several parts of the country for extensive interviews with several people involved in the trade, people who have been researching it and members of the law enforcement agencies and government charged with trying to prevent the activity.

Today, she talks to fishermen about the activity they have seen on the high seas and a former drug mule who was caught in part five of her six-part series on the trade titled Cracks in Our Borders.

Fishermen in Moruga harbour suspicions about the coastal radar system which has been set up across T&T to protect the country’s borders from infiltration by the drug cartels. They told the Guardian Media Limited’s (GML) Enterprise Desk that even though the functional radars were rotating, they did not believe they were picking up vessels entering and exiting our territory. 

The radars are supposed to be able to detect vessels at a radius of 60 kilometres at sea, GML was told. In theory, that means the Coast Guard should be able to detect any vessel and, more importantly, any suspicious activity within the area. But vice president of the Grand Chemin Fishing Association Kishan Sinanan says the experiences of his members at sea suggest to them that the radars are not working.

“To me it just spinning, because we don’t get any feedback,” Sinanan said. “If people break down at sea, if we go to the station or whosoever Coast Guard, they can’t give account of whosoever and whatsoever.” Another Moruga fisherman said based on some of the activity he had seen on the waters, the radars were either not working or drug running was being covered up or facilitated by the law enforcement agencies.  

“I on the waters 24/7, that’s my job, I does do fishing. I on the waters. I does see suspicious vessels time and time again, through night and through day and yet still when I buy a papers I not seeing no interception of any vessels.” The fishermen said the absence and predictability of Coast Guard patrols gave them little confidence while at sea. “Normally, people know when the Coast Guard go up or down. They know how to do their run night or day or whatsoever,” one fisherman said.

“Things happens here, things is happening on the south eastern coast. I does be on the water at night 24/7. I does see movements of suspicious vessels all over the place and I see no Coast Guard.” Minister of National Security Gary Griffith agrees that there is much more to be done, but says it is a gradual process. He believes the system gives the Coast Guard the capability to respond to vessels coming into T&T waters.

Head of International Relations at the University of the West Indies, Prof Andy Knight, says just having the radars operational may not be enough. “Apart from the radar system you need to have adequate vessels to interdict traffickers who are trying to get into the region using small speedy boats an, in some cases, homemade submarines,” he said.

Griffith pointed out, however, that the Government had a three-tiered approach to border protection where vessels could patrol and interdict from the shoreline to deep waters. But fishermen are concerned that these new vessels may be just as irregular as current patrols.  A game fisherman from Point Galeota said, “Now and then you see choppers pass by, but you don’t see no boat and thing.”

Human trafficking
Drug trade researcher Darius Figueira says our open and unmanned seas also open up another lucrative trade to international cartels—the most valuable of all—human trafficking. “When you look at the amount of people being smuggled through the Caribbean, that is the biggest business in the Caribbean today … trafficking of humans, because there is more profit in trafficking a human than to traffic a kilo (of cocaine),” he said.

Human trafficking, Figueira explained, was not just limited to prostitution rings, but included people who wanted to migrate and could not qualify. The US State Department gave T&T a tier two rating in their 2012 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. It pointed out that while efforts were being made, the country did not fully comply with the minimum standards for tackling human trafficking.

“You bring them in through the Caribbean, transit them through Central America, you put them in Mexico and move them to a border point, put them in the hands of a coyote to carry them across,” Figueira said. The 2014 TIP report published by the United States Department of State says “law enforcement and civil society reported that some police and immigration officers facilitated human trafficking in the country, with some government officials directly exploiting victims.” 

A drug mule’s account
Professor Andy Knight says poverty makes citizens vulnerable as victims of the illegal drug trade. “There are a lot of people in these countries who are poor and are looking for some extra income, and it’s easy to convince them to become the mules for some cartel in South America or Latin America,” he said. 

A 2005 survey of the women’s prison showed that drug-related offences accounted for 46.4 per cent of the incarcerations. Of those women imprisoned, trafficking accounted for 56 per cent of the charges that landed them in jail. Katryna Hamilton-Brown, a well-educated woman, contributed to this statistic. She told GML one bad decision in 2010 cost her over two years of her life apart from her children and family.

“I attempted to traffic drugs to Jamaica but I was subsequently held at the airport that very morning," she said during an interview. And all it took to lure her was 800 grammes of cocaine, a desire to get away and a promise of US$2,500. “I only met them once. They didn’t give me too much info. They said this is what's going to happen, this is how it’s going to go down and it’s going to happen tomorrow,” Hamilton-Brown said, adding that it was her first time. 

She was dropped off at the Piarco International Airport with the cocaine stitched into her clothing.

Used as decoy
Hamilton-Brown recounted her anxiety as she went through the procedure to board the flight. “I’m feeling people staring at me for no apparent reason. Something inside of me says, ‘Katryna you don’t need to be here,’ but who do I call, what do I say?"
Initially, though, she successfully cleared Customs and was only waiting to get on to her flight.

“An officer came from nowhere and she was like, ‘I want to search you.’ I was like, ‘okay, that’s no problem, you can go ahead and search me.’ She just kept patting me down and said, ‘I know you have something on you, you know,’" she recalled. She was then taken to a separate room for a further search. “When we arrived in that room I took off the clothes and handed it to her. I was like, ‘here, this is what you looking for.’”

She said the officer seemed resilient, giving her the impression there was a tip-off and there was no way out. She eventually pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and spent over two years in prison. Hamilton-Brown said people who were approached to become drug mules were lured by stories of success, but the traffickers never told them the other side of the story. 

“They never tell you that part of it, they never tell you about the girls who went to other countries and never made it back because they were raped or killed or whatever,” she said. She gave birth to her daughter behind bars and was able to spend just one day with the infant. Looking back, Hamilton-Brown said she knew one thing for sure, she was not the only mule dropped off at the airport that day, but was just the one to be caught.

Multi-media journalist Urvashi Tiwari-Roopnarine has been investigating T&T's flourishing illegal drug trade for the past several weeks. That journey has taken her to several parts of the country for extensive interviews with several people involved in the trade, people who have been researching it and members of the law enforcement agencies and government charged with trying to prevent the activity.

Today, she talks to a crack/cocaine addict in her final article on the trade titled Cracks in Our Borders.

“Scrubbers” has been addicted to crack/cocaine for the past 47 years.

At 63 years old, he is one of the many crack addicts in T&T who depend on the one per cent of the imported cocaine which remains here for domestic use after it is smuggled in by transnational drug cartels.

This pure cocaine is “cooked” or mixed with chemicals like baking soda to stretch its use and is eventually formed into the hard rock called “crack” by its users on the streets.

“We call it crack,” Scrubbers told the Guardian Media Limited’s Enterprise desk.

“I drink, drink alcohol, alcohol is not my choice of drugs. Crack has been my choice of drugs. It come like a comfort nah.”

He was just 16 when he was first introduced to the drug and has been imprisoned for drug-related offences several times since then.

Scrubbers even had his try at rehabilitation but was not a success.

“If your family don’t accept you and don’t support you, you end up back right there.”

Scrubbers lives at Centre for the Socially Displaced in Port-of-Spain and told GML he gets money to buy crack from running errands for the elderly and street vendors.

New era dawns

Drug researcher Darius Figueira believes T&T has transitioned out of the crack addiction period into a new phase of drug addiction.

Saying it’s out with the old and in with the new, Figueira says the new recreational drugs of North America and Europe are now becoming the choice for those who can afford it.

“Crack has been around in Trinidad for a long time so it’s now a sunset drug. It has been around for a long time, so T&T and the Caribbean is now ripe for meth,” he said.

The potency of cocaine, he said, is also beginning to wear off, while the producers of the new addictive drugs are getting better at their trade.

“The Mexicans are the best cookers of meth in the world. They give you pure potency meth at the lowest prices in the world,” he said. And despite wars waged against cartels and narcotics, head of International Relations at the University of the West Indies, Professor Andy Knight, does not foresee an end to the drug trade.

“As long as there is a demand for drugs coming from countries that have a large middle class that are into drugs and very rich, people that can afford to buy them, I don’t think you can stop the flow of drugs into that country.”

For now though, it’s Scrubbers and addicts like him, their pipes, needles and a 10-ball in the square, getting themselves into a state they know all too well. 

Easily acquired

The drug is accessible and easy to get.

“It does sell all over. It sell five, 10, 15, 20, 25 …100 and all.”

Crack is smoked as opposed to the way cocaine is inhaled. It can also be administered intravenously with needles, but this also exposes addicts to HIV/. Scientists say it is the most addictive form of cocaine and offers a short but intense high.

Scrubbers agrees.

“It doesn’t last for long. That’s why you go over and over and over.”

He said he is not proud of his life, but noted that crack has now become part of the fibres which make up his body.

“Once you get a little money you might drink something, eat something, but most of your money goes to crack,” he told GML, adding that crack users like himself rarely ever steal to maintain their habits.

“People come and bring food, so once your belly full and you have your crack you don’t have to go and thief,” Scrubbers said.

For him, crack will remain a part of his life until it ends.

“I know individuals who stop smoking and didn’t last a month, when they finish. You see it becomes a part of your body nah. It’s like when you wake up in the morning you must drink tea.”

He said crack even talks to him and admits it is not for everyone, “Some people smoke and feel all kind of thing walking on them and see all kind of thing. Sometimes you may be looking for something and it right in your hand,” he said, laughed as he explained.

Scrubbers told us not all crack addicts live his kind of life, as there are users from all walks of society.

“All kind of people… lawyers, doctors dentists. I bounce up all kind of people in all walks of life. You may see somebody in jacket and tie and he smoking more than me.”

They are the ones, he said, who can afford to maintain their habits and do not end up being socially displaced as he is. They are the ones who also form convenient alliances with people like him, Scrubbers said.

“When he get his salary he don’t want anybody to see he smoking. He look for somebody like me, who knows how to handle things, carry him in an apartment and he spend. Remember he’s working, he spends hundred after hundred sometimes.”

Scrubbers sees this habit as a never ending cyle.

“Cocaine sells faster than gold, you see it’s a money making thing.”

There will be no deposits to the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF) for this year. This has been confirmed by Finance Minister Larry Howai who told Guardian Media Limited who explained that because the price of oil has fallen below the price identified in the national budget, “there will be no room to make any deposits this year.”

Over the past 42 years that T&T has been exporting oil and gas, billions of dollars have been earned in revenue which has been used for many of the social and infrastructural projects the country benefits from today. 

While there are concerns that the looming challenge of falling oil prices could take the country back to square one, Government says this will not happen. In an address to the nation early in January, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar warned against “using the period of challenges to promote fear and panic,” adding that to do so will “have the impact of creating problems where in fact no problems exist.”

The HSF, a sovereign wealth fund, was conceptualised by the then PNM administration in 2000 but was only enacted in 2007. It now stands at US$5.5 billion. Conrad Enill, who was Minister of Energy when the fund started, explained: “We felt, at the time, if we were able to create a pool of money from which when we invest it will give us income. It means we can build a buffer in the event that prices are reduced. You get income from another source.”

He said annual deposits to the fund depend on government’s ability to run balanced or surplus budgets.

HSFchair: don’t restrict savings

Chairman of the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund Dr Ralph Henry feels contributions should not only come from the energy sector as per the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund Act. In an interview at his consultancy office in Tunapuna, Henry, who has been chairman of the fund since last March, said contributions have been made as required during his tenure.

“The legislation as written focuses on oil and gas, but maybe we should have a fund period that we should be putting away for the rainy day,” he said. Fellow economist Dr Ronald Ramkissoon said oil and gas has towed the local economy and perpetuated a lifestyle not had by many of T&T’s non-oil producing neighbours. He said the current fall in oil prices brings the question of sustainability to the front burner.

“When we spoke about sustainability and recurrent expenditure, that subsidies and transfers were not sustainable, very often the politicians of the day would see us as prophets of gloom,” Ramkissoon said. He added that a glance at decades old budgets show that as revenue increased, expenditure increased at a similar rate. This trend, means that at this point “cutting back on expenditure is critical.”

Whether a government hoping for another term in office will take this harsh necessary measure will be a test of political and economic leadership, he said. “It is a test to see if this government, or any government, can take the necessary measures, some of which are going to be harsh, and to get the population to appreciate the need to do that and yet win the election,” he said. Ramkissoon said the time to act is always up to the state.

“If you do nothing, or do very little, or tinker at the edges, the problem is not going to go away, they are going to haunt you or another administration,” he explained. Energy Chamber president Dr Thackwray Driver said the effects are already being felt within the sector.

“Energy companies are looking to cut discretionary spend, but you tend to see the major projects which have already been sanctioned and began the processes, they tend not to be cut as they would be worked out on longer term oil prices,” he said. Henry, who spent a large part of his career as a senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies, said the booming economy has perpetuated a lifestyle many may not be able to re-adjust so easily.

“We have consumption habits based on an imported lifestyle and they are irrelevant and surely wasteful,” he said. He said the wealth of the country could have been better utilised over the years. “We use up foreign exchange to bring in a whole lot of vehicles to be in a massive air conditioned traffic jam. We could have spent a lot more as a society in a transportation system that is efficient and can get large numbers of people from point A to point B efficiently,” he said

Henry said small countries like T&T, which are economically dependent on a limited number of sectors should have more commitment to savings. 

Asked what he envisioned the HSF would best do for its most needy recipients, he said: “I see all areas of marginalisation, disposition and retardation in urban and rural areas. Urban like Laventille and rural like Biche and Matelot. I would like to see that a young child, girl or boy, when he or she looks into the mirror, they can see the possibility that from right there in Matelot, they can take on the world.”​

San Fernando West is arguably one of the constituencies which best demonstrates the role of religion in politics.

Pollster Louis Bertrand of H.S.B. and Associates has found Hindu East Indians in T&T are more likely to vote for the UNC than East Indian Muslims and Christians. 

Couple that with an excerpt of political analyst Dr Kirk Meighoo’s publication of “Religion and Politics in T&T.” 

He writes: “The Afro dominated PNM was for many years able to retain crucial support of the Presbyterians and Muslims (crucial for San Fernando West and Barataria/San Juan).”

Meighoo proposed that PNM was able to grasp East Indian support by appealing to the two religious groups.  

Unofficial estimates suggest there are over 4,000 Presbyterians in the constituency and one Muslim pressure group, named Umrah T&T.

It said there were roughly 5,000 Muslim electors in the Sando West and 8,000 in Barataria/San Juan constituencies.

Constituents, however, said race had no bearing on political suasion.

Maulana Sulimami, of the Mucurapo Street Jama Masjid, has very strong political views. He agrees his religious group impacts the politics of the day.

“You see this government, Muslims come out to vote them and Muslims really made the difference and the whole population knows Muslims will make a difference which administration is going to win the election (in 2015)” he said.

The imam, originally from Pakistan, has been a citizen of T&T for the past 26 years and has voted in each election since. 

He believes politicians are well aware of the correlation between religion and politics and have used it in their quest for power.

“They come and they want to take pictures with us, they look for me, they look for leaders, they look for the imams, the maulanans and when election is gone they are gone too.”

He said Islamists, just like other religious groups, fall prey to empty promises. 

“Election is coming up and government will give this and give that but where were we before? Tell me! Where were we before?” he asked.

He said as a responsible leader, he had made his congregation aware of those tacticians, telling them the power lies in the hands of the people.

 “I am looking at what is going on. How the Muslims are suffering and how we will vote is no secret… time will tell,” he added.

He called on leaders to follow the basics of each and every religion.

“Speak the truth at all times, keep your promises and serve the people not your friends and family, not even the whole nation, serve the whole world,” he said.

Islamists are known as part of a closed community which remains loyal in their united front but Sulimami said that did not mean Muslims would vote only for a fellow Muslim.

Of the nine elected MP’s in San Fernando West, four are Presbyterian, two Muslim and it’s generally a PNM held seat.

Rev speaks
Presbyterian Reverend Daniel Teelucksingh argues there’s no connection between Presbyterians and their political preference.

He said: “One cannot say Presbyterians in San Fernando West are PNMites. You cannot say that. They are middle class and are free to choose.”

San Fernando West has given the nod to the PNM on all but a few occasions: 1986, 2000 and 2010.

When asked if having a Presbyterian candidate would ensure a party’s victory in San Fernando West Teelucksingh said: “Religion does not determine the winner. It could be a good Hindu, a good Muslim, Baptist… They will vote for the best candidate.”

Teelucksingh says the marginality of the constituency lies in the electors who he describes as more mature and discretionary.

“San Fernando West is more discriminatory than that. They’re more intelligent and are looking for a strong person to represent them,” he added.

He said most of the congregation was of East Indian descent. 

“It’s a mixed congregation but it is predominantly made up of Indo Trinidadians today,but history is to be blamed for that,” he added.

Teelucksingh, who has served at the Sumsamachar Presbyterian Church, Coffee Street, maintains political affiliation is not based on faith or ethnicity.

When interviewed several electors claimed they had in the past been directed to elect a Christian government by their respective churches.

Others noted that when the Concordat had been a national issue, heads of some denominational schools instructed parents not to bestow their political support to the administration spearheading the agreement.

But Teelucksingh said that was not so. He argued: “Politics is not based on religion, it is not race based.  It is class based.” 

And he said government handouts would hardly work in a constituency like San Fernando West.

“The middle class people are socially independent from an economic perspective they are independent and I do not see any need to tow any party line,” he said.

In the current political climate we have seen many religious leaders weighing in on the political divide. 

When asked whether religion has a role in politics he said: “The Christian church… whether by a thin line or a wall, the Christian church has never separated itself from political affairs.”

Teelucksingh  believes there is god reason for that “when there is an oppressive government the church has spoken and must always get involved, in that sense, in politics.”

Not a UNC seat
Evans Harry,  72, a devout Hindu and chairman of the Todd’s Road Hindu Temple said religion has no bearing on his political choices. 

“Since 1980 I have not shifted my vote. I have voted for the principles of the manifestos of the ONR, NAR, COP.”

He’s your regular middle class constituent, a teacher for most his life. he said he has seen many MPs come and go.

One thing is for sure, in his point of view at least: “San Fernando West is not a UNC seat. It’s entirely different. It will go with the partnership, yes, but not a UNC candidate. I cannot see UNC winning anything here,” he said in an interview.

According to Harry’s calculations, he is part of a block of 4,000 voters who gave the ONR support and later the NAR the nod over the dominant PNM, a group, he says, which lies in the dead centre… bearing allegiance to nothing but ethics and principle.

“When a government displeases the people there is a percentage shift to that 4,000 which gives the opposition victory... this is the pattern of voting in San Fernando West,” he said.

Not a tribal thing
As far as religion goes, there are the voters who follow none but continue to swing their support, like fisherman Dindial. He said: “I vote for anyone of the party that try to help the people.”

He was born and bred in San Fernando and for years has been  faithful in his political support. “I am PNM and I am grateful to the PNM.”

Being of East Indian descent didn’t have any relevance on how and whom he would support. 

“It’s not about the tribal thing in San Fernando. It’s the love we have in San Fernando. It’s not about race or the tribal thing, it’s the love that make it unique,” he added.

San Fernando West voting
1956            PNM        Dr Winston Mahabir
1961            PNM        Saied Mohammed
1966            PNM        Errol Edward Mahabir
1976            PNM        Errol Edward Mahabir
1986            NAR         Anslem St George
1991            PNM        Ralph Maharaj
1995            PNM        Barendra Sinanan
2000            UNC         Sadiq Baksh
2001            UNC         Sadiq Baksh
2002            PNM         Dianne Seukeran
2007            PNM         Junia Regrello
2010            COP         Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan
 

In fewer than five strides, Louisa James can get from her wash area to bedroom to kitchen. Crouching over her bed to fold some clothes while her cat looks on lazily, she tells us it was desperation which led her to make the 20-foot long container her home for the past ten years. 

Poverty is only one of the problems Louisa has had to contend with.

“I was in an abusive relationship and the police come and take me and place me in the home for battered women.”

She and her five children spent eight months in the women’s home.

“From the home of battered women, my brother call me and tell me he have a container and I could come and live here,” she explained.

It was hard work over several days but she singlehandedly turned the container into her home.

“I end up clearing it out; it was full of rat and snake and the land was full of bush.” 

As rust-riddled as it may be, it houses a metal bunker bed sleeping three, while Iker, the eldest, shares floor space with her mother. Four of the children live with Louisa in the container, whereas one is now living with a relative.

With little ventilation, the confinement is terribly hot but a small TV set and a dusty fan offer meagre creature comforts.

It's the only home her 11-year-old daughter Joanna has known. 

“I cook, wash, sleep, eat, rest do everything in here, the only thing is that it leaking real bad…When rain fall it like a rice strainer,” Louisa explained. A glance up would show beams of sunlight piercing through.

A worn green carpet helps to soak up the flood water when it rains.

Louisa had a job with Cepep but she became severely ill, so she had to give up her only source of income. Her medication is not supplied by public health care and pills costing five hundred dollars each are yet another luxury she must do without.

On the day we visited her, Iker had a CXC exam and while other parents may have found themselves up with anxiety, Louisa too was awake but for another reason.

“I hardly sleep last night. Rain start to fall. I hear it falling on the flour bucket; I had to get up and check if the flour waste.”

The flour was saved so it was carrot dumpling as usual for lunch.

For Louisa, when it rains it doesn’t just pour, it floods. She has to shoulder the pain of her children being taunted at school.

Ily, who attends the St Madeline High School a short walk away is the usual target at school.

“They tell me look where you living, you living in a container. It rotten down, you are trailer trash,” he told us.

He tells us he is usually ashamed of his life and often contemplates suicide. “I used to take a knife and slash my skin. I tie rope around my neck. Sometimes I think about jumping off the school building.”

He says his feelings are a blend of anger and sadness, but living on the train line in St Madeline, it’s his dream of a brighter day which gets him by.

“I’m just trying to get a good education and be something in life so I could help my mother.” 

A resilient Louisa says she’s not proud of her life but has learnt to play the hand life has dealt so her children can get as much of an equal chance as she can scrape for them.

“I does take a little drop so we could get a little light for the children to do their school work, until the neighbours call T&TEC police,” she said as she pointed to a bulb suspended by small wires from the metal ceiling.

Family celebrations are often not the joyous affairs they are for other families.

“Birthdays does be hard. I does try but I can’t always give them what they want. Look Iker birthday coming up just now and she want a cake from Pricesmart. I tell her I will try, but I don’t know. I hoping,” Louisa said.

Christmas cheer is supplied by church hampers. These have to be carefully rationed so that some stuff can be left over for the New Year.

For the rest of the year, a $500 food card and a public assistance grant of $1,800 are carefully budgeted.

“I does buy rice, flour, sugar, oil, but it have plenty I does leave out. Look, I does hardly buy chicken.”

Louisa tells us she has applied to the State for housing but has not received a favourable response. Ironically, state land is being cleared behind her container to build homes. 

“I would be glad to get help. The principal, church, councillor and a lot of people write letter for HDC for me to get a house, but every time you go it’s always photocopy and photocopy and you never get no help.”

Unable to catch a break, Louisa continues to dream big and while her circumstance may be different, hers is the same dream every mother harbours.

“All I want to see is my children get a good education. I want to see Iker go to university because I know she’s bright.”

Urvashi Tiwari-Roopnarine will be reporting on poverty and other critical issues that affect potential voters, and examining the parties’ responses in their manifestos.

Susan lives in the rural community of Matura. On a single mattress and sheets spread on the bare ground, her two-room structure sleeps eight. Budgeting is both a headache and an art form, considering the fact that she’s dividing up a thousand dollars a month scrambled together from friends and family.

“I give my sister a little thing for the electricity she does give we, I does have to buy water to drink and cook because we don’t have tap water and the river water does be dirty, and well the rest we does buy, grocery stuff,” she said in an interview. “The rest” for the month is less than the cost of a dinner at one of Port-of-Spain’s smart restaurants.

Economist Dr Roger Hosein has strong and somewhat controversial views about poverty. He says while poverty may be a reality for some, he does not believe it is the case for the many others who claim to be victims of this event, since many locals forego employment opportunities being seized by other Caricom nationals. “To me the main cause of poverty in T&T, overall, is chronic laziness,” Hosein said.

“In many cases, T&T nationals are saying they’re not working for $200 a day; they not working for $300 a day. They would wait until Petrotrin or one of these companies offer a temporary job, take that and wait a long period—sometime six months until the next cycle restarts.” He explained that many people were just not willing to go out there and work.

But former Social Development Minister Dr Glenn Ramadharsingh rejects any notion that people are poor because they don’t work hard enough. “Laziness is a very strong word. Sometimes there is a lack of opportunity. Sometimes because of the mere fact that basic needs have not been met, people are not motivated to work,” the ex-minister said.

Susan is sensitive to accusations of being lazy, insisting that she had simply hit hard times. Her community is evidently poor. Badly built structures and a lack of proper sanitation are everywhere. She had done some farming, and even worked temporarily on a nearby bridge programme which was eventually shut down. She has also had to battle mental illness.

“I used to work until my last daughter was born. I never wanted to see she or hold she. I used to use obscene language toward she, so I talk to the nurse and they send me to the mental clinic in Grande,” she said. She had benefited from some of the $3 billion from the Government’s poverty eradication programme, and for her a little goes a long way.

“Sometimes before the month done it does only have a little thing balance back,” Susan said. “We does have to pinch on it.” By the time Ramadharsingh left office, some 200,000 people, approximately one sixth of the population, were living below the poverty line. He attributes that to changing socio-economic conditions in Trinidad and Tobago.

“Poverty is something that sometimes affects the entire community. Entire communities are poor, industries have closed down and opportunities are drying up,” he explained. Through a targeted programme by Government called Direct Impact, he insists there has been progress in addressing the plight of the poor.

Not for Susan, though. She has a food card which she carefully rations. “I does buy half bag of flour, I does buy the bag of potato, two five-pound sugar, the pack of milk for $100, a gallon of oil, a little peas and whatever tin stuff. I can’t buy plenty thing.” She despairs, however, believing that she’ll never see a day in the future when she can go to the supermarket without mentally calculating, every time, whether she has enough money to pay.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (Gate) programme is staying. However, he says because of the trepidation over impending adjustments to the programme, it will be reviewed by his Cabinet with a caring eye. 

Rowley made the comment while addressing T&T students during his visit to the University of the West Indies’ Mona Campus, Jamaica, as he continued activities on his five-day visit to Jamaica.  

The session took greater significance after widespread panic among the T&T student bodies across the region in the wake of a media report over the weekend that massive cuts were recommended by the Task Force appointed to review the programme. 

This included a proposal that students pay up to one third of their fees. Under the existing arrangements, the cost of tuition is met fully by Government. But as he met with the student body yesterday, Rowley assured them there was no need for any panic.

“We didn’t just decide to cut the programme. We had a proper analysis done and that analysis looked at the comprehensive programme, including the requirement to preserve what we are investing in, because the money we are spending on you is an investment in the future of the country,” he explained.

He said the review was undertaken as the country was facing a very significant loss of revenue because of collapsed commodity prices internationally. 

“That by itself is pushing us to have to close some very serious budget deficits,” he added. 

He said notwithstanding that, the programme was due for a review after existing for several years and the review was “not meant to backtrack on our commitment to make sure that you all are educated or to be denied an education on the basis that you are not able to pay tuition.”

While the purpose of the task force report was to make recommendations on reducing overall expenditure, Rowley said: “We are committed to cutting out the waste, the abuse and the corruption and to ensure the sacrifice we make to pay for your education is the best we can afford.”

He said it costs Government $750 million each year to educate Gate-approved citizens and urged those gathered not to take taxpayers’ sacrifices for granted.

Noting the high demand for professionals in the field of medicine, he said: “You in the medical field ought not to worry. Even though we become more selective in what we fund, the area of health care delivery is an area of grave shortage in the country.” 

Cabinet, he added, would meet to discuss the recommendations before any final decision was made “but what I can tell you is that we will review the recommendations with a very caring eye.”

Some students got to their feet, asking the PM that even if the decision is that they are to fund even part of their tuition, whether it would be possible to facilitate low interest student friendly loans.

Since 2004, over 65,000 students have passed through the programme.

Happy with trade talks

Commenting on one of his major reasons for visiting Kingston, Rowley said it was “to face down the challenge of a trade war between T&T and Jamaica.” He said he was leaving Jamaica “confident that whatever flicker (existed) would not turn into a flame.”

In response to a question on the immigration issue involving Jamaicans denied entry into T&T, Rowley said the matter should not be generalised. He said it was “quite a misunderstanding that Jamaicans were being singled out for special treatment and bad treatment in T&T. I reject that out of hand.” 

Rowley said despite the recent claims about unfair treatment at the Piarco International Airport there were thousands of Jamaicans going about their business in T&T without any problems whatsoever.

“You will see that 97 per cent of the Jamaicans that left to come to T&T, entered with no problem,” he said.

Rowley said recent reports about Jamaicans experiencing problems when they attempted to enter the country were only about three per cent. He said some of those in the three per cent “had failed to qualify for entry under permissible arrangements.” He said it was “important for the leaders in the countries to say to the travelling population of the region that there are certain restrictions that could apply.”

He also said certain immigration officers were being trained and facilities were being established at the airport to ensure all visitors were treated with dignity when they arrived in T&T. 

He said during his visit he did not meet “one person who said or implied that we are not better off together and that we are not brothers and sisters in this region.”

Rowley’s official visit to Jamaica ends today and his address to the UWI students yesterday was streamed live.

in Kingston

It has not yet been made public, but word on the ground is that a Jamaican delegation will visit T&T in the coming weeks to continue talks aimed at resolving the strained relationship between the Caricom superpowers.

Trinidad’s Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and a delegation are on a five-day official visit to Kingston for bilateral talks aimed at the easing the strained relationship between the two countries.

Addressing three of Jamaica’s manufacturing bodies at a luncheon at the Terra Nova Hotel, Dr Rowley himself alluded to a return visit saying he looked forward to receiving the Jamaican delegation and T&T was opening doors for collaboration between the two countries.

The luncheon was the first time the PM came face to face with the man said to have made the call to boycott T&T goods in early 2016—William Mahfood.

The Prime Minister’s comments seemed to be directed to past statements and positions expressed by Mahfood, who is also the director of one of Jamaica’s largest manufacturing and distributing company Wysinco Group. Take for instance the disparity in the price fuel is sold to Jamaica and other Caricom countries as opposed to that enjoyed by those out of Caricom.

Mr Mahfood has long contended that T&T uses the Caricom’s Common External Tariff (CET) subjected to fuel products outside of Caricom to price its own fuel products at a “predatory level.” Dr Rowley spoke to this making it clear energy prices were not set by individual countries but by industry governing bodies.

“What is not widely known, even inside of T&T, is  that we are an oil importer and much of oil we handle is imported, brought from outside on terms and conditions that can change by the hour. We refine that and simply take a margin on refinery. So I’m not here today trying to answer  your question on what CET may or may not mean,” said Rowley.

And on the point that T&T manufacturers enjoy competitive advantage as lower energy costs make it cheaper to produce the same product at the same quality in T&T compared to Jamaica, Rowley begged to differ.

He said in the same way, there is also competitive advantage enjoyed by Jamaicans based on cheaper labour. According to Dr Rowley, the time has come for systems to be effected to move skilled and semi skilled labour to the points of need.

Jamaican businessmen have for years contended that the trade imbalance between the countries could be levelled off, at least as far as the non-engery sector, if it wasn’t so difficult to get their products on T&T shelves.

Rowley said the blockages occur simply because there is a disparity between the quality standards and regulation on their domestic markets as compared to those of T&T. Rowley called for the harmonisation of quality regulations throughout Caricom.

“There should be some deadlines and if there are deadline their functionaries will have to  work on those deadlines and more importantly political leaders must not be able to play games with decision making at the level of heads at level of region.”

Speaking after the luncheon, the various business heads were pleased with the commitments to talk and dispassionately flesh out issues. Metry Seaga President of the Jamaica Manufactures Association said now was not the time to sit and wait. He says much work needed to be done in Jamaica.

Courtesy CNC 3 News 

Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard SC says the accused men in Marcia Ayers-Caesar’s 53 abandoned cases aren’t the only victims.

His office has now been tasked with reviewing each of those matters to make a determination on how the State may wish to proceed.

Speaking with Guardian Media during a telephone interview yesterday, he said, “It’s an obvious burden to the Office of the DPP. Some people forget the DPP’s office is also a victim of this impasse.”

Asked to explain, he said, “These matters, especially those substantially advanced, have required a lot of work on behalf of the State to get them that far… for it to be just left in abeyance...Think about it, it’s like repeating the work.”

But the added burden, he assured, would not affect their decisions and each case would be adjudged on its own basis.

On June 1, when attempts were made to have some of those cases restarted the DPP objected to Acting Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle’s attempts to have them restarted as per instructions she said she had received.

Attorneys representing the accused in some of those matters have written to the DPP requesting a review of the cases and the possible invocation of Section 90 of the Constitution which allows the DPP to discontinue any case in any court.

On that occasion Gaspard requested for an official status of the former Chief Magistrate, her tenure with the magistracy and court transcripts of the 53 matters. He is yet to receive anything.

Asked how long the process of review may take his office which has been publicly chastised in the past for being understaffed and overworked, he said, “Those transcripts have not been sent. Nothing…they (the transcripts) are of varying length, some are pages others are volumes even. It would be impossible for me to give even an average time-frame.”

So what will the DPP be examining those transcripts to uncover?

It’s two things: If there is sufficient evidence to proceed with the charge and if it is a matter of public interest.

Gaspard said “Matters go before the magistrate on the basis of evidence collected prior to the laying of charges. Sometimes when matters go before the court, the evidence produced does not match or fails in relation to the evidence given at the time.”

The DPP confirmed to having received the correspondences from Senior Counsel Israel Khan suggesting the criminal investigation Ayers-Caesar and Chief Justice Ivor Archie.

He said it received his “usual attention” as all other correspondences before him.

The impasse began when Ayers-Caesar was elevated to the High Court on April 12. Controversy soon brewed when it was made apparent the 53 part-heard matters before her would have to be restarted as per procedure.

Prisoners in an uproar complained about the prospect on April 26 when their cases were called in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates Court. Ayers-Caesar’s resignation came the day later.

To date the JLSC says the former Chief Magistrate did not inform them about her case load, but Ayers-Caesar says the CJ and JLSC were duly informed.

The Law Association of T&T declared its loss of confidence in the CJ and the JLSC for the appointment describing it as a blunder yet to be resolved.

It’s arguably the most crucial meeting for a nation in crisis, but it’s the opinion of one political analyst that the Prime Minister may be biting off more than he can chew.

“I don’t know how they could deal with all seven matters,” says political analyst Professor John La Guerre.

He was referring to the seven items listed by the Office of the Prime Minister as the agenda items for discussion between Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar scheduled for later today.

In stressing it was over-packed, La Guerre said if there is consensus on one crucial matter, the meeting between the two can be declared a success. That matter is item number 4, “The difficulty within the Judiciary – The JLSC.”

“The Judiciary is the pillar on which the entire state rests. Once there is loss of confidence in the judiciary there is loss of confidence in the processes by which society is governed and is administered,” he said.

The most burning issue is a solution to how the State can deal with the abandonment of some 53 cases by the departure of Marcia Ayers-Caesar from the magistracy. The former chief magistrate left those cases unfinished after her elevation to the high court on April 12. She subsequently resigned over the matter.

But while there is legislation to deal with the death of a sitting magistrate, in T&T there is none to deal with a resignation, practice dictates the matter restart afresh before another magistrate.

But some attorneys for the accused in these cases contend it’s a violation of the rights of the men – some of whom have been in state custody for as many as seven years.

La Guerre is calling for an overall investigation into the Judiciary as he says there are some issues which preceded the current debacle, saying “The recent crisis is one which affects social and other relations in the country. It certainly has a strong impact in crime. The delays to deliver justice provides incentive for people to use other methods to deliver justice.”

According to the long-time UWI lecturer, the agenda itself should have been up for discussion by both parties and certainly not limited to items requiring a special majority.

He says while some believe this meeting could very well be the well-played art of politics, the deliberations should in essence be made public as many await a sensible outcome.

The meeting is carded for 2 pm on Tuesday at the Parliament building. The Prime Minister has scheduled a press conference immediately after the meeting and Persad-Bissessar is also expected to brief the media on the outcome.

Items to be discussed

1. Internal Self Government for Tobago

2. Campaign Finance Reform

3. Anti-Gang Legislation

4. Difficulty within the Judiciary — JLSC matter

5. The Integrity Commission

6. Service Commissions Effectiveness

7. Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament

The judiciary has moved to seal all the documents involved in the legal action filed by former chief magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar against Chief Justice Ivor Archie, the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) and President Anthony Carmona.

It appears to have been done without the knowledge of Ayers-Caesar’s attorney Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC, who, having filed the documents on Wednesday, was unaware of the ‘gag order’ when Guardian Media contacted him yesterday.

Guardian Media Limited has been reliably informed that the documents have been barred from public view and the contents of the action will only be opened when it is called up before a judge.

Sources told Guardian Media a request to seal the matter would have had to pass through the Registrar of the Court.

The concept of document sealing a legal matter is done worldwide to protect, among other items, trade or state secrets.

In the case of Ayers-Caesar, however, senior legal professionals yesterday said if a request was made for sealing the case it would have to come from the party filing the matter and that is subject to very stringent considerations.

“Something sounds fishy,” one attorney said, saying the registrar can’t act without a request, especially since the concept of justice requires that judicial proceedings remain public.

Another logical assumption following this move, a legal source added, is that moves will also be made to have the hearing “in-camera” and debar the media from reporting on the proceedings.

Checks at the High Court revealed there were minor details of the case the court information desk at the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain, while the registry said it had no information on its system. The case has been assigned to Justice David Harris but no date has been set for a first

hearing.

But legal sources said the lawsuit had three affidavits attached - one from Ayers-Caesar, her husband and friend Magistrate Cheron Raphael. Ayers-Caesar’s husband and Raphael were present at her swearing-in ceremony at the Office of the President in April.

A pre-action protocol letter dated June 16, 2017, which is public, points to certain pieces of evidence on which the former chief magistrate’s case will be hinged - among them private email exchanges between the Chief Justice and the Chief Magistrate.

In that letter, Ayers-Caesar asked for judicial review of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission for seeking her resignation by means of “unlawful pressure.” Saying the CJ threatened that if she did not resign he would recommend her appointment be revoked, she asked to be reinstated and accused the JLSC of misfeasance in public office.

Guardian Media understands the lawsuit was also sealed as the parties are still locked in negotiations for a settlement, though sources said one is unlikely.

Speaking on CNC3’s Morning Brew yesterday, Maharaj had said the public will learn “all the facts surrounding the forced resignation and all the facts surrounding the JLSC having the necessary information on the part-heard matters and how the practice has been in the past for when judges and magistrates have several outstanding matters.”

Maharaj pointed to the case of Justice David Myers, whom he said had 63 part-heard matters and “he was de-rostered for a few months in order for him to complete the part-heard matters.”

According to Maharaj the evidence in court will show it was possible for the JLSC “to appoint Ayers-Caesar as a judge and to make the appointment effective from a certain date, so that she could complete the part-heard matters.”

In addition, he said he will lead evidence to show that “even her swearing in could have been postponed in order for her to complete the part heard matters.”

Meanwhile, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard is expected to give his decision on whether the 53 cases left unfinished by Ayers-Caesar have to be restarted next week. He is expected to give his decision when the cases come up for hearing before acting Chief Magistrate

Maria Busby Earle-Caddle. (With reporting by DEREK ACHONG)

 A&V Drilling and Workover Limited, owned by Senator Allyson Baksh and her father, Haniff Nazim Baksh was awarded a ten-year licence to operate fields in Catskill Moruga east blocks in 2009. Yet, according to the preliminary audit report from Petrotrin, it was A&V Oil and Gas, a company owned by the senior Baksh and his other daughter Vivian, that was providing the service to Petrotrin and implicated in a “fake oil” scandal with the leaking of the document last week.

Two different companies.

A&V Drilling and Workover Limited was incorporated in 1997, while A& V Oil and Gas was incorporated in 2009.

In October 2009 then energy minister Conrad Enill signed ten-year licence agreements for A&V Drilling and Workover Limited and five contractors to operate Petrotrin’s Onshore Fields.

A&V Oil and Gas Limited submitted two of 11 bids in Government’s 2013 onshore bid round but failed to secure the award.

How A&V Oil and Gas began producing gas for Petrotrin is still under question, as GML could not reach either Petrotrin or Baksh for a response.

A&V Oil and Gas is now suing Petrotrin and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar for defamation and demanding outstanding sums owed from Petrotrin.

The company has also demanded that Persad-Bissessar remove speaking notes and videos discussing the Petrotrin audit from her Facebook page.

As of publication, the speaking notes and video were still there.

The contract for A&V Drilling and Workover to operate fields at the Catskill Moruga East blocks is due to end in 2019, and it still remains unclear how A&V Oil and Gas was added to the list of contractors to have billed Petrotrin.

According to the Environmental Management Authority’s (EMA) National Registry, between 2011 and February 2017, A&V Oil and Gas applied for Certificates of Environmental Clearance (CEC) to drill over 100 wells.

The company also applied for CECs for the installation of an additional crude oil storage tank with a capacity of 485 barrel of oil and the establishment of a facility to collect, meter and transfer crude oil from nearby pumping wells to the Petroleum Company Of Trinidad and Tobago Limited’s catshill Gathering Facility.

No such CEC applications could be found for A&V Drilling and Workover Limited between 2001 and July 2017.

Since 1997 Senator Baksh was a director and owned half of the shares in the A&V Drilling and Workforce. She was also the secretary.

When the Peoples’ National Movement (PNM) won the election, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley appointed his “good friend’s” daughter as a senator.

Days later, on October 1, Senator Baksh relinquished her directorship at A&V Drilling and Workover.

Documents obtained by CNC3 and shared with the Guardian did not indicate whether she also gave up her post as secretary and her 600,000 shares in the company.

Sources at Petrotrin could not confirm whether this company still provides services for the State.

Several calls to Baksh went unanswered.

Attempts to question Baksh in person last week, led to members of the media being attacked by men, including a police officer.

A total of 39 State enterprises had racked up a debt of $44 billion by the end of 2016.

These were the shocking findings contained in a September 2017 Joint Select Committee report that examined the borrowing practices of State enterprises, with an emphasis on regulation of borrowing, purposes for which funds are borrowed and sustainability of debt servicing ratios.

In the report, focus was given to the quantum of State enterprise debt, the sustainability of the current debt obligations, the purpose for which monies are borrowed and the mechanisms in place to monitor and evaluate state-owned companies that have borrowed funds.

Two state companies - the Urban Development Corporation of T&T (Udecott) and the Petroleum Company of T&T together accounted for more than half of $44 billion debt.

Udecott’s debt of $11.4 billion included a $3.5 billion loan financed by Republic Bank Ltd for the “the Government Campus Plaza fit-out project” and another $496 million from First Caribbean International Bank for the “fit-out of Government Campus Plaza.” Udecott also still owes $497 million on a 2009 loan from First Citizens Merchant Bank for the controversial Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba.

The second highest debtor, the Petroleum Company of T&T Ltd, still owes the Deutsche Bank of Canada US$750 million and Bank of America US$850 million. This amounts to TT $11.2 billion.

Trailing behind were the T&T Mortgage Finance (TTMF), which owes $5.5 billion, and the National Insurance Property Development Company (Nipdec), which must repay on a $4.3 billion loan.

The National Gas Company (NGC) was lent a total of $4.2 billion, with US$200 million being borrowed in 2004 for the “Cross Island Pipeline” project. The amount is to be repaid by 2020.

The Telecommunications Services of T&T (TSTT) services a total of 12 loans amounting to $2.2 billion.

The National Infrastructure Development Company (NIDCO) borrowed $ 2.1 billion, with $1.5 billion going toward the refinancing of the Point Fortin Highway Project and the total in to be repaid by 2031.

The report contained no details about how the funds were used, but the JSC has called a press conference for Monday where it is expected to address the troubling issue. The committee is chaired by Independent Senator David Small.

The 105-page report stated that at the time of the inquiry, “the State Enterprise Government Guaranteed debt stood at $19 billion, while the non-Government guaranteed debt stood at $25 billion” bringing the total figure for state enterprise debt to a staggering $44 billion.

Among the ten findings, the committee discovered that state enterprises with government guaranteed borrowing, as well as non-government guaranteed borrowing did not use debt to revenue ratios for financial or debt management analysis. The committee also learned that of the companies that borrow without government guarantee on the strength of their balance sheet, “several did not have updated strategic plans.”

Also, in two instances the committee found that state-enterprises were “unable to pay their debt and there have been instances in the past when funds were borrowed without the proper approval process and state-enterprises strayed from their stated mandate with minimal repercussions.”

In seven recommendations put forward, the committee advised that the “Investment Division should implement mechanisms to track returns on investments, liquidity ratios are used to determine whether entities are able to cover debt obligations and immediately enforce a mandate to have strategic plans of state enterprises who borrow without government guarantee completed and submitted within three months of this report.”

The committee also advised that the Ministry of Finance should make an up-to-date strategic plan a mandatory requirement when processing loan applications for state enterprises and pursue avenues to give legal force to the State Enterprises Performance Monitoring Manual, including the insertion and enforcement of a penalty structure.