Trinidad & Tobago
Port-of-Spain - The People's National Movement is losing popular support. This is the findings of the latest NACTA poll, done in the first week of November, a year since the re-election of the PNM.
However, NACTA says that although there is widespread disaffection for the PNM among voters, including traditional supporters, the party's hold on power is not threatened because disenchanted voters do not want either the UNC-A or COP as replacements.
Opposition supporters are extremely dissatisfied with the ongoing fighting between the two major opposition parties, says NACTA, and a large majority of voters want UNC leader Basdeo Panday and COP leader Winston Dookeran to ride off into the sunset so that the opposition can come together to pose a serious challenge to the PNM.
NACTA says its latest survey was done to find out the approval rating of the ruling PNM administration in the year since re-election.
The findings are based on interviews conducted with 392 respondents reflecting the demographic composition of the population and the survey was conducted by Vishnu Bisram.
Asked if they approve of the way the government was running the country, only 21 percent of respondents said yes. People felt the government was not efficiently managing the resources of the country.
Asked what they thought about Prime Minister Patrick Manning's controversial visit to the radio station which resulted in two reporters being disciplined, respondents felt some news reporters were unprofessional and irresponsible in their reporting and need to be upbraided, but they also felt it was inappropriate for the Prime Minister to visit the station to lodge a complaint.
Only 18 percent approved of the PM's action to visit the radio station.
The Prime Minister could have found other ways to complain about media bias and irresponsible journalism, they said.
Respondents were also asked how they felt about the election of Barack Obama as President of the USA; there was positive response and only praises for Obama. Asked if they thought that an Obama win could help in having voting transcend race in Trinidad and Tobago, 42 percent felt this could happen.
Generally, respondents said they were fed up with politics as usual, and despaired over the country's rising crime rate and cost of living and they expressed a feeling of hopelessness about their future.
Port-of-Spain - Joanne Gaspard hid her son then fought the intruder who broke into her home, but was overpowered and tossed off the third floor balcony.
She screamed as she fell-30 feet to the concrete below.
Help came and Gaspard - body broken and bleeding - was taken to the hospital. She died there.
The killer might not have known she was a mother and Customs Officer with an 11-year-old son and three-year-old daughter. Nor did the killer know she was the sister of Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Roger Gaspard, a respected State attorney in charge of the DPP's South Office.
Roger Gaspard could not be reached for comment, and other relatives declined to speak about the killing.
Joanne Gaspard, 36, worked at the Customs and Excise Division in San Fernando. She apparently awoke just before midnight to the sound of her son's screams.
The boy woke to find a man coming through the ceiling. The man had cut through the roof and ended up above the boy's room. Gaspard rushed into the room, just as the man broke through the gypsum ceiling. Mother and son ran from the room. She took the boy into the living room. He hid behind a couch. The man followed her as she opened the door leading to her balcony overlooking most of San Fernando and the Gulf of Paria.
Police said it was unlikely she jumped. The children's grandparents lived nearby. The grandfather heard the screams and came to the front door. The boy answered. The three-year-old was crying. Gaspard was later found unconscious at the back of the house.
She was in a long-term relationship with a police officer assigned to the Inter Agency Task Force, Port-of-Spain. However, the officer had not seen her for six weeks, investigators said.
The murder occurred at Happy Hill, one of the most exclusive residential developments in San Fernando, where business people and professionals live in fortress-like houses. Gaspard's home was closest to a track used by residents to access Happy Hill from Jarvis Street, San Fernando, where police searched several homes yesterday. One person was held for questioning.
Police said they had no evidence the killing was linked to Gaspard's job, or that of her husband. But all leads are being investigated, they said.
Port-of-Spain - Oil is going to average (US) $65 to $68 a barrel for calendar year 2008, and Trinidad and Tobago is going to have an Atlantic LNG Train 5 by 2013, while another massive oil find is likely in the next nine to 17 years.
This was the categorical assurance from Trinidad and Tobago premier energy expert, Trevor Michael Boopsingh.
Pessimists had told him oil would drop to $30, the chairman of the Association of Caribbean Energy Specialists Ltd told a Hilton Trinidad audience last week.
But in his expert opinion, the price will level out. He had always thought $140 and more was "ridiculous" as a price for a barrel of oil, he said.
Boopsingh, feature speaker at an informal knowledge cafe organised by the National Gas Company, said the oil price for 2009 would depend on how the world coped with the current economic depression. However, Trinidad and Tobago will ride out the storm, he predicted.
Boopsingh, who addressed an audience that included former Health Minister John Rahael, said oil finds came in long cycles.
He forecast that between 2018 and 2025 there would be a massive oil find in this country.
Boopsingh made light of fears that the imminent ascension of Barack Obama to the presidential helm in the US would result in a push for green energy. In Boopsingh’s view, oil and gas will be the world’s premier energy sources until at least 2030.
His advice to the government was to use the resources frugally and wisely, while paying acute intention to preservation of the environment.
Boopsingh applauded the government for pushing motorists to switch their vehicles to compressed natural gas as it was cleaner and more friendly to the environment, and the gasoline saved could be exported for more Trinidad and Tobago foreign exchange.
Special to Indo Caribbean World
Port-of-Spain – The war of the two worlds of Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Dr Keith Rowley continued last week when the prime minister ordered the controversial Cleaver Heights housing project be referred to the upcoming commission of inquiry into the construction sector.
The battle between both men started after Manning stated during the 2009 budget debate in Parliament on September 30 that he wanted to know what had become of (Can) $2 million from the Cleaver Heights housing project in east Trinidad. Manning has once again raised questions about missing funds, this time indicating that the total had gone up.
Last week he said in Parliament that he had ordered the latest move to the commission of inquiry.
“This project is a source of great concern to the Prime Minister, and as of now, there has not been a proper explanation for the discrepancy of (Can) $2 million (in the project),” Manning said in the House.
“In fact, the (Can) $2 million has now gone to (Can) $4 million and the project is only 75 percent complete. Therefore, God alone knows where it will all end.”
This is the latest twist in a contentious issue between both men.
Manning fired Rowley as Housing Minister in April. Rowley is far from being Manning’s favourite – he challenged the leadership back in 1995 and lost,
On November 14, Rowley who has called on Manning to apologise for imputing improper motives toward him, filed a motion in Parliament seeking to take the prime minister before Parliament’s Privileges Committee.
Rowley said documents he obtained show that no money was missing from the project. House Speaker Barendra Sinanan is to rule on the issue.
Before Rowley’s motion on November 14, Sinanan had said that Manning wanted to deliver a statement at 4 pm. This was deferred to 6 pm.
Manning returned to the chamber holding a thick file. Nothing in his statement included an apology.
Instead, he raised several new issues regarding the Cleaver Heights project and raised questions about Rowley’s statements over the controversy.
Manning said the $2 million he has asked about earlier has since turned to $4 million.
“As a result of all these concerns, I have directed the Attorney General to refer this project to the commission of enquiry into the construction sector and to ask the commission to give it the requisite level of priority,” Manning said.
Manning said NH International had approached the HDC for a joint venture arrangement in which NH would provide the land/infrastructure at (Can) $8.16 million, and 408 housing units at an approximate cost of (Can) $18.52 million for a total of (Can) $26.64 million.
When the matter went to the HDC board, Manning said, the cost of the houses and land/infrastructure were correctly stated. But the aggregate figure was given as (Can $28.6 million - $400,000 more when both figures were totaled.
“That matter came to my attention only on the very morning and try as we may, we could not find an explanation for the discrepancy of (Can) $2 million,” Manning said. “In those circumstances, I thought that the MP for Diego Martin, who was Housing Minister at the time, might be in a position to assist us and I asked him, ‘Where the money gone, give us an explanation.’”
He said Rowley had said he (Rowley) had nothing to do with any discussions, evaluation or award of the NH contract at HDC and as Housing Minister, he did not get involved with details of any contract, evaluation, recommendation or award.
Manning produced an April 2005 letter from the HDC’s CEO to the Housing Minister, who was then Rowley, which sought Rowley’s approval for various HDC projects including the NH contract. Manning said the letter bore Rowley’s signature.
Manning said the Housing Minister was mandated by law to approve the project if he considered it appropriate, and in that case, approval was obtained.
“If, therefore, on that occasion, anybody misled this honourable house, it was not the Prime Minister,” Manning said.
Manning outlined several concerns he had about the Cleaver Heights project. He said the contractual arrangement for the project was that no variations would be entertained. He quoted a March 2005 letter to NH from HDC to that effect.
Manning noted that in Valuation Report Number 38 (August, 2008), the contract sum for the housing units in the project has reached (Can) $20.22 million and the sum for land/infrastructure went to (Can) $9.4 million.
“And the variation as at that time, with the project approximately 75 percent complete, is now (Can) $4.06 million, in circumstances in where it was clearly stated and agreed to by the contractor that no variations would be entertained,” Manning added.
Manning said this was precisely what the government had been trying to draw to the attention of the public with UDECOTT and other State agencies and to ensure that projects did not start at one figure and end up at a higher one.
Manning said that up to now, there has been no satisfactory explanation for the (Can) $2 million discrepancy
“In fact, if as has been stated in one court, it was a typographical error, then the error wasn’t detected by the HDC staff or the Ministry of Housing or the minister at the time, and not detected either by the internal arrangements that NH International has to ensure financial accountability within its own organisation.”
Manning said the project had outline approval, but not final approval from the Town and Country Planning Division.
“The contractual arrangement was entered into between NHA/HDC and NH on the basis of a letter of commitment - no contract was signed,” he said.
“In other words, under the supervision of the MP for Diego Martin West, the NHA/HDC entered into a (Can) $28.6 million contract without a contract being signed.
“I leave you to come to your own conclusions on the matter... all of these are things that cause concern.”
Manning also cited a claim from NH for (Can) $1.22 million for force main design fees (for sewerage disposal).
He said that according to the Association of Professional Engineers’ scale, the fee for this is around three percent of the cost of the item.
In the CH project, the force main would be about $10 million and design fees should therefore have been no more than (Can) $60,000.
“It is inconceivable that NH has billed and has been paid (Can) $1.22 million for this item and this gross discrepancy has not been properly explained. You understand what we’re seeing in all of this?” Manning said.
On September 30, Manning had also raised questions about Landate, a project in Tobago that Rowley’s wife owns and over which there was a commission of inquiry. Rowley was cleared of any wrongdoing.
In November 2004, the Integrity Commission embarked on an investigation in respect of unspecified allegations regarding the siphoning of materials from the Scarborough Hospital site to a development at Mason Hall, Tobago. The development was known as the Landate project.
Regarding Landate, Manning said on September 30 he had “lingering doubts” about the project.
Manning said he found it “very curious” that the contractor, Allan Warner, subcontracted to a company “many times the size of his firm” and one which was involved in a government contract for the Scarborough Hospital.
While Manning kept insisting he was not trying to tarnish anybody’s reputation, he then suggested that Rowley had become the “mouthpiece of a certain contractor.”
Manning also defended his meetings with the controversial Malaysian firm, Sunway, saying there were no “sweetheart arrangements.” He also defended his refusal to answer allegations against the UDECOTT, saying its lawyers had advised that the State company wait until the commission of enquiry to respond.
The prime minister also had a warning for Rowley, who lambasted Manning for going to a PNM rally in Woodford Square on September 12 and telling supporters, “If I fall, all fall.”
That was the day Parliament was debating a no-confidence motion in Manning and supporters of the PNM had converged in the square to show support for Manning.
Manning warned Rowley not to push his luck, reminding him of the fate of Karl Hudson-Phillips, the PNM Attorney General who challenged Prime Minister Eric Williams.
Rowley met with reporters after the September 30 debate and dismissed Manning’s inferences of wrongdoing.
“The first time I heard anything about this project and its cost and its whatever, some (Can) $2 million not being accounted for. The first time I have heard about that is tonight from the mouth of the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.
“I would dismiss that as an act of desperation on the part of the Prime Minister seeking to tarnish my name so as to get even or to create suspicion over my character,” Rowley said. “What I am dealing with here is wickedness in high places.”