Port-of-Spain – Two years after being fired from the Cabinet for raising concerns about a lack of oversight at UDeCOTT, Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley has called for a full parliamentary debate on the contents of the Uff Commission of Inquiry Report. His call came days before Attorney General John Jeremie laid the report in the Senate.
However, the Government remains silent on whether the report will be debated, either in the Senate or in the House.
Stating that he has “a personal stake” in this matter, Rowley said Parliament should treat with the report in its totality.
“There should be a debate on it,” he declared. Rowley said once this is done, it could lead to a re-direction of governance from which the country could only benefit in the long run. He noted that the Report’s 91 recommendations address several governance issues.
Once laid in the Senate, Rowley said he would be able to access a copy of the 512-page report and would comment on it once he has studied it in detail.
For the report to be debated in either House of Parliament, a motion must be raised for that to happen.
While the government could easily do so, given its superior numbers in the Senate, there is no sign that such a debate will happen when the Senate sits. Asked if the government would bring such a motion, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Dr Lenny Saith said, “Not to my knowledge.”
An Opposition or Independent senator can only raise a motion to debate the Uff Report on private members day, once senators with outstanding private motions on the Order Paper consent to giving such a motion.
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the recommendations reveal “a sordid tale of mismanagement, corruption, subterfuge and cover-ups.”
Persad-Bissessar was shocked over a recommendation for a police investigation of all UDeCOTT’s senior staff and directors for the period 2004 to 2009 with regards to the Brian Lara Stadium project.
She said former UDeCOTT chairman Calder Hart to be “located and returned to Trinidad,” the members of UDeCOTT’s board of directors should be prevented from leaving the country and that the government hire a special team of investigators to do what the report recommends with regards to “criminal investigations.”
Persad-Bissessar said the recommendations show the inability of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, chaired by UNC deputy leader Dr Roodal Moonilal, to provide adequate oversight of UDeCOTT and the company’s tendering procedures should be subject to judicial review. She reiterated her call to Prime Minister Patrick Manning to fire Planning, Housing and Environment Minister Dr Emily Gaynor Dick Forde and the UDeCOTT board.
Acting COP leader Wendy Lee Yuen said the report should be fully debated in Parliament before a general election is held but she would be “living on another planet.”
The House of Representatives will sit on Friday and is expected to debate a no-confidence motion in Manning, filed by Persad-Bissessar.

 

Port-of-Spain - UNC officials are eagerly awaiting the return of COP leader Winston Dookeran from India to expedite unity talks, a party spokesman said last week. This followed a meeting of UNC’s management team to plan for an expected general election. The meeting was headed by UNC acting leader Suruj Rambachan.
The party has established teams to deal with a manifesto, candidate screening, election infrastructure and other issues. COP leader Dookeran went to India on March 27 on a two-week lecture tour of five cities. He is due back on either April 9 or April 10. Dookeran left the day after officially cementing an agreement in principle regarding UNC/COP unity with UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Both had projected they would hold another meeting on April 22 on the issue. Persad-Bissessar had said both parties would work together, charting strategies for unification and also for local government polls, to contest any election against the PNM in a one-to-one arrangement. Both leaders had planned to meet again on April 26 to begin working out common policies.
Dookeran had said the COP would not be subsumed in the arrangement, since the COP had established a permanent place in the political landscape of Trinidad and Tobago. For the purpose of the political challenges, he said, they had find the right formula for a one-on-one fight.
The UNC will hold a planning meeting today to finalise presentation of its motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister, being debated in the Parliament next week Friday. The party is also yet to finalise whether supporters will come out around the Parliament during the debate as the PNM is moving to do. Other names surfacing in UNC as prospective nominees include UNC senator Mervyn Assam for St Joseph. Assam had been St Joseph MP under the previous administration. Former UNC minister Carlos John is assisting the party in mobilising East-West Corridor seats. However, UNC officials said John will not be a candidate since he had legal matters before the court.
Meanwhile, other reports indicate that COP has proposed to the UNC that both parties begin their unity arrangement discussions before next Friday’s no confidence debate against Prime Minister Patrick Manning in the Parliament.
In confirming this, COP screening team leader Ganga Singh, said COP’s acting leader Wendy Lee Yuen wrote UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar suggesting that proposal last Monday. When Parliament resumes Friday, the first order of business will be debate of the UNC’s motion of no confidence in Manning.
Singh said: “We are looking forward to a meeting with the UNC since this unity arrangement is now a high priority matter considering Manning’s election alert.”
The COP management team, which met last Monday, also approved the start of the process to screen general election candidates. COP already had screened over 60 Local Government nominees in recent months. COP chairman Roy Augustus also said: “We have to work out a solid basis to withstand public scrutiny ahead of agreeing on candidates.”

 

Port-of-Spain - The future of the energy industry in Trinidad and Tobago is dependent on discoveries of new hydrocarbon reserves that will be harder to find than ever before. And that challenge is huge that is facing energy stakeholders, warned BP Trinidad and Tobago chief executive officer Robert Riley.
Speaking to business leaders at a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce at Cara Suites, Claxton Bay, last week, Riley said: “Finding a new hydrocarbon province in Trinidad and Tobago will not be a cake walk.”
He said the new exploration would be in deep water frontier and “any deep water exploration will certainly not be business as usual.”
Said Riley: “It will surely put all our abilities to the test. It will take strong balance sheets to support what will be billion-dollar investments and proven track records of technology, application and deep water exploration capability, which is not plentiful in the industry.”
Riley said conditions for deep water exploration will exclude all but a handful of international companies and a few State oil companies. “Those who may qualify may not be many companies with the appetite to take the risk involved in deep waters exploration and production.”
More and more, the local energy industry will be driven into deeper and more difficult-to-access areas offshore.
Attracting the right companies to Trinidad’s deep water prospects will be a competitive exercise as investors will have to make hard decisions when comparing the terms offered locally.
Riley said bpTT, with its global companies involved in offshore operations, understands the complexity and risk involved in deep water exploration, having eight major deep water developments in the US, Gulf of Mexico and several in Angola.
“We will have to apply the lessons learnt from the last unsuccessful bid round, by offering new terms that will be competitive enough to interest and attract the big players in the global hydrocarbon industry.” In such a scenario “no company or state can take on the challenge on its own. Cooperation, consultation and dialogue will have to be the new way of working.”
At a recent meeting of the Joint Select Committee of Parliament, a representative of the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries stated that seven blocks will be launched for competitive bidding at the end of March, four of these will be on the north coast, two on the east and one on the west coast.
“While I am optimistic about the outcome of this new thrust, the question must be faced. What if we are not as successful as we would like to be within the time frame that we wish for this success?”

Port-of-Spain - Former government minister Firzgerald Hinds said he is fearful that the People’s National Movement would lose the next general election should one be called any time soon.
Hinds made the statement while speaking to reporters over the weekend during the passing-out parade for 334 Defence Force recruits in Chaguaramas. He said he was not sure if the PNM was politically stronger at this present time than it was at the last general election in November 2007.
This among other issues, he said, was a cause for concern if another general election was called in the near future.
“One, of course, is the fact that the Opposition has clearly demonstrated that it will not be going into a three-way fight as we did and benefited from on the last occasion but rather it would be a straight one-on-one fight.
“Of course, the PNM is not afraid of any of that, but it changes the whole political equation from 2007... I always think the PNM has a great chance and I am confident that the PNM will always prevail, but confident that I am, I would like to see us fight on a stronger footing, and I don’t know if we are as strong as we could ordinarily be,” he said.
Last week Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s said he will announce a date for the elections soon. A memorandum to constituency secretaries has also been sent out from PNM general secretary Martin Joseph, dated March 29, advising that nominations of candidates must be submitted no later than yesterday.
In order to meet the deadline certain procedures normal to the nomination process have been waived, the memo stated. These are requirements to invite all members by written circular to attend the meeting at which the nomination of persons as candidates is scheduled to take place and to “give to members at least seven days notice for the meeting at which the nomination of members as candidates will take place”.
Meanwhile, speculation continues as to what will be the date of the general election. Rumours last week were that Prime Minister Patrick Manning had told PNMites the date was ... “anybody’s guess”. PNM sources said the Prime Minister said, on one of his recent walkabouts with some government ministers, that the election will be held on May 24. Others said that he said at the end of May or early June, and even October was mentioned, but May 17, and May 24 emerged as favourite dates among the speculators.
However, with the date still to be announced by the Prime Minister, surprises are already piling in. Reports are Government Senator Laurel Lezama has been asked by members of the PNM’s Arima constituency to consider a nomination for candidacy against Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and the current MP for Arima, Pennelope Beckles.
Lezama was expected to be nominated over the weekend, sources said. Lezama shot into the media spotlight last November when it was revealed that she received a $300,000 grant from the Ministry of Culture and Gender Affairs for the pursuit of a Bachelor’s degree in Law and Politics from the University of Westminster Regents Campus in London in 2005 and 2006.
At 28, Lezama is the youngest Senator in Parliament. She is the co-ordinator for the Couva South constituency which, like San Fernando East, recently passed a motion expressing full confidence in Prime Minister Manning.
The PNM’s Toco/Manzanilla constituency has also received three other nominations for candidacy apart from incumbent MP Indra Sinanan Ojah-Maharaj. They are Alderman Ronald Boynes, chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation (SGRC) and the brother of former PNM sport minister Roger Boynes; businessman Anil Juteram, former UNC candidate who served as a temporary senator (Opposition) and Eric “Pink Panther’ Taylor, president of the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians’ Association.