Tag Archives: T&T Govt

Regrello: $20m to fix NAPA flaws

National Academy for the Performing Arts
National Academy for the Performing Arts
By Michelle Loubon
March 27, 2010 – guardian.co.tt

Junia Regrello, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs says it will cost about $20 million to attend to the niggling issues like lighting and flooring at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), Princes Building Grounds, Port-of-Spain. Regrello came forward yesterday in his capacity as both performer and member of government. Along with recently appointed Sharon Christopher, chair of the management committee of the auditorium, Regrello admitted to flaws that need to be addressed.
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PM to hold private meeting with Syrian/Lebanese group

PM Patrick ManningPrime Minister Patrick Manning is to hold a private meeting today with members of the Syrian/Lebanese community, TV6 News reported last night.

The meeting will be held at a top businessman’s home in an upscale area in West Trinidad. It has been arranged at Manning’s request, by UDeCOTT’s new chairman, Jearlean John.
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Consultations Without Representations on the Rapid Rail

A Rapid Rail
A Rapid Rail
THE EDITOR: The financial and technical monstrosity of the Rapid Rail (RR) hitherto incubated in Imbert’s secretive nest has at last now reared its head in the public domain after two abortive consultations that were scheduled for 18 and 19 January. But although NIDCO is the designated operator for building the RR and to whom the EMA issued the final Terms of Reference (TOR) on 24 December 2009 relating to the procedures to be observed for conducting the requisite Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) conditional to the granting of the Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) the Monday March 22 public engagement held at Kampo Restaurant Chaguanas was hosted by the TRINITRAIN Consortium. Not any single official from the EMA and NIDCO was present to answer to public concerns. The media, allegedly now under drug-lords influence but the custodians of democracy was blanked.
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PM: Drug dealers against me

By Cecily Asson
March 24, 2010

PM Patrick ManningPRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning has accused the country’s drug dealers of being “against me” ever since his government’s acquisition of tens of millions of dollars worth in security technology including a radar system, fast patrol sea crafts, interceptors and helicopters to tackle the drug trade.

And in a strange twist, Manning said that as a result of drug dealers viewing him as “the man who standing in their way”, he is now being attacked daily in the media.
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Geezers’ promoting rage and war

By Raffique Shah
March 21, 2010

Basdeo Panday and Patrick ManningA seething rage has gripped this country in a manner we have never before seen. It’s frightening. Ever since I was a boy, I learned that the vast majority of our people have what I can only describe as a delightful sense of humour. But for a few ‘sourpusses’, we laugh at everything-from ourselves to pranks people play on us to remarks made by others that we find hilarious. For all our shortcomings, our weaknesses, Trinidadians and Tobagonians are generally a fun people.
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PM and Bakr Land Deal

By Andre Bagoo
Friday, March 19 2010

Yasin Abu BakrWORKS and Transport Minister Colm Imbert, who yesterday denied being interviewed by the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau (ACIB) in relation to Udecott, was in fact also interviewed by the ACIB in relation to an alleged land deal between Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Jamaat leader Yasin Abu Bakr which was disclosed in an affidavit sworn by Bakr in 2006.
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How to save the PNM

By Dr Selwyn Cudjoe
March 18, 2010

Part I

Prime Minister Patrick ManningOver the last two weeks the media have been merciless in their attacks against the PNM, the Prime Minister and the Government. When it was not about the Prime Minister’s ‘Prophetess’ it was about Calder Hart’s presumed deception and alleged financial indiscretions. When it was not about the vindication of Keith Rowley, it was about the wonders of a revivified Kamla and prediction of UNC’s inevitable victory in the 2012 election, without the faintest acknowledgment that in politics, a week is like a year, and a year is like a decade. In political terms, 2012 might be 20 years in the future.
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National Academy for the Performing Arts tragedy

National Academy for the Performing Arts
National Academy for the Performing Arts

By Andre Bagoo
March 14, 2010 – newsday.co.tt

IT COULD TAKE as much as $80 million to correct flaws in the design of the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), Port-of-Spain, the interim President of the Artists Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago (ACTT) Rubadiri Victor, estimated yesterday.

While Prime Minister Patrick Manning last week praised the NAPA as being “world class,” Victor yesterday begged to differ, saying the facility is plagued with technical problems and argued that it does not compare in any form with Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.
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Hart-aches by the numbers

By Raffique Shah
March 14, 2010

PM Patrick Manning and Calder HartIF I were Prime Minister Patrick Manning, I would fire my ‘spiritual adviser’ forthwith. I would instead hire a futuristic, 2020 model ‘secular consultant’, someone like, say, Raffique Shah. Before the howling starts, with every Tom, Dick and Harrilal shouting, ‘Shah looking for PNM wuk!’ or ‘We always knew Shah was PNM!’, let me explain why I offer the PM this advice.
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Hart has case to answer

LEFT: Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira, Attorney General John Jeremie, Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Works Minister Colm Imbert in parliament on March 12, 2010
LEFT: Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira, Attorney General John Jeremie, Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Works Minister Colm Imbert in parliament on March 12, 2010
Hart has case to answer
FOR THE first time, Prime Minister Patrick Manning yesterday admitted that former Udecott executive chairman Calder Hart has “a case to answer”, even as fresh questions emerged over the role Manning played in the circumstances surrounding Hart’s departure from Trinidad last Saturday in the midst of an ongoing criminal investigation.

PM: Hart not guilty
Minutes after saying former executive chairman of the Urban Development Corporation (Udecott) Calder Hart was not guilty of anything, Prime Minister Patrick Manning announced the appointment of Chief Executive Officer at the Housing Development Corporation, Jearlean John as the new chairman of Udecott, replacing Hart, who resigned last week.
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