Tag Archives: Politics

Workers caught back-dating deals

New EFCL board unearths secret operation

By Darren Bahaw and Renuka Singh
November 14, 2015 – guardian.co.tt

CorruptionA secret contract millhouse was discovered at the Education Facilities Company Ltd (EFCL) in Maraval, and armed guards have been called in to secure a mountain of potentially damning evidence which points to the illegal manufacturing of backdated tender documents worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The discovery was made one day after the new board of the state-owned company suspended its Chief Executive Officer Kiran Shah and Chief Operating Officer Sharma Maharaj over claims of impropriety.
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Query over Sharon’s Malta trip

Rapid Rail
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and his wife Sharon Rowley
By Gail Alexander
November 13, 2015 – guardian.co.tt

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley will attend the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government conference in Malta accompanied by a small delegation including his wife Sharon, Communication Minister Maxie Cuffie said yesterday.
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Vasant Bharath for leadership of the UNC

Vasant eyes UNC leadership
THE race for leadership of the United National Congress (UNC) yesterday turned into a three-way battle following a decision by former Trade and Industry Minister Vasant Bharath, to throw his hat into the ring and contest the post of political leader. The other two contenders are incumbent leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal.

By Feroze Hosein
November 08, 2015

Vasant BharathVasant Bharath has been said by quite some people to be a good contender for leadership of the United National Congress, but there are questions far too serious that could make him a non-starter if he enters the party’s internal electoral race.
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Was Kamla 2015 the Source and the Course for the Waterloo?

By Stephen Kangal
November 06, 2015

Stephen KangalThe reason, inter alia, advanced by the Moonilal “Go Kamla” Team including that of Dr. Tim Gopeesingh for the defeat of the PP in the 2015 elections and hence the current lobbying for rejection of Kamla for re-election to the Political Leadership of the UNC, is that the unprecedented, untried and untested Presidential style campaign strategy engineered by Campaign Manager, Rodney Charles, that made Kamla 2015 the focal point and dominated the PP election campaign strategy was flawed and did not resonate with nor did the electorate buy into it. This convenient thesis goes against the dynamics of the elections, is far off the target and would give the stamp of objectivity/ issues-based politics underpinning the final tally.
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The party’s over

By Raffique Shah
November 02, 2015

Raffique ShahChoosing a leader to take the United National Congress forward, backward, sideways, or keep it stagnated, is the business of members of the party.

It is not for me, who never belonged to any party other than the original United Labour Front, and that very briefly, to tell UNC members who they should elect as their leader, the way frontline members of the UNC openly lobbied for Penny Beckles over Keith Rowley during the internal elections in the People’s National Movement in May 2014.
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Kamla, Moonilal squaring off in UNC election

By Anna Ramdass
October 26, 2015 – trinidadexpress.com

United National CongressOn December 5, there are likely to be two major contenders for the leadership of the United National Congress (UNC) —Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Dr Roodal Moonilal.

Former prime minister Persad-Bissessar kicked off her re-election campaign last Saturday and faces internal heat as some of her colleagues and MPs are of the belief that she cannot lead the UNC to victory as she did in 2010.
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Police under fire

By Raffique Shah
October 26, 2015

Raffique ShahWith crime, especially murder, being the number one issue on the national agenda for more than two decades, the police cannot escape being targeted as the most blameworthy for the barrels of blood in which the nation is swirling.

In the most recent sensational case, the Tobago double-murder, the police have come under fire from just about every quarter, including the media and individuals in Britain, among them former UK High Commissioner Arthur Snell and the sole survivors of a string of similar gruesome attacks on the island, Peter and Murium Green.
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WASA now saddled with $1.6b deficit

Guardian
October 14, 2015 – guardian.co.tt

WASAPublic Utilities Minister Ancil Antoine says the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) is “burdened with massive debt and (is) financially strapped for funds.”

He said the state-owned utility company was currently operating with deficit is $1.6 billion and its receivables were $33.9 million.
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Up today, down tomorrow

By Raffique Shah
October 12, 2015

Raffique ShahI switched on my television last Friday just in time to see and hear a stern-looking House Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George say to former minister and current MP for Caroni Central Bhoe Tewarie, “You have three seconds to wrap up…starting now!”

I did a double-take, wondering if I hadn’t mistakenly tuned in to the Western channel rather than Parliament, some wild-west movie in which the “fastest” gunman in town gives an impossible ultimatum to his adversary.
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GISL, CNMG—‘A big waste’ of $$

By Gail Alexander
October 11, 2015guardian.co.tt

Minister of Communications, Maxie CuffieA Government Information Services Ltd (GISL) CEO was also hired as a consultant for a state company which bought him an SUV vehicle, and a CNMG freelancer was collecting “four salaries” under the past People’s Partnership (PP) administration, Communication Minister Maxie Cuffie revealed yesterday.
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