No cover-up. That’s the assurance from acting Prime Minister Colm Imbert to the family of deceased Carenage fisherman, Brian Smith, whose death is currently under probe by various authorities, including the T&T Regiment.

Speaking at yesterday’s weekly Government media conference, Imbert, who is acting in the absence of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, said he had asked National Security Minister Edmund Dillon to ensure that a high-ranking Regiment official visit Smith’s family and assure them that there would be an independent, impartial investigation of Smith’s death.

The 30-year-old fishermen’s death sparked protests in Carenage earlier this week, following conflicting claims about his death by family members.  

Smith, from Penal Rock Road, Moruga, was visiting his mother in the community when he reportedly got into an argument with soldiers he was allegedly “liming” with last Friday.  

Smith’s body was later found at sea. Relatives allege Smith was beaten unconscious and drowned by the soldiers. The Regiment has denied any wrongdoing on the part of the officers.

A government autopsy showed he drowned. However, a second autopsy, reportedly commissioned by relatives, found he had trauma to the head and face which may have contributed to his drowning. 

However, the family yesterday said they were still awaiting a further test to determine whether he drowned. 

Commenting on the matter yesterday, acting PM Imbert said: “I want to assure the family (of Smith) that the Minister of National Security (Edmund Dillon) has been instructed to take this matter very seriously, ensure it is done properly and in accordance with procedure and there is no cover-up and there will be an independent, impartial probe of the matter.”

Imbert said he had also asked Dillon to see if a copy of the second autopsy could be obtained to assist Regiment enquiries and that the police should also make efforts to get a copy. 

But for the sake of the family, he said: “I think they need to be assured there will be no cover-up and there will be an independent, impartial enquiry.”

Imbert said he did not know if anyone had seen the second report.

“I can’t say who did it, under what circumstances it was done, how credible it is. I don’t want to make a comment at this point in time, especially in view of the source. I wouldn’t want to create any emotion where it is not required at this point in time.”

Contacted subsequently, Dillon told the T&T Guardian the Chief of Defence Staff was sending a senior Regiment officer to interface with Smith’s family on the issue and to ensure the Regiment did its own internal probe on the matter.

Dillon said the Regiment had tried to interface with Smith’s relatives before but was unsuccessful and was making a second attempt to meet with the family and assure them of efforts being made on the issue.

On another matter, Imbert said he expected whatever recommendation the Police Complaints Authority had made in the issue of the former head of Special Branch and an alleged “cover-up” in the matter regarding a ganja find at the private home of the former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, would be taken seriously and the appropriate action would be taken.

The PCA has recommended the former Special Branch head, retired Snr Supt Gary Gould, be charged for his role in the alleged “cover-up” of the discovery in 2013 of a quantity of marijuana in a gazebo on the grounds of Persad-Bissessar’s Palmiste, San Fernando, residence.

Homicide officers have taken over the investigation into the death of Moruga resident Brian Smith, who was found floating off Chaguaramas on Sunday.

His family claims soldiers beat Smith unconscious and dumped his body into the sea after an argument.

The homicide probe comes on the heels of new information following an independent autopsy commissioned by Smith’s relatives.

The autopsy, done by forensic pathologist Dr Hughvon des Vignes, has so far found that Smith, an experienced swimmer, suffered blows to the face and head. More tests are being done to determine if he drowned.

The pathologist found trauma to the head which was probably inflicted by several blows with a fist or an object and broken skin under the chin, probably caused by a fist. The final tests, which are expected today, will conclude if the blows contributed to the drowning.

The Homicide Bureau took over the investigations from the Carenage Police Station, where officers only began investigating the matter on Monday night after Smith’s relatives staged a fiery protests along the Western Main Road, Carenage, and called for justice.

On Monday, pathologist Dr Eastlyn McDonald-Burris during a first autopsy at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, concluded Smith drowned. 

Relatives claimed Smith, 30, of Penal Rock Road, Moruga, was killed by a group of soldiers who were doing repair works to a house in Carenage which was damaged several weeks ago by a low-flying National Security helicopter. 

Smith was visiting his mother who lives in the community. Relatives said he was liming with the officers, attached to the Engineer Battalion, last Friday when he got into an argument with them over the disconnection of electrical wires.

Relatives believe Smith was beaten, struck on the head with a shovel and thrown into the sea in an unconscious state. His body was found on Sunday by prisons officers near Alice Point on their way to Carrera Island Prison. 

The T&T Defence Force, through its civil affairs officer, Major Al Alexander, has denied any wrongdoing on the part of its officers.

Alexander maintains the soliders’ innocence and claimed the Regiment had eyewitnesses who saw Smith swimming at St Peter’s Bay. He added that the military would offer any assistance to the police in their investigations.

Along with Russian and Chinese hackers, jihadists like Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are the major perpetrators of cybercrime in the world today, says American cyber security expert Dr Darren Hayes.

He was the feature speaker at a seminar hosted by the Institute of Internal Auditors and the Trinidad and Tobago Chapter of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA) and the British Caribbean Chamber of Commerce. It was held at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business yesterday.

He is regarded as a leading expert in the field of digital forensics and cyber security and is the director of Cybersecurity and assistant Prof at Pace University, New York.

In respect to terrorism in T&T, Hayes focused on the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen, saying they had 20,000 members and had confirmed links to al-Qaeda.

“Islamic fundamentalists have understood for many years the importance of the Internet for spreading their message,” he said. 

ISIS, he noted, had even written their own encryption protocol. Hayes blamed that development to former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) contractor Edward Snowden, who had leaked confidential documents from America’s National Security Agency showing the extent the US spied even on its allies, for that. 

“Snowden taught the bad guys that they needed to improve their encryption. That’s the bottom line,” he said.

ISIS was actively recruiting hackers and other technology experts, Hayes said, noting that jihadist leaders “are very often well-educated, have lived in the West and only became radicalised later in life.” 

He added: “ISIS is a very structured entity, almost like a country. They even have a Minister of Energy.”

In his general overview of cybercrime around the world, Hayes said China was responsible for 96 per cent of State-sponsored hacking. 

T&T, he said, was not exempt from such threats with cybertheft, online fraud, terrorism, network and energy sector breaches being the main areas to focus on. He also noted the new threat of drones, with Mexican drug dealers now using these unmanned craft to deliver their shipments.

 “Cyber security needs to be taught at the university level here,” Hayes recommended, “so the country can have people locally to protect against these future threats.”

After nursing her son back from the doorway of death, Princes Town mother Mohenee Rampersad was left heart-broken on Wednesday night when she learned of his death as she sat sewing a pillow case for his hospital bed.

Chaitram Rampersad, whose life was changed forever when he was run over by four cars in March outside Grand Bazaar, Valsayn, died at the San Fernando General Hospital around 8.45 pm on Wednesday. 

No one was ever arrested or held in connection with the accident.

Rampersad, 31, whose plight was first highlighted in the T&T Guardian in October, was warded on November 11 at the San Fernando General Hospital for a chest infection.

As a result of the accident, Chaitram was paralysed from the neck down and could not walk, talk, eat or breathe on his own.

His mother said she visited him on Wednesday but left soon after as he was crying non-stop.

She said she found courage and hope after reading about the success of another accident victim, Ryan Rampersad, who was crippled after an accident in Sea Lots last year and can now walk again.

“I went to see him, normally I stay and spend time with him, massaging his body, talking to him but yesterday (Wednesday) he was crying from the time I got there to the time I left. 

“I was in pain watching him like that and I stayed with him for some time but not as long as I usually stay.

“I was sewing his pillow case when I got a call around 8.45 pm telling me he had passed away. I didn’t think he would die, even after all the doctors told me about him,” Mohenee added.

In an interview  yesterday at her home at St Julien Road, Princes Town, she clutched photos of Chaitram throughout the years and recalled the moment he saved her life.

She said: “He came home one day... he was about 18 and saw his father beating me. He held his father back from me and told me to run... that moment I made up my mind and I never put myself in that situation again.

“I don’t know what would have happened to me if he didn’t intervene, if he didn’t give me the courage to leave all those years ago.”

She lamented though that her son never got the assistance he really needed.

“We tried everything to get resources to hire two nurses to come home and take care of him. We went to the Ministry (of Health) a lot of times but we never got a response.”

Recalling the sacrifices she made to take care of her son after he was released from the Mt Hope Hospital in October, she urged parents to never give up on their children.

“To anyone out there who ever has to go through this with their child, please don’t give up on them. I believed in him and despite everything the doctors said since he got into the accident, he held on for so long and he was doing better,” she said.

An autopsy is expected to be done today to determine the cause of death. 

Another 600 children have been sent home as yet another primary school has been closed because of sewer problems.

Officials at the Ragoonanan Road Government Primary School began sending its students home from September 19, ten days after the opening of the new school term.

They were unable to attend school because the boys’ and girls’ washrooms had to be closed due to a clogged sewer line and an unbearable stench.

Concerned parent, Camille Warrick, whose ten-year-old son is in Standard Five and preparing to write the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination in May next year, said the boys’ toilet was closed at the beginning of the school term.

“They were made to use the infants’ toilet but the problem escalated when the girls’ washroom also became unusable.

“By September 19, the school started sending the children back home, sometimes from as early as 9.25 am. There was an unbearable stench from the sewer plant,” she added.

Warrick said school officials attempted to rectify the problem on their own by using chemicals but the problem persisted.“The children were sent home on Wednesday around midday,” she added.

Warrick said she did not bother to send her son to school yesterday. 

“They keep telling them to come to school and then sending them home,” she explained.

She said school officials have reportedly been writing letters to the Education Ministry about the matter and requesting permission for the closure of the school until the problem is rectified.

“We understand they have not been getting any response and so is unable to close the school,” she said.

Sources at the Education Ministry said the Education Facilities Company Ltd (EFCL), the state entity in charge of school maintenance and repairs, was contacted on the matter and is reportedly working on it.

Vice president of the school’s Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA), Prakash Mahabir, said yesterday they finally got a commitment from the Water and Sewerage Authority to visit the school today to assess the problem.

The school’s 600 students have joined another 547 from the Chaguanas Government Primary School who were also sent home on November 9 because of an overflowing sewer plant.

After several delays, the school’s PTA was finally told the EFCL had awarded a contract to fix the problem.

“Yes, work has started but we don’t know when it would be completed,” PTA president, Lyndon Mohammed, said.

Ministry sources said the sewer tank had already been pumped and work should be completed by the end of this week. 

“The school should be reopened by Monday,” it was stated.

A number of schools which were not being maintained have been closed and the students sent home. The new EFCL board has been reportedly reviewing all contracts after the alleged discovery of documents at its offices pointing to contractual impropriety.

The new board was appointed after the PNM won the September 7 general election.

The closure of the schools has been having a ripple effect with parents being forced to take extra leave to stay home with their children. This has been affecting productivity at workplaces. 

Others have to find extra money to pay people to watch their children while they went to work.

Hundreds of students writing the SEA exam next year and those who have begun doing the Continuous Assessment Component aspect are being affected with the closure of their schools.

Consider teaching as a profession to contribute value to society.

This was the advice given by principal of Presentation College, Chaguanas, Gary Ribeiro as he spoke to students who recently sat Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (Cape) and the Secondary Entrance Assessment examination.

Ribeiro was speaking on Wednesday night at the Excellence in Education award ceremony hosted by the Chaguanas Borough Corporation.

The ceremony took place at the borough’s offices on the Chaguanas Main Road.

While addressing the students, among who were 21 primary school graduands and 47 Cape graduands, Ribeiro said students needed to find a way to give back.

“We are in need of good teachers and if you are the brightest please come back to your schools and teach. Consider teaching as an option,” Ribeiro asked.

Ribeiro’s call to give back was echoed by the mayor’s office who called on awardees to volunteer in their communities by assisting in painting a children’s home during the holidays.

In his address, Minister of Education Anthony Garcia said Government policies were key to the quality of education of T&T’s citizens.

He said parents, religious organisations and the business communities were key stakeholders in ensuring successful students.

He encouraged students to continue to succeed in their pursuit of educational goals.

“You will be assets to your communities and your country but also to the Caribbean and the wider world,” he said.

The minister also reiterated plans to hold a national consultation on education next year.

Lisa Martinez, the programme associate of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations country office in T&T and Suriname, says the world is facing a major challenge to feed its expanding population.

 Martinez said the world population stands at 7.2 billion and to nourish the additional two billion people in 2050, food production must rise by 60 per cent.  She said, however, the way food is produced must not be done at the expense of the planet. She was speaking at Tuesday’s opening ceremony of US$30 million to Improve Forest and Protected Area Management in T&T Inception Workshop at Petrotrin. The project is a venture of the Ministry of Planning and Development.

Martinez said the FAO’s mission is to eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition while promoting sustainable development.

“Yet, at the same time, just four—rice, wheat, maize and potato—of the 30,000 edible plants provide 60 per cent of the world dietary energy intake.”

However, she sounded an alarm that, “these are farmed in a manner that takes a heavy toll on the environment. Products of these crops represent a significant value in the Caricom food import bill of over US$4 billion. The crucial message is the way we produce more food cannot be at the expense of the planet.”

She said the FAO has five strategic objectives of which objective two is to make agriculture, which encompasses forestry and fisheries, livestock crops and natural resources, more productive and more sustainable. 

“FAO promotes evidence-based policies and practices to support the agricultural sectors (crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries) while ensuring that the natural resource base does not suffer in the process.

“Its vision is one of a world in which food is nutritious and accessible for everyone and natural resources are managed in a way that maintains ecosystem functions to support current as well as future human needs.

“In this vision, she said, the resource users, including farmers, fisherfolk, foresters and others, are empowered to actively participate in resource decision that results in equitable benefits, decent employment conditions and jobs in a fair-price environment.”

Concerns are being raised by president of Arrive Alive Sharon Inglefield that neither the speed guns nor the new Motor Vehicle Authority have been put into use, especially as the carnage on the nation’s roads continues.

However, Inglefield said the speed gun was absolutely necessary as it was a preventative measure to save lives.

“This, coupled with a complete revamp of the Motor Vehicle Authority to include the speed detection not only by the guns but  also by the cameras, point system in the revoking of driver’s licence... all of these elements are vitally important as preventative measures to save lives.

"We are extremely disappointed these measures have not come into effect," Inglefield said in a telephone interview yesterday.

She said Arrive Alive, a road safety lobby group, had gotten no feedback from Transport Minister Fitzgerald Hinds regarding the organisation's concerns but was hoping to hear from him soon.

"Each one of us is responsible for our own safety and we need to ensure we are obeying the speed limit and adjusting the speed to adapt to the road conditions," Inglefield said.

Calls to Hinds' cellphone went unanswered yesterday.

But John Victor, corporate communications manager at the Ministry of Transport, said he was told by the ministry's legal department that the procurement process for the speed guns was ongoing.

He said a company was working with the Police Service regarding the finalisation of the matter but no time frame could be given as to when the issue would be completed.

Victor added that there was a possibility that the 400 speed guns as previously proposed by the former administration might be reduced as there might not be the need to have so many.

Legislation governing the Motor Vehicle Authority lapsed in the last Parliament and has not yet been re-introduced.

The road death toll currently stands at 135 as compared to 146 for the same period last year.

Speed guns coming

Public Information Officer of the Police Service, ASP Michael Pierre, assured that the speed guns would in fact be put into use.

"I know that process is ongoing but it is not in the back-burner. The Police Service is working on it," Pierre added.

However, he could not give a definite date or the number of guns which would be used.

Co-ordinator of the Police Service's Strategic Road Safety Project, Brent Batson, was also unaware of when the guns would come into effect.

When contacted ACP in charge of Mobile, Deodat Dulalchan, said he did not wish to comment on the matter.

Five road deaths

On Tuesday three people — Anthony Marcano, 54, of Pierreville, Saliesha Ali, 41, of Foodcrop Road, Bristol, and Sherwin Constantine, 54, of Pierreville — died in a crash at Bristol Village, on the Naparima/Mayaro Road, at around 11.30 am.

The crash was similar to an incident on the M1 Ring Road, Princes Town, on Monday in which a father and son died when their car crashed into a truck.

In 2013, former Transport Minister Stephen Cadiz had promised that the speed guns would come into effect by February of 2014 in a bid to curb reckless driving.

Cadiz had made the announcement at a post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, in which he said  police  would be trained to use some 400 speed detection devices, which were expected to be made available in all divisions.

But in July this year Cadiz had said an administrative flaw in the procurement process had forced the Vehicle Maintenance Company of T&T (VMCOTT) to terminate its previous tender for the guns and reopen a new tender. 

Cadiz had also said he was “upset” and “disappointed” that the long-awaited speed guns had been further delayed. 

There are rumblings in the trade union movement, with a warning coming from the National Trade Union Centre (Natuc) of an impending fallout if decisions concerning workers continue to be made without social dialogue and consultation.

“Natuc is being left out of conversations on how the economy is carried forward. You are going to have a fallout with the general population,” Michael Annisette, general secretary of Natuc, the umbrella body of 13 trade unions, said.

“This (lack of consultation) would contradict statements about the Government being all-inclusive.”

Annisette further noted: “To date, there is no labour representative on any of the state boards. I am advised they are now looking at it.”

He was responding to questions from the T&T Guardian on a decision by the board of the National Gas Company (NGC), a state entity, to freeze its workers’ salaries.

The NGC’s decision was made in light of the company’s position because of low gas prices and was described by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley as a sensible move.

Annisette said several union colleagues have expressed to him concerns about the lack of consultation and social dialogue concerning decisions affecting workers.

Unions under Natuc include Bank & General Workers Trade Union, Seamen & Waterfront Workers Trade Union, National Union of Government & Federated Workers and Transport and Industrial Workers Union.

Some of these unions are part of the Joint Trade Union Movement which signed a memorandum of understanding with the PNM before it won the September 7 general election. The details of that MOU have not been made public.

Annisette also completely rejected suggestions by economist Dr Roger Hosein that, as a necessary economic adjustment, wage freezes be implemented across the board in the public and private sectors.

Charging that Hosein does not understand the real world of work, and challenging him to a public debate, Annisette said an economy’s survival is based on a thriving, working middle class. 

“If the working class does not purchase goods and services, the economy cannot strive. The economy is not about magic. It is not about inanimate figures. It is about people. If you leave people out of the equation you will end up with a serious crisis.”

He asked, “Why don’t they freeze prices too? When you freeze a worker’s wages but prices keep going up, what position are you putting him in? Wage freezes will have to be decided upon on a case-by-case basis.” 

Annisette said the NGC issue is not about freezing wages but about benchmarking its operations according to the international benchmark.

A series of events, starting with excessive bleeding that led to shock and cardiac arrest, may have led to the death of mother Candace Santo and her baby at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, on Thursday.

Her husband Stephen Goberban was still trying to make sense of the words which were written on the autopsy results when the T&T Guardian contacted him yesterday, noting he had read them and re-read them.

Goberban still wants to know what they mean and how they could explain the fact that his 29-year-old wife and baby son would never return to their Aranguez, San Juan, home. He said he spent hours sitting outside the hospital mortuary waiting for an explanation of his wife’s death, but instead received a paper and words on an autopsy report. He called on the hospital to answer his questions.

“They have to explain and tell me. Was a doctor there during birth? Why didn’t they do what they had to do to stop the bleeding to save my wife?”

Goberban said Candace had experienced a wonderful pregnancy.

“She never got sick and was happy,” he said, adding they were both excited over the birth of their first child, whose name was to be Nevin.

The excitement lasted the entire nine months of the pregnancy and even past the predicted due date of November 24. Excitement was replaced by another darker feeling on Wednesday.

“Everything started Tuesday evening. Candace went to the Aranguez Health Centre. They gave her a letter and sent her to the hospital.

“She went to the hospital. They did blood tests and said they were keeping her and said they would most likely induce labour on Tuesday night.”

Goberban said he left and went home.

“Wednesday morning she called and said they didn’t induce labour and she was still on the ward. She told me when they came and burst the water bag to speed up the process.”

Goberban went to the hospital during visiting hours on Wednesday, from 4 pm to 6 pm.

“At 6.10 pm they took her to the labour ward. I had already left. I came back and waited outside the ward.”

At 7 pm Goberban checked with nurses. He was told the baby had not yet come. He checked again at 8 pm and was given the same response.

“After 9 pm, they said sit down and wait and that someone would come talk to me. I saw a lot of frantic running around,” Goberban said.

“I was seeing the staff running around. With all of that I started crying because I knew it was my wife. I saw them carry my wife on a stretcher. She looked like she was getting fits. 

“They called me and said she was bleeding heavily. They said they would have to take out her womb. Blood was coming out of my wife like if you open a pipe.”

Goberban’s last view of his wife was of her lying on a hospital bed with needles all over her body and blood gushing out of her.

“She had no complications before. No sickness. No diabetes. She was normal all nine months.”

This is the fourth maternal death in the past two weeks.

In a statement on the incident, medical chief of staff Dr Karen Sohan said the hospital staff felt grief over the death of the baby and young mother.

OTTO CARRINGTON 

and MICHAEL RAMSINGH

A mother is now pleading for the public’s help to get her family out of the abject poverty in which they now live. 

With Christmas approaching and a new baby on the way, 30-year-old Nadia Walkins told the GML Enterprise Desk that she is engaged in a daily struggle to make ends meet and things are getting harder.

Walkins and her five children, Isiah Walkins, 13; Emmanuel Walkins, 10; Shamelia Bailey, three; Nakista Bailey, four; and Brandon Bailey, 22 months, are in desperate need of help. Walkins is also eight months pregnant and with Christmas season approaching her situation is anything but joyous. In fact, she is concerned that it will be bleak without some help.

Walkins works with the Unemployment Relief Programme and her live-in companion is a security officer at a nearby chicken company. They live at Shade Lane, Ackbarali Street East, Malabar, Arima. 

Their home is off the beaten path in a track. The path to the house is filthy, getting home is even more difficult when it rains and the stench is unbearable. The old wooden structure is falling apart and the roof leaks. The outside of the house is surrounded by garbage and rodents roam freely inside and outside. Rats run in the living-room, spiders hang low and cockroaches are a part of daily life. The garbage and water receptacles make this a breeding ground for mosquitoes and Walkins said only recently her younger children fell ill. “The children get fever because of the mosquitoes. They better now, thank God, but I really want to come out of this,” she said as she lamented the squalor in which they lived.

She explained that although they tried to make ends meet it was a task trying to get the bare basics, as sometimes the children had nothing to drink but sugar water.

In a soft-spoken apologetic voice, she said, “Sometimes we have milk, sometimes they get food to eat, sometimes they eat even better than me, but most times we just don’t have enough.”

She admitted she needed help urgently but said what she did not want was for the State to step in and take away her children. She said she loved her children and was trying hard to meet their needs, although their living conditions were less than acceptable.

“I trying so the Government will not take my children from me,” she admitted.

“Their father died and I want us to stay together. I know the law and I am scared the Government will step in. I don’t want them to take my children, I am trying to see if I could get better.” 

Walkins has been given a parcel of land from the Land Settlements Agency (LSA), but that has brought some problems of its own. Why? 

She said the land was in the name of Nadia Williams, not Walkins. But there is another problem. She put in a request for lot 62 but was instead given lot 54. Somebody else applied for lot 54. 

“I don’t want the owner to say we apply for that land. I want it settled so that I can build. I need a home for my children, a place for them to call their own.” 

Building any house will be difficult, as she just does not have the money to develop the land and cannot afford the material to build. But whatever it took she said she would get it done.

To compound her problems, none of her children are in school. Her eldest son Isiah attended the Baptist school in Maloney, but got into trouble because of his behaviour. She tried to get him into the Malabar Government School but said they also refused to take him. Emmanuel, who is 10, is now paying the price for his brother’s behaviour, she said. “They do not want the little one because of his brother. I find they should not deprive a child of education. He wants an education, he begging for it every day.”

She said her elder son simply needed some help.

“He needs counselling, he needs attention, but they did not give him that in school. Instead he was abused,” she told the GML Enterprise Desk, noting that with the right help she was certain her son could do well in school and make something of himself.

Like every good mother, Walkins wants the best for her children and that includes an education, which she acknowledged was essential to taking them out of the poverty which they were now forced to grow up in. 

She told us she tried to see the MP for Arima, Education Minister Anthony Garcia, to get some assistance but to no avail.

With no one else to turn to, Walkins said, she was now forced to appeal to the public. “I am begging and pleading, I don’t know what else to do,” she said.

Already the NGO Help is On the Way is assisting Walkins and her family. The group has been collecting donations and assisting with food and clothing. Anyone wishing to help can contact NGO team leader Miguel Pierre at 385-5616.

Dr Varma Deyalsingh, treasurer of the Medical Board of T&T (MBTT), says while doctors in T&T have come a long way, some are still being accused of having sex with their patients, creating drug dependencies, and performing unnecessary surgeries for profit.

Deyalsingh, also secretary of the Association of Psychiatrists of T&T (APTT), was speaking at the bicentennial celebrations of the MBTT, hosted by President Anthony Carmona, at Pier 1, Williams Bay, Chaguaramas, on Wednesday. 

Deyalsingh said: “We live in a changing society where doctors are accused of having sex with their patients, creating narcotic addicts out of their patients, performing unnecessary surgeries for monetary gain, sending patients from the government hospitals to their private surgeries, splitting fees with their colleagues, and not attending hospital to give back-up services when called out.” 

Deyalsingh said the medical board has had many complaints coming to it from the public, other doctors, and even from a former attorney general.

But, according to Deyalsingh, when these matters are brought to the board’s attention, what some may see as a refusal to act is really an inability to act given the limited powers available to the board.

Deyalsingh said that members of the MBTT cannot act in cases of negligence since that was for the Director of Public Prosecutions and civil courts to handle. 

He said the board could, however, ensure practitioners were operating within a code of conduct in a professional manner. 

“The challenge is we could only deal with professional misconduct, we can’t go beyond that. Malpractice and negligence must be dealt with by the DPP and court of law. 

“In cases of infamous conduct we can reprimand, suspend or even erase the practitioner from the register after it goes to the court. Ethical misconduct, a shortcoming in the level of professionalism or any other misdemeanour like excessive or questionable sick leave to patients we could reprimand them or put a warning letter on their file.”

Deyalsingh said when the board received a complaint, its members deliberated on the matter “and if we are satisfied the matter is grave enough, we could set up an enquiry to prove infamous or disgraceful conduct. We then have three options—censure or reprimand the medical practitioner, suspend the medical practitioner for a period not exceeding two years or erase the practitioner name from the registrar.”

He said the medical board was once thought of as a boys’ club in which they would not touch fellow practitioners, “but a past administration saw it fit to change the landscape allowing non-doctors to be part of the process, hoping for less nepotism in handling complaints against doctors.”

Deyalsingh believes that if complainants receive some satisfaction from the MBTT, then they may not go further into litigation.

He said the board had a duty to educate and train doctors to prevent the backlash that was coming from litigation.

Contacted for comment, Minister of Health Dr Terrence Deyalsingh said it was a complex issue and he was unable to make an off-the-cuff comment on the matter. Questions on the topic were subsequently emailed to him.

Carmona: Recommit 

to Hippocratic Oath

President Anthony Carmona appealed to the doctors to recommit to their Hippocratic Oath and the tradition of practising good medicine to all manner of people, to always serve with integrity, and to put patients before profits.

Carmona said, “Be philanthropic. That Hippocratic Oath that each of you take on entry to this noble profession of medicine must never fall prey to 30 pieces of silver.”

—reporting by CHARLES KONG SOO

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar is warning that the PNM dipping into the country’s foreign reserves is a dangerous precedent. 

She was speaking at a town meeting at the Charlieville Presbyterian Primary School, on Friday night. 

Persad-Bissessar said, “We’re seeing an economy that is contracting, another question that we asked today was the amount of foreign reserves the country has. 

“The question was asked of the said Finance Minister Colm Imbert, has the foreign reserves dropped or increased? 

“Of course he didn’t answer yes or no, he stood up and gave the numbers. In fact, what it is they got from us on November 20, he said it was less than what we left in the treasury for the foreign reserves.”

She said US$500 million was pumped into the system and Imbert couldn’t give an account of where and how it had gone. 

She said they kept pumping the foreign exchange into the market and that was being bought out. 

Persad-Bissessar said the next step was to dip into the country’s foreign reserves and that was a very dangerous place to go.

Persad-Bissessar said Dr Suruj Rambachan attempted to pose the question and he was shut down, but she was sure they would find other ways to continue to raise those questions. She said new VAT increases would come into effect in January. See Page A18

At 10.30 am tomorrow, the Appeal Court will decide if the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) was within its legal remit to extend the voting time by one hour on the evening of the September 7 general election.

If the court finds that the EBC overstepped its jurisdiction, it will then clear the way for the UNC to legally push to have the results in six marginal constituencies declared null and void. 

The constituencies in question are San Fernando West, La Horquetta/Talparo, Toco/Sangre Grande, Tunapuna, St Joseph and Moruga/Tableland. 

But that decision could have a ripple effect on the party’s upcoming internal fight for leadership as the three contenders have just days to stake their claim on the UNC crown.

Incumbent Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday said she would abide by any decision coming out of the Appeal Court.

“You have to remember that this is not a decision that can go to the Privy Council, so that decision will be final and we will accept that,” Persad-Bissessar said.

Another contender, Dr Roodal Moonilal, yesterday also agreed to abide by the court’s decision. In a telephone interview yesterday, Moonilal said that the outcome of that court decision would not affect the internal election for him.

“I will abide by the court’s decision,” Moonilal said.

He said that the decision of the Appeal Court would not affect his campaign policy which was aimed at rebuilding the party from the ground up.

“I have appealed to people to keep calm because there is life after the internal election and after all it is all one party,” Moonilal said.

Political leader aspirant, Vasant Bharath, said that he too would abide by the court’s decision.

“The Appeal Court will decide if there is a genuine case but I am not going to be distracted from the main message of my campaign which is rebuilding the party,” Bharath said.

Bharath said it would be difficult to say whether the Appeal Court’s decision would have am impact on next week’s internal election. Bharath was contesting the St Joseph seat on the UNC ticket and lost to People’s National Movement (PNM) candidate Terrence Deyalsingh. Deyalsingh’s win is being challenged by the UNC.

The UNC passed the first hurdle in its challenge against the EBC’s decision on September 18 when Justice Mira Dean-Armorer ruled it had presented an arguable case with a realistic prospect of success. The UNC, which lost the election to the PNM 23-18, is claiming that the EBC’s rules and the Constitution give the EBC the power to adjourn an election only in instances of public violence and not the power to extend the traditional election timeframe of 6 am to 6 pm. 

The matter will be heard by Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Justices Allan Mendonca and Peter Jamadhar tomorrow.

There are more questions than answers after last week’s shut down of the billion-dollar Beetham Wastewater Project by Super Industrial Services Ltd (SIS).

Now both state-owned National Gas Company (NGC) and Couva-based SIS are maintaining their respective silences on the future of the project.

The Sunday Guardian emailed the following questions to NGC after it was announced that SIS was fired from the project:

1. What is the next step with regards to the project?

n Will construction works cease until another contractor is retained to complete the project?

n Will the completion works on the project be re-tendered?

But NGC’s acting manager of corporate communications, Christine Punnett, directed the Sunday Guardian to the parliamentary contribution made by Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General, Stuart Young, on Friday. While Young did answer questions regarding the legal avenues to recover the money paid to SIS and the ratio of completed work to monies paid, he did not touch on the next step for the incomplete project.

Young’s parliamentary contribution, however, dealt more with the successive issues that led to SIS being fired by NGC and detailed moves to recover some $780 million from SIS, but did not touch on the future of the actual project.

Yesterday, however, Young redirected action to be taken on the future of the project to the NGC. He told the Sunday Guardian that the “board and the management of NGC have the responsibility of dealing with this contractual arrangement and I am certain that they will do so in the best interest of the company.”

Young said “as a matter of the record, my ministerial statement delivered in Parliament yesterday states how much money has been paid by NGC to SIS to date. I have no further comments at this time and confine myself to what was stated in Parliament yesterday.”

The two companies involved seem unable to say what is the next step for this most expensive project undertaken by the former government.

At $1.2 billion, the Beetham Waste Water project was undertaken as a joint initiative between the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) and NGC, with the energy company using its substantial coffers to fund the mega-project.

Fast forward two years on and the project has been abandoned by SIS after the Government changed hands in September and even the founder’s son, Terrence Lalla, who just last year was reported as the company owner has distanced himself from the company.

This is not the first time SIS has been able to avoid questions by the media. The company refused to comment when questioned about the favour it found under the former administration. Back in 2014, the Sunday Guardian had listed several multi-million dollar contracts SIS and its eight subsidiary companies received between 2010 and 2014

Whereas SIS’s website is currently off-line, the Sunday Guardian had reported then that the eight subsidiary companies also won government contracts. Those companies include Marshall Asphalt Pavers, Prime Equipment Rentals, Quality Refractory Insulation Services, Scaffolding Professionals, Phoenix Welding & Fabrication and Casa Contractors Ltd. The company also purchased Executive Bodyguard Services Ltd (EBSL) for US$14 million in 2013.

The company, through its subsidiaries, did work on several government projects including the following:

n Febeau Government Primary School at $18 million

n Shouter Baptist School for $28 million

n Couva Interchange for $70 million

n Disability Centre for $11.5 million

n Siparia Market for $56 million,

n Motor Vehicle Authority for $232 million.

Several attempts to contact the management by telephone have failed in the past six days since news broke that NGC had fired the company from the billion-dollar Beetham Wastewater Project. The Sunday Guardian visited the Couva offices on Wednesday but was told that no one was available to speak with the media. 

The Sunday Guardian has also been reliably informed that company founder, Krishna Lalla, has left the country and has set up a home in Panama, telling close friends that he felt the need to “get away for a while.”

Fresh internal conflict is threatening to break the United National Congress (UNC) apart in the build up to internal elections. With just days to go before the party elects its leader, the mostly clean campaign has suddenly turned nasty as one would-be deputy leader was threatened for taking sides against incumbent Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

The Sunday Guardian has learned that former sport minister Brent Sancho aligned himself with challenger Vasant Bharath’s Team Reconnect and was immediately “threatened with exposure” by Persad-Bissessar’s team.

Sancho, the Sunday Guardian is told, quickly withdrew his candidacy bid and has since left the country.

“I have been told that he would return after the internal election,” one UNC insider said.

With the rumour mill in overdrive, no one wanted to officially comment on what Persad-Bissessar’s team was allegedly holding over Sancho’s head.

Another insider close to Sancho, however, directed the Sunday Guardian to the September 2 issue of The Sunshine newspaper, a weekly publication owned by former government minister Jack Warner. The only story Warner’s publication ran on Sancho that month was his alleged involvement in an adult tape.

Sancho could not be reached for comment but texted the newspaper that he was “in a meeting” and therefore could not talk.

A Team Reconnect insider confirmed that Sancho made an application to be on Bharath’s slate in the capacity of deputy political leader. He confirmed also that Sancho left the country and indicated that he would return only after the December 5 election.

Meanwhile, Persad-Bissessar denied any involvement in the alleged threat against Sancho.

“I cannot confirm that. Sancho is the best person to ask about that wouldn’t you say?” Persad-Bissessar said in a telephone interview.

“I did not even know Sancho was on Vasant’s team. I do not think I have that kind of power that my displeasure could force someone to withdraw from that team,” Persad-Bissessar said.

With regards to the internal election, Persad-Bissessar said she was “confident” of a victory because she still maintained a healthy ground support from the UNC.

Persad-Bissessar admitted that the party was disjointed now in the last days leading up to the election, but she did not feel that that would last long. She is currently campaigning against deputy political leader Dr Roodal Moonilal and former minister Vasant Bharath.

Persad-Bissessar said in the 2010 internal elections, neither Moonilal nor Bharath campaigned on her slate.

“Vasant even refused to sign the letter to the President to support me for Opposition Leader but after that the party has come together and we won the general election,” she said.

“Yes it is a challenge, but I have a solid track record working in my favour, I was challenged before and no challenge is insurmountable,” she said.

Meanwhile, both challengers, Moonilal and Bharath, have also confirmed that there has been heated infighting.

Bharath accused Moonilal of “clutching at straws” in an attempt to undermine his campaign.

“I think he (Moonilal) sees that he does not have the support he believed he would have and as the party founder said, he is irrelevant,” Bharath said.

He said Moonilal’s sudden attack on him proved that Moonilal’s own campaign was fragile.

“He seems to be building his case to return to the Persad-Bissessar camp because I believe he recognises that he cannot win,” Bharath said.

“He seems to be looking for a home and is trying to engender some sort of sympathy from the Persad-Bissessar camp,” Bharath added.

Meanwhile, Moonilal is focused on ramping up his campaign in the last days before the election. He said there have been no threats made against him or his team by anyone.

“I think you have to be very strong to try and threaten me, I am not easily threatened,” Moonilal said. 

Leader of The Islamic Front Umar Abdullah intends to discuss with National Security Minister Edmund Dillon two issues when they meet on Tuesday.

The first being the migration of close to 100 T&T men who left our shores to become fighters for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and whether the Government would prosecute these fighters if they returned home.

On Thursday Abdullah was scheduled to have a face-to-face discussion with Dillon about T&T’s nationals joining Isis, but due to the minister’s pressing engagements, the meeting was postponed to Tuesday.

In a telephone interview on Friday, Abdullah said he and the Muslim community were about creating solutions and not problems.

He said he would like the wives and children of the deceased fighters to return home safely.

Abdullah estimated between seven and eight of the men who joined ISIS have died in battle, leaving their families in turmoil.

“Although I have spoken to a few of their wives none of them has indicated to me that they wanted to return home because of the intricacies of the whole issue.”

Abdullah said no government should prevent its citizens from returning to T&T.

He said citizens who committed crimes outside of T&T and served jail sentences were deported back to T&T, yet no one complained.

“What the Government has to do is properly screen, monitor and offer rehabilitative programmes to these families and fighters so they can be reintegrated back into society. We should not shut the doors on them. These people need counselling.They should not be locked out because we would create a bigger problem.”

Abdullah said he hoped the meeting would have a positive outcome. 

Two weeks before his engagement to his girlfriend Nikita Wolfe, Iam Joseph was gunned down in front of his Gasparillo home on Friday evening.

Wolfe and Joseph were expected to get married next June and had planned their engagement party for December 11. Even though the murder occurred around 6.25 pm, police were hard pressed to find witnesses.

Police believe Joseph, 29, was at his home when he had an argument with someone who pulled out a 9mm semi-automatic pistol and shot him two times about the body. Joseph ran out into the yard and collapsed. He was found lying in a pool of blood by a neighbour.

In an interview, Wolfe said she found it surprising that nobody saw or heard the gunshots. “His house is surrounded by neighbours. How is it nobody helped him? How is it nobody saw or heard anything? He died because he lost too much blood. If the neighbours came to help, he would have been alive today,” Wolfe cried. She said Joseph’s mother, Madonna, arrived a short while later and saw him lying on his right side, clad in a red jersey and black shorts. He had a gunshot wound to the right side of his neck and on his right hand.

Wolfe said she was looking forward to married life with Joseph and her four children. “He knew the house was small so he was extending it to accommodate the children. We planned to get engaged for his birthday and after posting banns, we would have gotten married in June for my birthday,” Wolfe added.

Mom wants justice 

for son’s murder

Meanwhile, Madonna called for justice. “I want to get justice for the death of my son. Whosoever did this to my son, the Father will deal with them according to their works.” She said Joseph, a “jack of all trades,” had no enemies.

“I spoke to him on Wednesday and he told me he was bringing back some carailli for me,” Madonna said. She said two years ago, she gave Joseph a lot of rented land and told him to build his house.

His sister Darlene Baptiste said Joseph had dreadlocks and on Tuesday he called her to twist his locks. She said Joseph planned to purchase a car and was looking forward to his engagement.

Joseph’s body was viewed by District Medical Officer Dr Klem Ragobar who ordered it be removed to the Forensic Science Centre.

Police officers led by Supt Phillip, Insp Pooran, ASP Ramdeo and Sgt Mc Intosh visited the scene. Police believe that Joseph’s murder could be linked to the shooting of Kevin Applewhite, 30, of Johnson Street, who was shot in his groin while liming at Lumsden Recreation Ground on Thursday. 

Anyone with information on the shootings can contact Crime Stoppers at 800-TIPS.

Orin Gordon

Editor-in-chief

Over a family dinner just before the New Year, Sir Ronald Sanders considered withdrawing from the contest to succeed Kamalesh Sharma as Commonwealth secretary-general. In a chance encounter in a Toronto restaurant, he told me that the Caribbean could not get its act together, and was split over three candidates—him, Dominican-born Baroness Patricia Janet Scotland, and T&T’s Bhoe Tewarie. He ended up staying in the race, and today, as the Malta summit wraps up, must now wish that he hadn’t.

Sir Ronald Sanders is the son-in-law of Sir Shridath Ramphal, a former secretary-general. 

Baroness Scotland’s victory denied the Ramphal/Sanders household the mother of all Christmas celebrations.

Sir Ronald, a highly regarded broadcaster in Guyana in the 70s, has few peers in handling the media, with his quick grasp of the complex details of the world of diplomacy, development and foreign affairs, and ability to analyse it instantly, fluently and simply. 

Like many smart lawyers, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, QC, takes a micro-beat thinking before talking—processing the question, choosing her words carefully, and delivering them in the soft, cultured tones of the English upper class. In person she’s easygoing, but keeps a cool, businesslike detachment. 

She smiles readily, especially with her eyes. She wears the garb of the British aristocracy easily. 

Not for her the rah-rah of the House of Commons and Prime Minister’s Question Time. She was to the peerage born.

There’s much to like about her choice as secretary-general. 

She’s bright, accomplished and well qualified. 

That needed to be said before the second thing—which is that she is the first woman to become secretary-general. 

Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Sirimavo Bandaranike of Sri Lanka, Dame Eugenia Charles, Portia Simpson-Miller, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, Julia Gillard of Australia and Helen Clark of New Zealand have served their countries and/or contributed greatly to Commonwealth affairs over the years.

It’s way past time the Commonwealth caught up with its own membership, and the times. 

And—in a group in which small countries rule by number and population—the thing that matters a lot in terms of symbolism is that the SG Designate is a black woman.

However, it’s a stretch to say she was a Caribbean candidate. 

She is English right down to her elegant patent leather pumps—as English, some would argue, as David Cameron. 

A prominent member of the British establishment and the House of Lords, she held a number of key posts in the British government and Cabinet, becoming Gordon Brown’s Attorney General. 

She was, to all intents and purposes, a UK candidate. 

None of this is to question her Caribbean-ness or sense of rootedness in the country of her birth. 

She simply did not look or feel a Caribbean candidate to the majority of Caribbean leaders, and Dominica’s single-minded pursuit of her candidacy has done some damage to regional comity.

Dominica, the criticism went, supported a British candidate who happened to be born in Dominica, an island she left when she was two years old, and her tenuous link to her birthplace mattered more than holding the line on Caricom solidarity. 

Certainly the process was messy, with a number of Caribbean leaders thinking that they’d extracted a promise from Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit to back Sir Ronald, and Dominica clumsily extricating itself from that. 

It’s a once in a lifetime post for a region. 

After Sir Shridath held the post between 1975 and 1990, it went to Africa, Oceania (New Zealand) and India. 

The Caribbean felt that it was its turn again, and the hope was that Caricom would field one candidate.

It did not help Sir Ronald’s case that a report in London’s Telegraph on Wednesday, the eve of the election for SG, linked him to alleged fraud which allegedly involved the Antiguan government he represented in London as high commissioner. 

His lawyers said in response to the report that he has always conducted himself with propriety. 

A very interesting question for a reporter to ask him is whether he thinks the timing of the report was coincidental.

In any event, he was eliminated after the first round. There were two pieces of irony. 

Baroness Scotland did well in the first round with the heavy backing of the European bloc (and some Caribbean support). 

Secondly, with Sir Ronald eliminated, Antigua and Barbuda ended up voting for her over Africa’s candidate in the final round.

What the SG Designate does next will be interesting. 

She needs to reach out to Caribbean governments which did not support her candidacy, and once in the chair in April, deliver for the Caribbean in some way. 

The Caribbean’s problem is that it’s not quite poor enough, and the Commonwealth can seem skewed towards Africa in terms of delivery of aid and technical assistance, and Asia and the Pacific on issues such as climate change. 

Baroness Scotland needs to do some family healing.

A 27-year-old man was killed and his 28-year-old companion warded in critical condition at hospital after the car he was driving crashed in St Augustine, yesterday. Kerron Alfred, of Bushe Street, Maitagual, Petit Bourg, died on the spot while driving on the Priority Bus Route.

Victoria Mayers, who was a passenger in the front seat remains hospitalised in a critical condition, police said. A report said around 4 am, Alfred was heading west when he crashed into a tree near Emerald Plaza. Acting Sgt Hospedales from the St Joseph Police Station is continuing investigations. 

T&T Police Service’s coordinator of the Road Safety Project, Brent Batson, said yesterday there were 137 road fatalities for 2015 compared to 146 for the same period last year.

“We heard the passenger was in critical condition. We will be monitoring. This comes on the heels of five people losing their lives in a short space of time. Initial reports suggest that speed was a contributing factor to the crash as he lost control when there was little or no traffic on the road,” he said. 

Batson said one can only imagine the type of Christmas these families will have with one empty seat at the table. “So drivers must ask whether or not they will be putting up a Christmas tree or tent for a wake given the manner in which they are driving,” he said. 

Last week Monday, Namdeo Harriman and his son, Lalchan Harriman were killed in a crash on the M1 Ring Road in Princes Town. Last week Wednesday, Anthony Marcano, 60, Saliesha Ali, 41, and Sherwin Constantine, 64, were killed in a smash-up in Mayaro.