NEWS
Griffith hits critics: Wealthy cops may not be corrupt
Police Commissioner Gary Griffith says while the police would continue to investigate allegations of corruption and fraud the public must not have the perception that all wealthy police officers were corrupt. He was responding on Thursday to criticisms from the public and social activists after the closure of a police investigation surrounding acting DCP Irwin Hackshaw. The findings of the enquiry into allegations of suspicious financial transactions did not yield any evidence to suggest Hackshaw had broken the law, investigators said. Read more here
WASA suffers shortfall of 40M gallons daily
The Water and Sewerage Authority said yesterday, it has suffered a 40 million gallon daily shortfall, as a result of the severe dry season. WASA said it has started redistribution efforts to help alleviate water shortages across the country. Chief Executive Officer Allan Poon King said the utility had looked to the use of groundwater wells and collaborations with desalination plants to address some of the shortages. Speaking during a news conference at WASA’s St Joseph head office, Poon King warned however, that the supply redistribution to Penal and Debe, where there are thousands of complaints, would continue to be challenge. “The communities in South Trinidad that we’ve been getting complaints from recently would have been Debe and Penal. We do have, well Debe is supplied by our Caroni Treatment Plant and there is no potential for groundwater in that particular area. Penal, we do have a small water treatment plant that does utilise wells but the majority of our water resources are concentrated in North Trinidad,” he said. Read more here
POLITICS
Confusion over Fuad Abu Bakr's PNM ‘screening’
Former political leader of the New National Vision (NNV) Fuad Abu Bakr showed up at the People's National Movement screening for the Port of Spain South seat on Thursday evening, despite an earlier statement from the party that he was not a nominee. Abu Bakr waited in the lobby at Queen's Hall, St Ann's where he said he expected to meet with PNM general secretary Foster Cummings to sort out "an issue" with his paperwork. He told reporters he had relinquished leadership of the NNV which he formed in 2010. Read more here
An unprecedented attack
In what was the most vicious attack on the local media by a sitting Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley yesterday accused the two largest media companies of not being independent but rather dancing to the tunes of their owners. Here is the Prime Minister in his own words: “In Trinidad and Tobago we don’t have independent media houses…. what we have are media houses that have interest to protect.” He went on: “One media house is owned by a business conglomerate that has interest and the Government has taken decisions that’s unfavourable to their interest. The other one, right, has business with the state which the Government is not facilitating and then obviously the Government is making enemies because they have interest to protect, we have interest to protect.” Read more here
BUSINESS
UTC to stop forex trading
After 25 years, the Unit Trust Corporation has decided to discontinue trading in foreign currencies, the financial institution’s executive director, Nigel Edwards, said yesterday. Read more here
REGIONAL
Car mileage fraud in overdrive - As cracks open up in screening, dispute emerges over inspection certificates
Despite the establishment of a pre-shipment regime by the Government to protect consumers, unsuspecting Jamaicans are still being deceived by unscrupulous used-car dealers who are rolling back the mileage generated on vehicles in the country of origin to sell on the local market at a greater value. Constant complaints of cars being sold with falsified information saw Autoterminal Japan Limited (AJL) being hired by the Trade Board to verify the data on vehicles destined for Jamaica, but Lynvalle Hamilton, president of the Jamaica Used Car Dealers Association (JUCDA), says there are still cracks in the system. “We are seeing some vehicles that came in that we wonder how it is that they were inspected and passed,” Hamilton said in a telephone interview recently. Read more here
‘Not just ballots’
WHILE in principle the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is leaning towards June 13 as the new deadline for the completion of the national recount as proposed by the Elections Secretariat, it remains deeply divided on the time needed to consider the report of the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) before the results of the General and Regional Elections are declared. Moments after exiting a meeting of the Elections Commission at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) on Thursday, Commissioner Vincent Alexander, in an interview with reporters, said while there was no objection to the new timeline proposed, difficulties arose when there was an attempt to insert in the Order, a timeline for the declaration of the results upon completion of the report by the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield.
“For all intents and purposes, in principle we seem to be saying that we would conclude the exercise here on the June 13. In principle that is where we are at,” Alexander told reporters, while adding that there are now attempts to insert a date for the declaration of the results into the order, though it does not provide for such. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
George Floyd: Protesters set Minneapolis police station ablaze
A police station in Minneapolis has been set alight during a third night of protests over the death of an unarmed black man in custody on Monday. A police officer was filmed kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, 46, despite him saying he could not breathe. President Donald Trump said "thugs" were dishonouring his memory and called on the National Guard to restore order. Twitter accused Mr Trump of glorifying violence in a post that said: "When the looting starts, the shooting starts." Mr Floyd's family have demanded that the four police officers implicated in his death face murder charges. Prosecutors have said they are still gathering evidence. Read more here
The US could end its special relationship with Hong Kong. But for western companies, it's complicated
The United States may soon terminate its special economic and trading relationship with Hong Kong. Experts say losing the status won't cause an immediate exodus of big western companies from the global financial hub, but it could further erode what made Hong Kong so attractive in the first place. The latest blow to the city's reputation came after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that the country no longer views Hong Kong as sufficiently independent from China, which for more than 20 years has governed the city as a semi-autonomous region with freedoms not available on the mainland. Read more here
29th May 2020