NEWS

Jamadar, a shining light

Outgoing Justice of Appeal Peter Jamadar on Wednesday–his last day as a judge of the Supreme Court – chose to steer clear of the current state of the Judiciary, saying only, “It is what it is.” Jamadar leaves the Judiciary for the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) where he will take up a position as a judge of the regional court. He will assume duty in July. Jamadar’s appointment was announced in January by CCJ President Justice Adrian Saunders. Read more here

Bush fire ignites waste oil ponds

Of­fi­cers of the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to Tues­day’s fire which razed part of a re­me­di­a­tion site owned by Earth Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed. In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer of the EMA Hay­den Ro­mano said the fire caused con­sid­er­able dam­age to the area. He added that an in­ves­ti­ga­tion is on to de­ter­mine whether there was any breach of en­vi­ron­men­tal reg­u­la­tions. Not­ing that the area was not a land­fill site, Ro­mano ex­plained: “It is a re­me­di­a­tion site. Read more here

POLITICS

Imbert: IMF 0% growth for 2019 preliminary

Finance Minister Colm Imbert says the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projection that in 2019 there will be zero per cent growth in the economy was preliminary. He was responding to a question from Opposition Senator Taharqa Obika on Tuesday on measures to mitigate the IMF projection. Imbert replied the recent projection by the IMF for 2019 was based on provisional 2019 data. Read more here

UNC claims election witch hunt behind Ram’s arrest

A po­lit­i­cal elec­tion-year witch hunt, says the Op­po­si­tion UNC. But si­lence from the rul­ing PNM. Those were the re­ac­tions to the ar­rest of UNC Ma­yaro/Rio Claro cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Glen Ram yes­ter­day in con­nec­tion with an al­le­ga­tion of so­lic­it­ing a $1,500 bribe from a con­trac­tor. A state­ment from the Po­lice Ser­vice con­firmed a coun­cil­lor was ar­rest­ed at the cor­po­ra­tion and “was ex­pect­ed” to be charged with al­leged­ly cor­rupt­ly agree­ing to and re­ceiv­ing a $1,500 bribe in June 2018. Cor­po­ra­tion of­fi­cials said An­ti-Cor­rup­tion In­ves­ti­ga­tions Bu­reau of­fi­cers who came to the cor­po­ra­tion re­quest­ed Ram, 46, to ac­com­pa­ny them. He was asked to leave be­hind per­son­al be­long­ings- cell phone, wal­let etc—and tak­en to ACIB’s Port-of-Spain of­fice for ques­tion­ing. Read more here

BUSINESS

Gender diversity: good for business

Gender diversity is good for business.

This was the message the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) and the Inter-American Develop Bank (IDB) wanted to share last Friday at the Radisson Hotel, Port of Spain. In the Caribbean and Latin America, 75 per cent of women make up the labour force. While 29 per cent of executive positions, such as CEOs and CFOs, are women. Yet, in spite of the need to create products and communicate products for that demographic, women occupy only 18 per cent of board-level position. Read more here

Tewarie: Public sector backward in tech

That was the word used by Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Dr Bhoe Tewarie as he lamented the “backward” state of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in the Customs and Excise Division and in the public sector generally. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday examined the Auditor General Report on the Public Accounts for the financial year 2018. Read more here

REGIONAL

Modern Slavery - Lawmakers Blast Security Companies For Shafting Guards, Prosecution On The Cards

All but one of the nearly three dozen private security firms contracted by government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) are flouting the law either by short-changing their guards or not making maternity payments to females, an investigation by the labour ministry has found. Worse yet, the labour ministry revealed that seven companies, including one contracted by the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, ignored its request to produce records for inspection. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Ozone layer: Banned CFCs traced to China say scientists

Researchers say that they have pinpointed the major sources of a mysterious recent rise in a dangerous, ozone-destroying chemical. CFC-11 was primarily used for home insulation but global production was due to be phased out in 2010. But scientists have seen a big slowdown in the rate of depletion over the past six years. This new study says this is mostly being caused by new gas production in eastern provinces of China. Read more here

Mobile Networks Suspend Huawei Orders

Mobile networks in Asia and Europe are suspending orders for Huawei smartphones following the US decision last week to restrict the company's access to American technology. The inclusion of Huawei on an export blacklist means the Chinese company can no longer source software or components from US suppliers without a license. Existing devices are unaffected but the restrictions threaten future Huawei products and its leading position in building super-fast next generation 5G networks. Vodafone (VOD), the world's second largest mobile operator, said Wednesday that it had paused pre-orders in the United Kingdom for the Huawei Mate 20X (5G) smartphone. Read more here

23rd May 2019

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