Subject: PNM Corrupted Legacy Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:01 pm
Who was the Minister??
Minister’s son walks free ... after drug bust on Venezuelan pirogue
POLICE officers at the Point Fortin Police Station
are calling on the Commissioner of Police (CoP) Trevor Paul to investigate an incident in which the son of a government minister, allegedly held during a drug bust on the south western coast, was freed following a telephone call.
However, two Venezuelan men who were also arrested, were subsequently charged and have since appeared in the Point Fortin Magistrates’ Court.
They were charged with trafficking in marijuana. Charges are yet to be laid against the minister’s son.
Sources told TnT Mirror the freeing of the young man has left a bitter taste in the mouths of honest officers in the South-Western Division.
“The action deviated from all established procedures,” a concerned senior officer told Mirror.
“We are very worried now.” But as if that were not bad enough, it was further disclosed to Mirror that investigators were kept busy answering the minister’s son cellphone, which they had seized from him.
Sources said all calls made to his phone, which incidentally is “one way”, came from clients who had placed their respective orders for their individual quotas of the marijuana cargo.
According to reports last Monday, around 2.45 p.m., officers of the Custom and Excise Division’s Marine
Unit seized some 300 pounds of compressed marijuana from a pirogue, which was spotted in the waters off Vessigny, La Brea and which the officers had boarded after a hot pursuit.
The cargo had a street value of $1.3 million.
Mirror learnt that the Customs vessel was patrolling off the coast when they spotted the boat heading towards the beach. With the help of Special Anti Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT) officers, they were able to intercept the pirogue.
A search was conducted and six crocus bags of marijuana, believed to have been brought in from Colombia were found.
The People’s National Movement (PNM) minister’s son, believed to be on the beach to make the pick up, was later held and taken into custody at the La Brea Police Station.
Mirror was told that there was much commotion when the suspect was allowed to walk away free.
Police officers from the Siparia Station also assisted SAUTT and Customs and Excise officers in the bust.
“We are waiting to see just how this one will work out,” one angry officer declared.
Persad-Bissessar said the greatest level of disrespect has been shown by the PNM with their non-delivery of the New Scarborough Hospital. "May I add, it is a disgrace that the Scarborough Hospital, promised so many years over due and running millions over budget. I want to report on that to you tonight, in spite of the 420% cost overruns, the delay created by PNM corruption and mismanagement of the Scarborough Hospital. In one year and a half I will deliver that hospital to you here in Tobago."
WAR INTENSIFIES Hit on Rahael ... nephew’s murder connected to Monos drug bust, Bryden fire
HEALTH Minister John Rahael is the main target marked for execution by a cartel of local executives and Colombian traders.
But because security was around him, it made the hit difficult. The message was telegraphed loud and clear, with the decapitation of Dr. Edward Koury, the nephew of Rahael’s wife.
This is the information gleaned by TnT Mirror from an undercover international intelligence source.
Koury was snatched last week Wednesday from his business place at ISKO Limited, Macoya Industrial Estate, Tunapuna.
His headless body was discovered two days later, dumped in an orange field in Caparo, near where Rahael’s son-in-law has staked a claim to lease a piece of former Caroni 1975 Limited estate.
He was buried at Lapeyrouse Cemetery on Tuesday following a funeral service at St. Finbar’s RC Church, Diego Martin.
At Press time, police was tipped off that the missing head was buried somewhere in Laventille Road, San Juan.
This follows futile searches at locations off Mosquito Creek, La Romaine.
Mirror was told that since the daring daylight attack on Dr. Koury, the wealthy Syrian community has been under a self-imposed lockdown with heavy security andbodyguard services employed.
It is understood that while family members are being shipped out to secure destinations abroad, “professionals” are being shipped into Trinidad to “take care of business” against the suspected perpetrators, who are reported to be high-rankingexecutives.
The Syrian mafia, Mirror was told, is bent on dealing with the big fishes in their own way, outside of the law.
With tension and emotions running high in what has been described as a major split in an elite local cartel, the deadly war for control of the multi-billion dollar drug-trade is expected to claim many more lives, a counter-drug agent told Mirror.
Agents are picking up intelligence on a possible connection between the recent $700 million Monos Island bust and multi-million dollar fire which destroyed the AS Bryden Warehouse in El Socorro.
Meanwhile, six persons appeared in the Tunapuna Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, charged in connection with Dr. Koury’s murder.
Despite protestation by the lawyers, all were denied bail by Magistrate Indra Ramoo-Haynes.
Another person is believed to have agreed to turn State’s witness.
Some sleuths are of the opinion that their investigations could easily be compromised with the lure of big money to lean the enquiries in a particular way and influence information flow to the media.
With an impending election breeze blowing towards a December poll date, feverish efforts are also being conjured in certain quarters to tag Dr. Koury’s murder with a political label.
Family members have described Dr. Koury as a bright, successful businessman.
They are convinced that it was a robbery went awry and he was the wrong target.
Rahael, meanwhile, is reported to be considering his political future in the wake of the present situation, but Prime Minister Patrick Manning is alleged to have insisted that he should remain a Cabinet Minister, because it would send a wrong message to the jumpy population that the government was incapable of dealing with the runaway crime situation should he resign.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Trinidad and Tobago has found itself in a seriously embarrassing situation, with international ramification, when diplomatic bags destined for Toronto and London were seized at Piarco containing cocaine. A third diplomatic bag also with cocaine was intercepted in New York following work by Intelligence officers and officers of the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Two persons are now before the courts charged with offences related to alleged drug trafficking. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Port-of-Spain has summoned a number of employees posted at the three Missions abroad back to Trinidad to assist in enquiries and has taken steps to impose more stringent procedures and supervision not only of the bag but also their preparation and documentation.
The story has caused considerable concern about activities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and raised questions about the security of the diplomatic bag. What is “a diplomatic bag”? It is a mail pouch used by Governments to send official letters and dispatches to their Em-bassies around the world. According to international convention, packages carrying official documents and other material deemed necessary for use by a diplomatic mission are “inviolable.” This means that the so-called diplomatic bag, provided that it is clearly marked as such, cannot be opened or detained. A “diplomatic bag” can be a bag, a briefcase, a package. What makes it different from other bags is its clear marking “Diplomatic.” Just as diplomats and their embassies are exempt from the rules and regulations which govern others in a host nation, their correspondence is also above national law. Any items entering a host country in this way are not within the jurisdiction of customs officials or subject to import taxes.
Enshrined in the 1961 Vienna Conven-tion on Diplomatic Relations, the status of the diplomatic bag allows a country to send “anything it wants” to its embassies. Of course certain items such as arms and illegal drugs are not permitted. Four years ago, by opening a six-tonne freight delivery intended for the British mission in Harare, the Zimbabwean government stood accused of flouting diplomatic law. The Vienna convention also gives special status to the couriers who accompany the diplomatic mail. A “diplomatic bag” is a term used to describe shipping containers which have diplomatic immunity from search or seizure. It need not be an actual bag. In the case of the UK, these “Queen’s Messengers” as they are called cannot be hindered in their duties. They are liable to neither arrest nor detention. Despite the potential sensitivity of the documents they carry, Queen’s Messengers regularly travel on normal commercial flights.
For larger consignments, packages are loaded into an aeroplane cargo hold and met by diplomatic officials at their destination. While much information is now sent from Foreign Offices to their overseas missions via satellite, the diplomatic bag remains a lifeline for embassy staff. Stocks of documents such as passports, vital to the everyday running of a mission, also come via this route. Each year the Queen’s pre-recorded Christmas Day message is sent in the diplomatic bag to every corner of the world. During World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was kept supplied with Cuban cigars thanks to the bag and a wealthy well-wisher in New York. Following China’s cultural revolution, the Foreign Office received an interesting memento of the turmoil from the embattled staff of the Beijing embassy. The “diplomatic bag” is conventionally used as an example of the ultimate secure channel used to exchange keys, codebooks and other necessarily secret materials.
Former finance minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira's move in 2009 to withdraw her monies from the now defunct CLICO Investment Bank (CIB), which was a subsidiary of the collapsed CL Financial conglomerate, is now before the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for investigation, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday.
Persad-Bissessar made the disclosure during her contribution to the Parliament's debate on a finance motion to raise the Government's debt ceiling.
Persad-Bissessar explained that Devant Maharaj, now Transport Minister, had written to the Integrity Commission, requesting that Nunez-Tesheira be probed for allegedly breaching the Integrity in Public Life Act and conflict of interest when she withdrew her monies from CLICO Investment Bank while holding the portfolio of Finance Minister under the People's National Movement administration in January 2009.
Nunez-Tesheira, in her capacity as Finance Minister, had been instrumental in the PNM's bailout plan of the embattled conglomerate.
In a scathing attack on his political leader and Prime Minister Patrick Manning, Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley yesterday said the affairs of controversial State-owned Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott) “smells to the high heavens.”
Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley yesterday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Patrick Manning, declaring the Udecott scandal was ten times worse than the Piarco Airport
Description : In 1991, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago (B.W.I.A. International) Airways Corporation, Trinidad-Tesoro Petroleum Company Limited, and Trinidad and Tobago Racing Authority won a civil judgment for $7.2 million against Mr. O'Halloran's estate. Mr. O'Halloran had been charged, according to secondary sources, in 1983 by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago of taking bribes from the Sam P. Wallace Overseas Corporation but before he could be prosecuted in Trinidad and Tobago, he left for Canada, where he died in 1985. The Government of Trinidad and Tobago filed civil suit against his estate. In 1981, the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission brought actions against the Samuel P. Wallace Company and its president Alfonson A. Rodriguez for a series of bribery payments to Mr. O'Halloran, in order to obtain and retain a contract from the Trinidad & Tobago Racing Authority (an agency of the Government of Trinidad & Tobago). Approximately $1.4 million in bribes from the Samuel P. Wallace Overseas Corporation were paid into Mr. O'Halloran's Canadian company, Trinidad Financial Corporation. The Sam P. Wallace Co. subsequently pleaded guilty to three counts of violating the accounting provisions of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and was fined $30,000. It also pleaded guilty to one count under the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act and was fined $500,000. Mr. Rodriguez, president of Wallce Co., pleaded guilty to one count of bribery of a foreign official under the FCPA and received a sentence of three years' probation and a $10,000 fine. The Government of Trinidad and Tobago also brought a civil RICO (Racketeer Influenced Criminal Organization) suit in US District Court for the Southern District of New York against Tesoro Petroleum Corporation and its officials (Case no. 1:89-cv-01663-LLS), and obtained a settlement of $7.5 million from the company.
Type of Illicit activity involving Public Official : Bribery Impediments to investigation: Unk Most recent legal action against Public Official?: Other legal action/ other prosecutions: US v. Sam P. Wallace Co. , Inc. (D.P.R. 1983) and US v. Alfonson A. Rodriguez (D.P.R. 1983); Trinidad and Tobago v. Tesoro Petroleum Corp., et al, Case no. 1:89-cv-01663-LLS (S.D.N.Y.)
Region: LAC Country of Public Official: Trinidad and Tobago Sources: Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, et al v. John Frederick Cameron, Litigation Administrator for the Estate of John H. O'Halloran, et al., Court File No. 29841/88 (Ontario Court of Justice, General Division), Judgment dated June 3, 1991 Trinidad and Tobago v. Tesoro Petroleum Corp, et al, no. 1:89-cv-01663-LLS (S.D.N.Y.) Summary of US v. Sam P. Wallace Co., Inc. (D.P.R. 1983) and US v. Alfonson A. Rodriguez (D.P.R. 1983) in Shearman and Sterling, LLP, FCPA Case Digest (October 2009), at 131, accessed at http://www.shearman.com/files/upload/fcpa_digest.pdf US Securities and Exchange Commission v. Sam P. Wallace Company, Inc., et. al., no. 81-cv-1915 (D.D.C.) summarized in SEC News Digest, Issue 81-157 (Aug. 14, 1981) Balgobin, Denise. "Allegations of corruption part of TT political history." Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday, May 4, 2008, accessed at http://www.newsday.co.tt/politics/0,78244.html Segal, Philip. "Coming Clean on Dirty Dealing: Time for a Fact-Based Evaluation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act." Florida Journal of International Law, vol. 18, at 189-190 Position of Public Official during scheme: Chairman of the Trinidad & Tobago Racing Authority; Chairman, Chaguaramas Development Authority; official in People's National Movement Government Is there a pending case or appeals?: No UNCAC Articles(s) Implicated: Art. 16 Art. 23
THE COST of the Port-of-Spain waterfront project has more than doubled to $3.4 billion (US$551 million), with the cost overrun on the project, considered to be the jewel in the crown of the Patrick Manning administration, amounting to a massive $1.8 billion (US$286 million).
In August, 2005, when the French construction giant Bouygues Batiment signed the contract to design and build an office, hotel and conference centre on the Port-of-Spain waterfront, the price tag on the project was put at US$265 million ($1.6 billion).
Yesterday, Canadian-owned bank FirstCaribbean issued a release saying that it had completed the financing of the “prestigious” waterfront project with a US$375-million transaction ($2.3 billion).
The FirstCaribbean statement said the US$375 million financing was placed by the bank at a fixed interest rate of 6.09 per cent for 15.9 years on the US private placement market, using an "innovative structure.”
The bank said the current financing followed “earlier interim funding arranged and provided by FirstCaribbean in the amount of US$176 million—US$136 million in December, 2005, and US$40 million in June, 2006—for the project.”
The earlier US$176 million plus the current US$375 million mean that the project financing is estimated at US$551 million, substantially more than the US$265 million allocated in the original budget.
The FirstCaribbean statement said, however, the project was “currently within budget and deadline.”
During the last two years, there have been substantial increases in the cost of local construction labour, materials and equipment—mainly as a result of the enhanced pace of State construction.
The appreciation of the euro against the TT dollar is also believed to have contributed to the cost overrun.
When it signed the contract in August, 2005, Bouygues Batiment was part of a consortium comprising Home Construction Ltd, the CL Financial subsidiary and Hyatt Regency, the global hotel chain which was identified as the top-ranked of three groups last December.
The French contractor/developer will be represented in T&T by its unit Bouygues Batiment International.
The consortium is developing the 150,000-square-meter complex on behalf of a company called the Port-of-Spain Waterfront Development Ltd, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Urban Development Corporation of T&T (Udecott).
The first part of the project is expected to be completed by October, this year, the second phase at the end of 2007, with completion expected by the end of 2008.
The two 26-storey towers at the waterfront project will house corporate offices and a 22-storey, five-star Hotel Hyatt Regency hotel with 428 rooms.
Other features of the project include:
A conference complex containing exhibition space Pre-function rooms, translation booths and media facilities Retail shopping facilities Car park with a 1,200-vehicle capacity According to the Barbados-based FirstCaribbean, the waterfront project "is one of the urban rehabilitation efforts" being made by the Government. The bank described the waterfront project as being of “strategic importance” to the Government’s development plans in the context of its Vision 2020 for the country.
“Upon completion, it is expected to position the T&T capital as a regional hub for finance, international relations and trade,” according to the bank.
Efforts to contact the bank's spokesman were unsuccessful up to yesterday evening.
A list of questions was e-mailed to Udecott spokesman Danielle Jones at 5.48 pm yesterday. Jones said she was unable to respond, because the officials qualified to provide a comment were not available.
It was cost overruns galore—running into billions—under the former People's National Movement government. It is this "rape and plunder" of the Treasury, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan says, that has fuelled his passion, which "should not be mistaken for road rage".
In his maiden address, Ramlogan responded to criticisms from Independent Senator Helen Drayton. He promised to pursue corrupters to the hilt as he itemised the overruns on ten Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) projects, and noted that collectively they incurred over $4 billion in cost overruns and over 20 years in delays for completion (beyond the scheduled time).
He said the projects were: Chaguanas Corporation Administrative Complex—$10 million over-budget and 24 months' delay; Chancery Lane—$300 million overrun, 24 months' delay; Government campus, Legal Affairs Towers—$300 million over-budget and 18 months' delay; International Waterfront—$1.3 billion over-budget and six months' delay; Minister of Education Towers—$300 million over budget, 20 months' delay; NAPA (PoS)—$234 million over-budget and 12 months overdue; NAPA (San Fernando)—$238 million over-budget and 30 months overdue; Beverly Hills—$106 million over-budget and 65 months' delay; Brian Lara Stadium—several hundred millions of dollars over-budget, and "not to be outdone", the Diplomatic Centre at the Prime Minister's residence—$700 million over-budget and 5 months overdue. The last official figure given for the Diplomatic Centre was, however, $200 million.
The Attorney General also stated that the tentacles of corruption had reached the Rapid Rail project. He questioned three payments by UDeCOTT to Bouygues Batiment Ltd days before the election, saying, "The timing of these payments in a mad rush to service Bouygues leads one to the irresistible and inescapable conclusion that Bouygues was in political bed with someone in the (PNM) Government."
Noting that Bouygues has a history of engaging in corrupt deals and was known for "bribery, kickbacks, the misuse and abuse of company funds, collusive tendering, forgery, bid-rigging and illicit political campaign financing", he said the payments to Bouygues were made on May 14 ($3.6 million), May 14 ($10 million) and May 19 ($5 million), "when advertising funds were running out and everybody wanted to know... where the money was coming from".
Ramlogan said Bouygues was also given the contract for $300 million to build nine police stations. He said the idea was that UDeCOTT would demolish and clear the site and then Bouygues would go in after to build.
The Attorney General said without UDeCOTT clearing the site, a notice to proceed was issued "as the election (date) moved closer" by chief construction engineer Hayden Paul and Brandon Primus of UDeCOTT.
"It was as though they were sensing the winds of change were imminent but they wanted to rush and shove this under the door and bind the hands of the new administration and further burden the economy," the Attorney General said. He added that the notice to proceed was given at a time when no board or CEO was in place. Within 14 days of the notice to proceed, the contractor is entitled to payment of $21 million and with the project delayed (because UDeCOTT has still not cleared the site for construction) the State has to pay Bouygues $145,000 for each passing day (of the delay).
Ramlogan noted that Bouygues was a joint venture partnership with the HCL. "And of course when you hear HCL you remember Andre Monteil, the $110 million shareholder of the Home Mortgage Bank," he said. —Ria Taitt
Subject: Re: PNM Corrupted Legacy Fri Oct 05, 2012 9:55 am
Govt owes $126M for Broadgate By Andre Bagoo Friday, February 4 2011
GOVERNMENT owes First Caribbean International Bank (FCIB) more than $126 million in relation to Broadgate Place Tower, a Port-of-Spain real-estate transaction entered into by the PNM Cabinet which arguably saw the State lock taxpayers into unfavourable terms and conditions against the advice of public servants, at least according to Attorney General Anand Ramlogan.
The State’s debt comes notwithstanding the fact that construction never began on the office block which is at the heart of the controversial transaction which saw the State effectively take on the roles of landlord, tenant and financier all at the same time and in relation to the same office block.
In a judicial review case brought by Broadgate Place Property Company Limited against the Minister of Planning Mary King, Ramlogan on Monday filed a 14-page affidavit which recounts the history of the project and raises questions over the contractual and financing terms of the transaction, first approved by the PNM in 2005.
“The Government of Trinidad and Tobago is now required to settle all indebtedness under the bridge financing in the sum of US$20,000,000.00,” Ramlogan notes. “This however is not the final sum payable as interest payments and other costs are required to be factored in under the cost recovery clause.”
In 2005, the PNM Cabinet had agreed in principle to a 15-lease of a 26-storey office block yet to be built but was due to be constructed at Broadway/South Quay in Port-of-Spain, bordering Henry Street. Throughout a series of correspondences which would span years, Cabinet agreed Government would also act as a kind of guarantor and would also pay certain service charges on the unfurnished premises once constructed.
The building was to be constructed by Broadgate Place Property Company Limited at an estimated cost under financing to begin with a short-term disbursement of $126 million by the FCIB followed by a further facility of $901 million. As a condition of this financing, the Government agreed, according to Ramlogan’s court document, to a “recovery clause” calling on the State to pay $126 million if the agreement to lease was terminated or if Broadgate was found to be in default.
“No independent financial analysis was ever done on behalf of the State to assess or verify the cost of the project,” Ramlogan said in the affidavit. He further noted that “contrary to what was agreed by the Cabinet in its minute of March 5, 2009, the agreement to lease was executed before the lenders executed in escrow a deed of release of its mortgage rights over the property and to date no such deed of release has been executed by the bank. “The State was required to bear the cost of maintenance of the interior space,” he noted of the property which the State was leasing. Further, fundamental terms of the million-dollar agreement seemed to change as time went by. “Broadgate indicated in writing by letter of May 4, 2010, that it was now providing 23 floors of the office tower (being 391,687 sqft) which was inconsistent with the Cabinet approved 26 floors. This had implications for the amount of rent payable,” Ramlogan noted.
While FCIB had advanced, on a Government guarantee, an initial $126 million, “there was no mechanism by the Government to account for the advance of US$20 million which was already made to Broadgate.” Of the proposed building project, he revealed “the project required a mere base building to be handed over to the State and it was for the State to fit out the building prior to occupation and this cost required quantification and assessment.”
“The State was required to pay rents outside of the normal commercial rate of $12 to $16 per sq ft. This impacted other landlords,” Ramlogan said. “There had been no assessment of the desirability of renting for Government offices as contemplated in a 2005 position versus the number of buildings which were unoccupied in Port-of-Spain.”
The decision to go ahead with Broadgate Place came as the State began construction, in 2006, of the Government Campus Plaza.
In a Cabinet note attached to his affidavit, Cabinet in agreeing to the project in 2005 noted that the “total estimated requirements for Government office accommodation in Port-of-Spain are 2.9 million square feet.” At the time, “construction office space in progress proposed for Port-of- Spain (covered) 1.8 million square feet.”
The Planning Ministry refused an application for Broadgate to move forward with the project in August 2010 on the basis that the, project did not conform with a site standard requiring that the building be no more than 24 storeys. Outline planning approval, a year before, had put down this stipulation but had given the developers one year to adjust their plans.
Subject: Re: PNM Corrupted Legacy Sat Jan 25, 2014 10:39 pm
Guerra who often wore Muslim garb, a well-kept beard and sported a massive silver chain with the Islamic moon and star insignia, campaigned for the PNM in the marginal constituences in the 2002 general election. Just two days before his death, he was present at a PNM meeting in the Couva South constituency.
Subject: Re: PNM Corrupted Legacy Sat Jan 25, 2014 10:47 pm
The PNM has been propping up its support by catering to and relying on such “community leaders”. This strategy has worked since the ruling party lost only two elections since independence in 1962. In return for being called community leaders and bankrolling their operations, gang leaders would intimidate voters on balloting days to such a degree that in the narrow election of 2002 the UNC leadership felt compelled to offer free door-to-door shuttle service and protection for would-be voters too scared to vote.
15 Years ago MORGAN JOB said this and it is so relevant today
The press will print everything Rowley said and not one word of what I am saying now. They will never print my demonstration that Rowley is talking nonsense: that we need a Prime Minister to stop corruption! They will never ask why Rowley is here talking about corruption when he and the PNM had nearly forty years to pass the laws, build the institutions and nourish the culture to reduce corruption. I am for doing what must be done, as in Hong Kong, to lock up politicians. Talking is PNM dotishness; studpiness to fool poor people, while the true nature of PNM is to promote corruption. PNM never wanted to and never will deal resolutely with corruption.
Tue Oct 17, 2023 11:16 am by 
Subject: PNM Corrupted Legacy 
