Port-of-Spain – Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard says he is open to the idea of an amnesty for cases involving minor offences over five years old.
But he says each case will have to be looked at individually.
The issue was raised on September 4, by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar during the debate in Parliament to extend the State of Emergency.
Persad-Bissessar said a policy is to be developed by the Office of the DPP to give effect to the measure and that the DPP shall retain and exercise his independent constitutional discretion in this regard.
Gaspard said the idea was broached with him by Attorney General Anand Ramlogan and he (Gaspard) agreed to look at it.
"I told the AG that it has to be done on a case by case basis and we could not adopt a broad brush approach," Gaspard said.
Asked whether he was in the process of formulating such a policy at this time, Gaspard said no.
"A policy suggests a broad brush approach. I told the AG I couldn't do that. For example, if you have two instances of dangerous driving. One instance is where you have a man bounce into your bumper because he was not paying attention. There is another instance of dangerous driving where a man knocks down a child in the vicinity of a school, having crossed a pedestrian crossing. Both are instances of dangerous driving and even if both matters are the same age, one is certainly more egregious than the other.
"To say that all matters five years or more we would not be proceeding with, then you will be doing an injustice in the case where the guy would have knocked down a schoolchild in the vicinity of the school."
Gaspard said his department will be brainstorming to determine what form such a policy might take.
Ramlogan, speaking at a National Security news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair on September 6, said the proposed measure is not a new one. He said it had been recommended by a Commission of Enquiry into the Justice System.
"It is my hope that it will reduce some of the burdens in the system of traffic offences," he said.
"It is certainly not in the public interest that those matters (minor matters) be prosecuted."
He also noted that the policy will not be a blanket one but will depend on the circumstances of the case.
At a post-Cabinet news conference last Thursday, Justice Minister Herbert Volney said Cabinet has approved legislation for the abolition of preliminary inquiries. He said the legislation would also signal "a paradigm shift" by establishing that the old historical cases would go by the way.
"What would happen is that in the historical cases such as the one currently engaging the attention of the court, where there was larceny from Stephens and Johnsons 27 years ago, where justice can no longer be served and the prosecution can hardly put the witnesses together to solve a case, those are cases the system can no longer carry."
He said such a consideration would not be given to crimes such a murder, rape, wounding, incest and motor-car larceny.

 

Port-of-Spain – Although he was the recipient of billions in fees in relation to CL Financial, former CLF executive chairman Lawrence Duprey took out personal loans from the group and, as at May 2009, owed the group (TT) $172 million for unsecured loans granted to him.
A Ministry of Finance Cabinet Note, dated May 29, 2009, listed Duprey's debts to the group as being among the potential assets the State could draw upon to fund CLF's crippling liabilities.
"Based on the data supplied to date by CLF," the note reads, "the recovery potential from the sale of its assets had been estimated at $4.7 billion and is derived from the reported and unencumbered value of certain group companies, valued at $2.8 billion; the potentially unencumbered portion of the Republic Bank shares owned by CIB, estimated at $1.7 billion; and unsecured loans to Mr LA Duprey in CLF and CIB valued at $172 million."
Duprey, in a letter to the Minister of Finance dated May 5, 2009, sought to have former CLF directors, who alongside him oversaw the collapse of the CLF empire, paid fees to act as consultants to the State in relation to the disentangling of CLF.
However, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Alison Lewis, in a letter in response, rejected the proposal. "We see no need to reserve consultancies for ex-CLF directors," she said in a letter to Duprey dated May 14, 2009.
"This is particularly because we have already agreed to contract the services of an advisory firm in the restructuring exercise and in addition, the board is free to contract technical assistance as and when needed."
In response to an apparent request by Duprey for the CLF board to be indemnified for actions they performed prior to the bailout, Lewis stoutly refused.
"Government cannot give indemnification to any board member for actions performed prior to the establishment of this new board," she said of the new board that was then put in place. (The new board members of CLF are paid board fees of $16,800 to $21,000 a month.)
Former CLF board member, and now Minister of Planning, Dr Bhoe Tewarie, had taken legal advice which warned him that board members could be held liable for aspects of the collapse.
"Dr Tewarie informed the meeting that he sought legal advice on his liability," the board minutes of April 3, 2009, noted.
"He was informed that CLICO and CLF are separate legal entities, but that does not make CLF directors immune from prosecution in a court of law. He is very concerned that CLF directors have no legal representation on the board to advise them of their liabilities."
The minutes continued, "His (Tewarie's) attorney advised him of the possibility of a sequestrating order over personal assets and the risks involved in the present situation."
However, Tewarie and other board members were often in the dark over many controversial CLF deals and, in some cases, saw Duprey push through arrangements in the face of their expressed disapproval.
In relation to Duprey, in the months before the State's bailout of CLF, CLF had instructed CIB to write-off a total of $121 million in loans in exchange for dividends and bonuses reportedly due to Duprey.
A first letter, dated May 1, 2008, is headed, 'Assignment of dividend and bonus payments due to the executive chairman, Mr Lawrence Duprey'. "We hereby confirm that dividends, bonus payments, together with any ex-gratia pension payments due to the group executive chairman, Mr Lawrence Duprey, shall be sufficient to cover the loan of TT $78,000,000.00 and capitalised interest over a three (3) year period," the letter read.
It is signed by Clinton Rambersingh, director, for and on behalf of CLF and Michael Carballo, group financial director, for and on behalf of CLF.
"We further confirm that these dividends, bonus payments, together with any ex- gratia pensions payments will be made directly to you in settlement of the loan for TT $78,000,000.00 and capitalised interest, within the said three (3) year period."
The letter is also signed by Duprey, CLF executive chairman, who states, "I agree to the above instructions."
A second letter, dated September 8, 2008, noted a $16 million loan under the same terms. A third letter, dated November 5, 2008, detailed a loan for $12 million. A fourth letter, dated November 11, 2008, confirmed the same in relation to a $15 million loan.
A few weeks after the November letters, Duprey was in talks with the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance over liquidity problems faced by the CLF group.
Days after Duprey wrote to the Central Bank on January 13, 2009, signalling that the group was in liquidity troubles, the CLF board approved a dividend payment. Duprey's dividend benefit has been estimated to have been worth about $10 million on his CLF shares.

 

Port-of-Spain – President of the San Juan Business Association Abrahim Ali hopes that the 2011/2012 budget will include a revamping of the cottage industry. Ali said he wished to see Finance Minister Winston Dookeran revive the cottage industry to a point where those involved could export their goods.
"Things like jams and jellies, pepper sauce, chadon beni sauce, chocolates, people have very innovative ways of making these things, which could be exported," Ali said.
Ali added that the government should also look at focusing on tourism, first from a domestic, then regional level before reaching to the international level.
"First they should try to develop the tourist sites for locals. The beaches (are) not even developed for local consumption. If you look at some of the beaches not developed for local use and we want to attract North American tourists," Ali said.
He said small businesses should be looked at in great detail as they provide jobs for many. He added that small businesses should be given incentives, such as tax breaks and machinery cost discounts, which would encourage more people into the business arena, which would, in turn, boost the economy.
Dominic Hadeed, head of the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association said he was looking forward to many of their (the TTMA) suggestions being met. Asked what were some of the suggestions, Hadeed said he would not reveal their plans. He would wait until after the budget is read, he said.
On September 16, Hadeed said: "The government has been talking about diversification but we are not seeing any action yet. We know that this is their intention and we look forward to (seeing what they plan to do). We assume we will hear something in the budget, or the budget will outline what it is. Do we think they have started diversifying? No. But they have started talking about it. We are looking forward to the budget to see the fruits of consultation."
Last May, Hadeed said one of the issues that has affected his members is a slow VAT refund system. He added manufacturers, who have zero-rated products, could have their VAT refund accelerated.
Last year's budget was set at (TT) $49 billion and was entitled "Facing the issues. Turning the economy around. Partnering with all our people."

 

By Sandra Chouthi
Special to Indo-Caribbean World
Port-of-Spain - The People's Partnership government's 2012 budget will be delivered on October 10. Unlike previous budgets in Trinidad and Tobago's history, this will be first in modern memory that will be delivered during a state of emergency.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar initially imposed a two-week state of emergency as part of the State's response to fight a spiralling murder rate in particular, on August 22. The government later went to Parliament to extend the state of emergency to three months.
Strong criticism from restaurant owners, bars, vendors and employees of fast food outlets about the 9 pm to 4 am curfew led to the government changing the times to 11 pm to 4 am.
This will be a budget with a difference on other levels.
For one thing, Finance Minister will be delivering the budget at one of the towers at the Port-of-Spain International Waterfront Centre, which is home to the five-star Hyatt Regency Trinidad hotel, instead of the Parliament building.
The Red House was one of the projects that the Calder Hart-chaired Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago was in charge of for the last ten years. Hart, a close friend of former Prime Minister Patrick Manning, suddenly resigned several board chairmanships in March 2010 and left Trinidad in a hurry.
Cabinet undertook the decision to vacate the Red House to allow for repairs to continue on the century-old colonial landmark structure. For years, work was being done piecemeal, a piece of roof here, a window there, a yellow tarpaulin over one wing, huge steel structures wedged into the ground, but no work activity.
For another, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar has said that the Trinidad and Tobago Treasury is empty, thanks to billion-dollar spending by the Manning administration, which constructed tall buildings to house ministries and government offices, but which are still unfinished and are unoccupied. One of those expensive projects is the still incomplete – the Brian Lara Stadium at Tarouba, San Fernando.
Already, (TT) $900 million have been spent on the stadium, and more money is needed to finish it, to what eventual use, the government is not clear. The stadium was originally scheduled to be completed in 2007, in time for the Cricket World Cup matches.
On September 6, Dookeran sought and got Parliament's approval to raise the debt ceiling under the Guarantee of Loans Act.
In justifying the need to increase the debt ceiling, Dookeran said the Government had $4.5 billion in contingency debt via letters of comfort, and this figure must be accommodated in the debt limits. He said a large percentage was contracted under the previous government. He said the other comfort and guarantee contracted after May 2010 were $80.95 million for the purchase of laptops for students and $160 million to meet obligations in respect of the operationalisation of the Vanguard hotel in Tobago. The other commitments, Dookeran said, which the government honoured and which had inherited debts from the past administration included $68 million for payables for the SPORTT, (US) $11.5 million for the acquisition of a helicopter, (TT) $148 million for development work at the Tamana Inteck Park, Wallerfield, "which was a nightmare which the Minister of Trade and Industry is trying to put light to," (TT) $158 million in support of the National Highway Network project, (US) $88 million for the completion of the Ministry of Education Towers, (TT) $230 million to finance outstanding payables on several Udecott projects."
Dookeran said it was not that some of the projects were without value, but the government faced the challenge of making them even more valuable. He said the government had to work out a payment plan for the contractors and he recalled the "noisy meetings" held with these stakeholders.
Dookeran said the determination of the government's borrowing limits was based on three factors: a commitment of the past with respect of letters of comfort (owing to TT $4.5 billion); the need for further financing to support that expenditure in order to be able to make good out of bad expenditure; and the determination of the financing needs of the country particularly with respect to the state enterprises over the medium term.
In giving detailing about the country's debt, Dookeran said 66.1 percent of the foreign exchange debt is in US dollars, 16.1 percent in sterling, 1.8 percent in yen and the rest in other currencies. He said in terms of the composition of the debt - 55 percent was incurred by Central Government, 21 percent — statutory bodies and 24 percent - state enterprises.
Dookeran said in terms of the central government's gross debt, it was 35 percent of gross domestic product. However, he added that it was recognised that gross public sector debt which includes contingent liability and non-guaranteed debt of state enterprises, takes the debt to GDP ratio to the order of 67 percent.
Last year's (TT) $50 billion budget was set against an oil price of (US) $65 a barrel. While oil price reached a high of $116 a barrel, and is now around $79.10 a barrel as of September 30, that has not been all good news for Trinidad and Tobago.
In January, Dookeran said in Parliament that maintenance of the gas subsidy is becoming an "enormous strain on the Treasury." He said while the government was committed to maintaining this subsidy, it has had to find (TT) $3.2 billion in 2010 in order to fund it.
"We will require financing mechanisms to handle that," he said, adding that it has created "some challenge to which we are fully committed".
One solution to treating with the high subsidy bill is to introduce compress natural gas use over five years, especially in diesel-using maxi-taxis, which make up the bulk of public transport vehicles.
The other challenge, he said, was that the government had to provide (TT) $2 billion to honour previous commitments made by the PNM government. He said investments by the previous regime were done through borrowings.
He outlined a few examples. The government had to extend a credit facility to Udecott for outfitting the Waterfront Facility. He said the government had to underwrite (TT) $590 million to support this. On the Legal Affairs Towers project, another Udecott project, the government had to a extend credit facility of (TT) $561 million, he said. A (TT) $720 credit facility also had to be extended for the Chancery Lane Project in San Fernando, he said. The government also had to honour a (TT) $153 million loan facility of NEDCO, which oversaw the Rapid Rail project.
Dookeran has been the subject of much criticism over his handling of the economy and the failed Clico and Hindu Credit Union. A commission of inquiry into both institutions, the first being a subsidiary of the Lawrence Duprey-created CL Financial Group, is currently underway. It is now on a break and will resume come November.
Dookeran has held firm to his slow, but steady approach to keeping the Trinidad and Tobago economy on an even keel. Speaking last month at the fifth anniversary of the Congress of the People, of which Dookeran was the origiinal leader, Dookeran said: "I have been on the firing end of many when I started to frontally attack the economic challenges ahead of us."
He said this had begun to change as people realised that the government had chosen the right economic path.

 

By William Doyle-Marshall
If there were any doubts about the City of Toronto living up to world class standards, the recent release of a book dedicated to canning and preserving is apt testimony to allay any such disquiet. "We Sure Can! How Jams and Pickles Are Reviving the Lure and Lore of Local Foods" by Torontonian Sarah Hood celebrates the ongoing "Canvolution" in which urban preservationists, local food aficionados, rural picklers and jammers and food bloggers are rediscovering the vanishing art of home canning, jams, pickles, and other preserves."
Quite remarkably, it is not confined to tried and true North American products but attempts to cover the world that exists within the boundaries of the Greater Toronto Area. Indian Zuccini Chutneys, Blue berries and relatives that offer a taste of Persian preparations and Caribbean delight like Guava Jelly are only a slight slice of the culinary life contained between the 272 pages of the Arsenal Pulp Press publication.
For the uninformed the book advises that Chutney came into English from Hindi in the 19th century. Some may know it as music or aspects of Indian wedding ceremony from Northern India but in this particular instance it is to satisfy the pallet. It is a fairly thick savoury source made from fruit and vegetables, sugar, vinegar and spices. While mango chutney is the classic, Hood writes these days the term is most often used when a recipe contains dried fruit (like raisins) along with fresh ingredients. Chutneys are among Recipes for Summer; Persian inspired Yellow Plum Jam and Indian Spiced Zuccini Pickle are among the large variety of offerings.
Sarah was given a target by her publishers in order to sell "We Sure Can". One hundred recipes were required. So Ms Hood, the diligent journalist, had to find and in some cases develop them and actually test all. This meant cooking every day and night. Sometimes it took up to three batches before she got it right.
"I was cooking jam and pickles all last summer so I got to the point where I thought I had my 100 recipes and I said to my brother 'ah, I think I am free. I think I've got my 100 recipes." He asked whether she had a Guava Jelly recipe. She did not. "How could you put out a jam book if you don't have a guava jelly?" he quizzed her.
Luckily Sarah lives near Gerard Street East, Toronto where you can get guava. She embarked on a searching the neighbourhood journey for the "missing" item. Talking to the people and scouting through store shelves for data about guava jelly, brought Sarah face to face with this nice lady from Guyana who said 'oh, my mom always used to make guava jelly when I was young and we all used to make it. But now we don't tend to do it."
The women talked about ingredients for the guava jelly. Sarah did some more espionage and came up with the recipe. "Guava is terrific, it's one of those things like quince. Guava, apple, cranberry. Those are good for beginners to try," she now advises.
Having been advised that she must collect recipes from across North America, her exhaustive search naturally combed all of the Greater Toronto Area and beyond. She even took a five hour bus trip to Vancouver in her familiarisation expedition. In the area around Ithaca, New York she met people with an interest in food preserving of all kinds on line and in person. Lexington, Kentucky, Burlington, Vermont, North Carolina, New Jersey, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington D.C., Long Island City, Queen's New York are some of the spots where Hood made contact for her project.
There is a section in the book which Sarah Hood devotes to Recipes for Summer – the glory time for home canning. While for Caribbean people summer may not seem particularly glorious for canning, in Canada it is for canners. There is what the author calls a "short, short, short growing season".
In the beginning Ms Hood was a bit hysterical as she wondered "what if you really had to put enough food in jars to feed your family all winter?" She realized then "we don't get any berries really until late June so you only get something like ten weeks of a real fruit bearing season and you have to put enough food away to last about forty weeks".
She calculated canning approximately 40 jars a day all summer. But for Canadians, anybody in the northern regions, all of a sudden after this time when they got nothing fresh, first they get a few things like the strawberries and the asparagus and all of a sudden there are peaches, plums, blue berries, goose berries, currants; the apples are just starting to come in; the apricots and then all the vegetables. "So after six months of nothing we have all this stuff and once you pick it off the tree, it lasts three or four days before the fruit flies start to get it," Hood recounts.