Moontown

The governments of Dominica, Grenada and St Lucia have each received soft loan financing equivalent to US2.4 million dollars from the World Bank for implementation of the project. The loans were provided under a special facility of the concessional lending arm of the World Bank, the International Development Association (IDA).

The World Bank is currently in negotiations with St Vincent and the Grenadines, which is contemplating joining the project in the very near future. St Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda, two non-IDA countries, may in the future be eligible for World Bank financing, but are likely to participate initially on the basis on donor grants that are yet to be negotiated. The other OECS Member States of Anguilla, the BVI and Montserrat are considering the opportunities for participation in the project under similar terms.

The EGRIP project emerged from an increasingly strong articulated political will and determination for sub-regional cooperation, and in particular the realization that cooperation in the area of e-government can produce important outcomes. These include reduction in the cost of doing business; improvements in public sector efficiency, transparency and accountability; and greater sub-regional harmonization and integration. This project will therefore contribute to the current thrust towards the attainment of an OECS Economic Union.

By using a regional approach to promote integration, competitiveness, public sector efficiency and transparency, the OECS EGRIP will offer the countries in the region the benefits of economies of scale and technical synergies associated with the use of common policies and technologies for the delivery of government services to business entities, communities and private citizens in the OECS.

The project is structured in two phases and will run over a four year period. The first phase focuses on cross-sectoral e-government issues and on specific applications in the public finance area. There will also be an e-government in health pilot project. The second phase is expected to deepen the assistance provided under phase one, while expanding the programme to cover other sectors, in particular tourism, agriculture, health and education, among others that may emerge during the early stages of implementation of phase one.

The EGRIP project is being implemented by a Regional E-Government Unit (REGU), headquartered at the OECS Secretariat in St Lucia

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had agreed to import 10,000 vehicles from Colombia in April during a meeting with conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

But Chavez last week nullified that deal in response to charges leveled by Bogota that Caracas was supplying weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a leftist guerrilla group.

The new trade deal forged by Caracas and Buenos Aires on Tuesday will increase its food imports from Argentina, said Chavez, who has said that he would seek business with “governments that are true allies, friends, not hidden daggers.”

That accord, valued at more than one billion dollars, also will see trade increases in textiles, shoes, automobiles and other areas.

In the past two years, Colombia reduced its auto exports to Venezuela from 45,000 units in 2007, and to a mere 15,000 in 2008.

In July, Bogota said that it had captured weapons from Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebel group, Latin America’s oldest and largest insurgency — weapons allegedly produced in Sweden and sold to Venezuela.

An indignant Chavez responded by declaring that his country would suspend Colombian imports to his country, which official figures show totaled 2.62 billion dollars in the first half of 2009.

Chavez also railed against plans to open seven military bases in Colombia to US forces, which he said could be used for an incursion against Colombia’s neighbors.

Colombia and the United States have insisted the bases are meant only to expand the US fight against drug trafficking in Colombia.

Treasurer, Colin Dore

Dore told the Department of Information on Wednesday more than three quarters of the 564 workers who had qualified for the Federal payments, had already received their severance benefit.

The Labour Departments on both St Kitts and Nevis, in collaboration with Treasury staff on both islands began handing out disbursements to the workers on Monday at the Charlestown Secondary School.

According to Dore, though there were a few hiccups with regard to spelling errors in surnames and one or two instances where the Social Security numbers did not match with that on the cheque.

The Treasurer noted that the distribution process had gone without incident and was of the view that the presence of the Labour Department representative from St Kitts who was on hand to explain to those persons who didn’t qualify the reason why and to respond to any queries facilitated a smooth and quick process.

“I think that in a way calmed the crowd since any questions they had could have been answered on the spot and we are quite happy for that,” he said.

He also explained that the Social Security numbers were used as a guide since several persons who had worked at the Four Seasons Resort, Nevis, carried the same names and surnames.

Severance pay cheques being distributed to ex Four Seasons Resort, Nevis, workers

Jennifer Archibald who oversees severance payments at the Department of Labour St Kitts explained that the 50 persons who did not qualify from the 614 persons who had applied for severance from the Four Seasons, did not fall within the provisions made under the Protection of Employment Act.

“Once you have worked for 52 weeks preceding that date of termination of employment, you can claim for severance and will qualify once there aren’t any breaks or gaps in the year or years of service.

“According to the Protection of Employment Act, a person who has a break in service for three months or more would not qualify or that person’s years prior to that break would be disregarded in the computation of severance pay,” she said.

Meantime, one former employee Sylvester Pemberton who received severance benefits expressed his gratitude to the Nevis Island Administration who had collaborated with the federal Government to resolve the matter in quick time.

“We were out of work for a period of time and we received the money in good time. We have to give thanks for good governance.

“The last time we were laid off most of the workers went back to work without their pay and now we get pay in due time so we are very thankful for the good governance of the Nevis Reformation Party and to the Labour Departments both in St. Kitts and Nevis for the tiresome work they have done to make us happy,” he said.

The basin’s second tropical depression is remaining just below tropical storm strength, the NHC said in its latest report Wednesday morning.

Most weather models forecast the depression will move west-northwest to just north of the Virgin Islands during the next five days toward the Bahamas, the US East Coast and possibly the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.

Energy traders said it was too soon to say where the system might make landfall, if at all.

The center of the depression was located about 630 miles (1,015 km) west of the Cape Verde Islands, which are off the West Coast of Africa, the NHC said. The system was moving westward over the open ocean at nearly 13 miles per hour with maximum sustained winds near 35 mph (56 km per hour).

The NHC expected the depression to strengthen into the first tropical storm of the Atlantic season with winds of 39 to 73 miles per hour within 12 hours. If the system does reach storm status, it would be named Ana.

The NHC however does not expect the system to strengthen much after becoming a tropical storm - at least not during the next several days. It should not become a hurricane during the next five days.

With the depression not expected to strengthen much, energy traders started to turn their attention to a tropical wave off the West Coast of Africa behind the depression that some say had the potential for significant development as it moves across the Atlantic during the next two weeks.
By this time last year, there were already five named storms in the Atlantic basin.

The NHC was watching three tropical waves in addition to the tropical depression - one over the southeastern Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela, one over the Atlantic Ocean about 420 miles east of the Lesser Antilles and the one near the West Coast of Africa that traders are watching closely. All three systems have a small chance - less than 30 percent - of developing into tropical storms during the next 48 hours.

The good times are over, said economist and University of the West Indies lecturer Gregory McGuire.

While McGuire said he agreed with the most recent statements by Central Bank Governor Ewart Williams about the state of the economy, he said he was not interested in the “semantics and word play” about whether the country was in a recession or not.

McGuire said the time has come to look at the “vital signs of the economy” to determine its true state of affairs.

“We need to monitor the Government’s fiscal balance, the levels in the foreign account and the state of the key sectors,” McGuire said yesterday. He explained that these three signs are pointing toward an economic decline.

In strictly economic terms a recession occurs after two successive quarters of economic decline and, according to McGuire, the country was already through the second quarter of contraction and could expect the decline to continue for a third and even fourth quarter.

He advised that the country start preparing for a further economic decline, which includes reduced levels of income and rising unemployment.

Fellow economist Jwala Rambarran also agreed with Governor Williams’s statement that the country was not at the “crisis” stage, but urged the Governor to acknowledge that the country is actually in a recession.

“The Governor is acknowledging all the factors that point to an economic recession, but is still refusing to acknowledge that it is actually happening,” Rambarran said yesterday.

“What is the psychology behind not calling it a crisis? Is it to prevent a panic? ” Rambarran asked, adding that citizens are already living under recession conditions.

“People are already experiencing economic contraction. From job losses to belt-tightening, persons are affected. So why the semantics?” he asked.

Rambarran said the Government needed to review the entire budget and monitor its spending closely.

“We have to ensure that there is return on what we spend,” he explained, adding that the worst was yet to come if the Government does not react in a meaningful way right now.

“Put prudent policies in place to deal with the problem now and it could prevent things from getting worse,” Rambarran advised.

The two economists were responding to the the latest statements by the Governor on Tuesday that the country was not yet in a recession.

Trinidad Express

killed: Earl Rampersad

Supervisor Earl Rampersad pushed his co-worker out of harm’s way and took the full blow of the glass panes which fell on them at the workplace, his relatives said yesterday.

When they pulled him from under the shattered glass, Rampersad, father of a two-year-old boy, was already dead. His co-worker was treated at the Chaguanas Health Facility and allowed to go home.

Rampersad’s family does not know the co-worker name.

“The man who was injured came by us last night and said Earl was his hero. He said Earl pushed him aside to save his life. But I am not surprised, that is the kind of person he is. He was the supervisor, but he did everything. He went down to help the workers when this accident happened. And he save someone’s life in the process,” his brother, Evrold Rampersad said.

The incident happened on Tuesday afternoon, while workers were off-loading glass from a container at Delta Glass, Frederick Settlement, Caroni, where Rampersad, 36, was employed for over ten years.

The Express made several attempts to contact officials at Delta Glass yesterday. But numerous telephone calls went unanswered.

Evrold Rampersad said the accident could have been prevented as Rampersad was wearing no safety gear, and remained under the glass for some time before he was removed.

Rampersad’s wife, Nalina Rampersad was inconsolable, relatives said, and their son wanted to know why his daddy did not return home.

Evrold Rampersad said: “He was a humble, decent man. There is no doubt about it. If there is one person who would make it to heaven it is Earl. He came to visit my mom the night before he died and he was dusting out the place, he was always a clean person.”

Those who gathered at the family’s home at Bhaggan Trace, Chase Village, Chaguanas yesterday described Rampersad as a hard-working man who loved his family.

The investigation into the death threat against Prime Minister Patrick Manning is ongoing, acting Deputy Commissioner of Police Raymond Craig, the officer mandated to investigate the claim, said yesterday

Craig said very little when probed by the Express during a news conference at Police Administration Headquarters in Port of Spain yesterday as to the status of the investigation.

On July 27, at a political public meeting in Arima, Manning said that a year ago, days before the anniversary of the attempted coup, a person walked into the office of his wife, Local Government Minister Hazel Manning, and informed her that an organisation was going to make an attempt to assassinate the Prime Minister.

Following the disclosure, acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert said he was unaware of the death threat and mandated Craig to investigate the matter.

When questioned yesterday on the status of the investigation, Craig said: “That investigation is ongoing. However, at this time I will not be revealing anything more on that.”

Probed further as to whether he had interviewed the Mannings, Craig stated: “I spoke with the Prime Minister a few days after (the incident was made public).”

Asked whether he spoke with Mrs Manning since, according to reports, she was told of the threat directly, Craig declined to comment.

Stating the investigation is still on-going and no suspects have been interviewed, Craig said: “I am not prepared to say anything on the issue.”

Craig scoffed when asked how long the investigation is expected to last.

“I cannot tell you that,” he said.

On the issue of bicycle cops hitting the streets following the upsurge in crime in the Woodbrook area Craig said: “We have had quotes and we are ensuring that we acquire the bicycles in a timely way, so the bicycle patrol can be part of our strategy. I would say soon-that’s the time-frame.

“We are trying to acquire them (bicycles),” Craig said. -Denyse Renne