Rickie Ramdass rramdass@trinidadexpress.com

TOP CONTRACTORS: Awardees at the Contractor of the Year Gala and Banquet display their awards after Saturday’s ceremony at the Hilton Trinidad. From left are David Jardim of Tracmac International, Barry Rostant of Captain Signal Contracting Company, former president of the Trinidad and Tobago Contractors Association Peter O’Connor, general manager of Weathershield Systems Limited Hugh Schamber and John Cannon, managing director of NH International. -Photo: CURTIS CHASE

PRESIDENT of the Trinidad and Tobago Contractors Association (TTCA), Mickey Joseph, described the difficulties faced by local contractors in securing contracts for large projects as being part of a ’Chinese curse.’

Joseph made the statement on Saturday night at the Association’s Contractor of the Year Gala Banquet and Awards ceremony at the grand ballroom of the Hilton Trinidad St Ann’s.

Joseph, in his opening address, said: ’We meet this evening at an interesting and testing time for the construction industry in Trinidad and Tobago. And I use the term interesting in the sense of the Chinese curse…. Not that I am implying that the Chinese are a curse for our industry or country, but as our newspaper headlines show us daily, Trinidad and Tobago is a very interesting place indeed, and one of the most interesting aspects for the past year has been the difficulties faced by local contractors and the construction industry.’

He went on to say that because of the economic downturn and the difficulties in securing contracts, local contractors had to do more long-term planning in order to survive in the short-term.

’Do we decide to retrench employees or do we invest in retraining them so they can help us achieve greater returns during the lean times and equip us to grasp the opportunities which will come when the downturn ends?’ he asked.

Joseph also accused the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT), of not being a reputable contracting company. ’I think it is safe to say that over the past few months, the general public has learned more about our business than they ever knew, and more than they probably wanted to know. People now have more familiarity with procurement practices, design-and-build contracts, soil suitability, use of steel and so on. Unfortunately they have learned about these things mostly by reading about the practices of UDeCOTT. And while it may be useful to learn something by being told what not to do as contractors, we want people to know that what UDeCOTT does is not what reputable contractors do,’ he said.

’Now that the Uff Commission of Enquiry has narrowly escaped being derailed by UDeCOTT, the Trinidad and Tobago Contractors Association has a particular duty to ensure that this enquiry not only complete its mandate, but does so in a way that ensures that, if and when court action takes place as a result of evidence presented before the Commission, the interests of the people of Trinidad and Tobago will be served. But as individual contractors, we ourselves have not done all that we could do. For example the Commission requested that the Association provide data on monies owed to contractors by the Government, but when we asked members to provide the financial data, even though their details would have been confidential, less than ten per cent responded,’ he said.

The contract for construction of the newly built $480 million Academy for the Performing Arts in Port of Spain, was awarded to the Shanghai Construction Group by the Government, by-passing local contractors. Construction on the $500 million Scarborough Hospital which is due for opening in May of 2010, was originally awarded to local contractors, but was later handed over to China Railway Construction Group. Also, the contract for the 15,000-capacity Queen’s Park Savannah Carnival Centre which Manning said is the next project on Government’s development agenda will also be awarded to Chinese contractors.

At Saturday’s ceremony three contracting companies were awarded the title - Contractor of the Year - in three different categories. The Captain Signal Construction Company was awarded for civil engineering, while NH International was awarded for building construction. Weather Shield Systems Limited was given the award for speciality and the Pioneer award went to Tracmac Engineering Limited.(Trinidad Express)

YESTERDAY’S ’dry run’ of ferrying ’foreign dignitaries’ from the Hyatt Regency hotel on Wrightson Road, Port of Spain, to the National Academy for the Performing Arts went well, according to Gold Commander for security arrangements for the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Stephen Williams.

The ’dry run’ lasted two hours-between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.

The exercise gauged the length of time it would take to transport the Heads of State and other delegates from the Hyatt Regency hotel to the National Academy for the Performing Arts, on Frederick Street.

The heads will travel from Wrightson Road onto Colville Street then to Cipriani Boulevard and then onto Queen’s Park West to the National Performing Arts Centre.

Williams said he anticipates things will run smoothly between November 27 and 29, when the Commonwealth Heads arrive.

’We didn’t block off any roads,’ he said, ’but what we did do was some traffic management and control. Now we are satisfied from a security standpoint that we have done all the things that we needed to do,’ he said. (Trinidad Express)

Gyasi Gonzales ggonzales@trinidadexpress.com

-Photo: CURTIS CHASE

FROM today the infamous phrase, ’one for the road,’ goes bye-bye.

The breathalysers have been unpacked, the batteries installed and police officers have been trained to use the devices.

President George Maxwell Richards is scheduled to proclaim the long awaited legislation today in what many believe would put drivers in gear and avoid so many accidents along the nation’s roads.

If drivers resist the cultural change, they can now land their sorry soul in front of a magistrate and face the possibility of a maximum fine of $8,000 or three years in jail, for a first conviction.

For a second offence the fine goes to $15,000 or imprisonment for five years and on the third strike a driver will be disbarred from ever again holding a driver’s permit.

After years of wrangling and constant pressure from groups such as Arrive Alive for the Government to deal with drunk drivers, the breathalyser bill comes into effect from today.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Mobile) Wayne Richards, in an interview with the Express, warned motorists: ’If you are going to be drinking don’t drive!’

’But if you have to drink make sure you designate a driver because we are going to be out there with our breathalyser devices and if you are found over the limit you will be prosecuted for driving under the influence of alcohol,’ he said.

Motorists who fail the field test will be taken to the nearest police station to perform a second test which will measure their blood alcohol level. This recording will be used to help the police prosecute their case.

Richards said, in the field, ’It will be up to the officers to treat with the matter accordingly as the law says and it will be up to the officer to charge you or not to charge you. It will be in his/her discretion.’

’No-one wants to have to pay $8,000 or find themselves facing imprisonment or having their driver’s permit suspended,’ said Richards, noting that, ’We don’t want to have to prosecute people for these offences but the fact is that numerous persons have died on our roads as a result of people driving under the influence.’ (Trinidad Express)

“This year (2010) will be a little strange. We’re not going to do much or try to do a lot,” said the 23-year-old, who was attending a Sports Congress here.

Usain Bolt. AFP PHOTO

Back from holiday and training again, Bolt said that he has not set out a calendar of events for 2010, a year in which there will be neither a world championships nor an Olympic Games.

“We’ll probably begin to talk about the calendar in January or February,” he said.

Asked about his plans for the future, Bolt added: “I don’t consider myself like a Superman, nor gifted. What I do is not easy. I just want to continue during the years that I have left to do what I want.”

Bolt set world records of 9.69sec (100m) and 19.30sec (200m) at the 2008 Olympics and lowered those marks at the world championships last summer to 9.58sec and 19.19sec respectively. On both occasions he also helped Jamaica to the sprint relay titles.

His coach Glen Mills said two weeks ago that Bolt will run the 100m and 200m at seven meets next year but did not indicate which ones.

Information Technology Consultant specializing in GIS and training, Marydelene Vasquez, who delivered the keynote address at the GIS Forum, is presented with a gift by GIS Infrastructure Manager, Mark Codling (JIS photo)

Vasquez said with Jamaica being one of the leading nations in the region, in terms of training in GIS disciplines, including degrees being offered at local universities, the country is best positioned to lead the region in GIS development and information sharing.

“Information is data which when processed accurately will remove uncertainties from decision making processes,” she said.

She explained that data, worldwide, doubles every three years, making the need for information sharing even more critical.

Vasquez, an information technology consultant specializing in the fields of database development, GIS and training for over 20 years, was the keynote speaker at the Third Annual Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Business Executive Forum 2009, “GIS transforming Today, Shaping Tomorrow”, in New Kingston on Wednesday, November 11.

In her welcome and opening remarks, National GIS Coordinator, Cecille Blake, indicated that the symposium was the Council’s third annual event.

“The symposium is designed to sensitize the business sector on the importance of GIS, its value and how it can be used to improve business and service to clients, as well as competitiveness and profitability” she said.

UTech Lecturer and GIS Consultant, Earl Edwards, who opened the technical presentations,pointed out that GIS which involves spatial information, forms the basis of 80% of all business decisions.

“Businesses need to know where clients are located, which clients are at risk and the best locales for enterprises and development programmes in rural and urban planning ” he said. (C’bean net News)

The Central American nation’s country ceiling for foreign-currency bank deposits was also cut to Ba1 with a negative outlook from Baa3.

“Since last year, El Salvador has been subject to severe shocks that have exposed underlying vulnerabilities associated with its condition as a small open economy with a high dependence on the US and a relatively limited degree of diversification,” said Moody’s Vice President Mauro Leos, regional credit officer for Latin America, in a press release.

The coffee-producing country’s main income source is the money from Salvadoreans living abroad. Remittances by migrant workers to relatives back home fell 10 percent in the first 10 months of 2009, compared with the same period a year ago, according to central bank data.

Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo. AFP PHOTO

Jagdeo, addressing a media conference on Friday before departing for United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) World Food Summit in Rome, said the agriculture sector in the Caribbean “simply cannot move forward unless there is the political will to do so.”

The president, who is the creator of the Jagdeo Initiative on Agriculture for CARICOM, believes there must be concrete policies in place, incentives and budgetary allocations for drainage and irrigation, and research and development in order for the region to have a solid agriculture sector to meet its food demand and capitalize on export opportunities in the context of the world food crisis.

“Unless we do these things, it will be just talk,” he said, noting that the plan is meant to ease the region’s hefty US$3 billion annual food importation bill.

The CARICOM chairman said there is no evidence of a concerted intent from some of the countries to moving the plan forward save for Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica who have been pushing forward with their agriculture.

Jagdeo is concerned that the momentum of pushing the sector forward, as seen during the food crisis, has dwindled after the return to lower food prices in late 2008 early 2009.

Jagdeo said the Caribbean “has a huge potential to feed itself, but we must see this as a priority… we don’t want that in 20 years time when the region’s demand for food will grow by 50 percent driven by supply and demand factors that we in this region don’t have food for our children although we have money to buy the food.”

Jagdeo will be taking the support of the Caribbean to the World Food Summit where he plans to push the region’s agriculture initiative forward and seek support from the FAO.

“We have to meet in Rome to try to revive focus on agriculture…at the meeting, we will be asking for more resources and more coherence on policy,” he said.

Jagdeo met with the FAO Director- General Jacques Diouf during the United Nations General Assembly in September, where he was invited as the CARICOM Representative to the summit where Diouf asked for the Caribbean ’s support for the summit.

Jagdeo recalled that in a presentation to the CARICOM heads of government during the height of the food crisis, Diouf had urged the leaders to support the FAO programme.

“We were at that time reeling from the world food crisis and we thought it very important that the world got together to coordinate action on food security,” Jagdeo said.

He added that the summit also will focus not only on growing more food, but also on fair trading practices. (C’bean Net News)

President Bharrat Jagdeo told reporters on Friday the Inter-American Development Bank and the China Development Bank had agreed to back the Amaila Falls project at a recent meeting in Washington.

“Everything seems to be on track to start the project by mid-next year,” Jagdeo said. Details of the terms of financing are still to be agreed, he said.

Amalia Falls is located deep in Guyana’s interior and has been vaunted as a potential electricity generation site for decades. The Guyana government is spending $20 million in preparatory works, such as building the access road.

The developer in the project, Sithe Global Power, LLC, based in New York, has committed financing to the tune of US$130 million, Jagdeo said.

In 2008, Guyana spent about 40 percent of the country’s gross domestic product on importing fossil fuel based energy sources and is keen to develop alternative power sources.