Moontown

NEW YORK, United States (CMC):

Jamaica’s sprint sensation Usain Bolt will compete in the 100 metres at the Adidas Grand Prix at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island here in June.

Organisers said the Adidas Grand Prix, formerly known as the Reebok Grand Prix, will be the fifth stop on the inaugural IAAF Diamond League circuit.

The Adidas Grand Prix said Bolt, the reigning Olympic champion and World record holder in the 100 and 200 metres, was “one of the most popular and sought-after sports personalities in the world”.

“A showman, both on and off the track, Bolt shocked the world in Beijing in 2008, not just by winning the 100m gold medal but by doing so in a never-before-seen dominating and entertaining world record effort,” organisers said.

“He followed up this victory just days later with another historic world record at 200m (19.30) and again in the 4×100m relay (37.10).”

Great performances

Adidas Grand Prix said last year Bolt had “outperformed the world as well as his own seemingly untouchable world best marks” with two more records (9.58 in the 100m and 19.19 in the 200m) at the World Championships in Berlin.

Bolt has been named Athlete of the Year by the IAAF, athletics’ world governing body, and has also claimed the Laureus World Sportsman-of-the-Year award for the last two years running.

Organisers said newly crowned world indoor champions Bernard Lagat of the United States and Jessica Ennis of Great Britain, as well as American record-holder Hyleas Fountain will “ride the wave of their recent successes” when they compete at the Adidas Grand Prix.

The golden girl of British athletics, Ennis will face-off against Fountain, the Olympic heptathlon silver medallist, in a special multi-event challenge, featuring the long jump, shot put, and 100m hurdles. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Health care at 11 public hospitals across five parishes was disrupted yesterday after scores of registered nurses called in sick, the second time in a month.

At the Kingston Public Hospital, for example, more than 15 patients lined up outside the Renal Unit for hours waiting to be put on dialysis.

“Dem say dem nah dialyse anyone so we must go home ’til Friday. Me can’t stay out eight days (since her last dialysis) … a dead me a go dead,” a tearful Judean McPherson told The Gleaner.

The health ministry released a statement close to midday saying some of the affected hospitals would only treat emergency cases, while others had cancelled elective surgeries

and placed senior nursing staff in some critical areas.

The statement said the matter had been referred to Labour Minister Pearnel Charles.

When contacted, Charles said he had just left Cabinet and had not been brought up to date on the latest development.

The Nurses’ Association of Jamaica (NAJ) would not acknowledge any protest action, even though the sick-out is widely believed to be part of their plan to press the Government for their retroactive payments.

“I can’t tell you what is happening out there,” said NAJ president Edith Allwood-Anderson.

“That lies with the Ministry of Health as the employer to indicate what they are hearing or seeing on the ground,” she said.

However, she said no one should be surprised, since nurses had already made it clear that they “will continue to impress upon the Government to pay up”.

UHWI nurses call in sick

When contacted, chief executive officer of the University Hospital of the West Indies, Dr Trevor McCartney, disclosed that 31 out of the 176 nurses scheduled for the early shift had called in sick.

He said the obstetrics and psychiatric departments were mainly affected by this “above-normal absenteeism”.

Spanish Town, May Pen, Mandeville, St Ann’s Bay, Port Maria, Lionel Town, Bellevue and National Chest hospitals were the other hospitals affected.

The island’s nurses are pushing the Government to satisfy an Industrial Disputes Tribunal ruling to implement a reclassification exercise. (Jamaica Gleaner)

LAMB PELAU; RICE AND PEAS

LASAGNA; MACARONI PIE

CREAMED POTATOES; BBQ SPARERIBS

BBQ PIG TAIL; BAKED CHICKEN

BAKED PORK; FRIED SNAPPER

FRIED STEAK FISH; GRILLED STEAK FISH

LAMB STEW; FISH GRAVY

STEAMED VEGETABLES; TOSSED SALAD; COLE SLAW

Aretha Welch awelch@trinidadexpress.com

The Public Services Association is telling workers at Customs and Excise and the Board of Inland Revenue to start planning to take a week off work to protect their mental health.

PSA president Watson Duke said the PSA met with Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira yesterday

about a Memorandum of Agreement on terms and conditions to move negotiations forward for the establishment of the Trinidad and Tobago Revenue Authority.

Duke said, after hours of negotiating, he ripped up the ministry’s proposal in front of protesting BIR and Customs employees in Port of Spain.

He described the Government as a ’scorpion’.

PLANS: PSA president Watson Duke addresses union members yesterday on the Brian Lara Promenade opposite the Ministry of Finance, Port of Spain. -Photo: JERMAINE CRUICKSHANK

The Government decided to postpone debate on the TTRA Bill last week to allow for meetings with relevant stakeholders.

Standing in front of the Ministry of Finance, Duke told Customs and Excise and BIR workers to prepare to take a ’mental health’ week.

He said workers were ’stressed’ and they would need to take time off the job again.

Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) president Gregory Aboud described the workers’ taking two days off work for ’prayer and thanksgiving’ as a ’kick in the gut’ for local businesspeople.

Duke said the business community should not blame the workers when their items were stalled on the port.

He said: ’They (businesspeople) say we are thieves, crooks and inefficient, now when we stay home, they miss us.’

Speaking to the Express after the protest, Nixon Callender, acting general secretary of the PSA, alleged that the Government was plotting to have the PSA’s daily lunchtime meetings on the Promenade broken up by the police.

The San Fernando Business Association said yesterday that the TTRA must not be given the power to access the personal information of citizens.

’Confidentiality is critical for a revenue collection authority but the management board must not have the power over the taxpayers,’ said the association in a statement.

The SBA last month elected a new president, Kiran Singh.

The SBA stated that, although there were deficiencies within the BIR and Customs and Excise, both were important to the day-to-day activities of the business community. (Trinidad Express)

-reporting by Phoolo Danny-Maharaj

Kwame Laurence

Jehue Gordon was the most outstanding athlete at the 2010 Carifta Games.

The Trinidad and Tobago track star returned home yesterday with the Austin Sealy trophy, presented to him late on Monday in recognition of his superb performances at the three-day meet, held at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex, in George Town, Cayman Islands.

On Sunday, Gordon retained his boys’ under-20 400 metres hurdles title in a championship record 49.76 seconds. And on Monday, the 18-year-old athlete repeated as 110m hurdles champion with a record-breaking 13.41 run.

Like Gordon, Mark London captured two titles, the Tobago runner winning the boys’ under-17 1,500m and 3,000m events.

T&T ended the meet with 12 gold medals, 16 silver and 12 bronze for a grand total of 40, the country’s best-ever Carifta Games haul, surpassing the 37-medal total in the Turks and Caicos Islands in 2007.

MOST OUTSTANDING: Jehue Gordon, at Piarco International Airport yesterday, with the Austin Sealy trophy, presented to him for being the most outstanding athlete at the 2010 Carifta Games, in the Cayman Islands. Gordon retained his boys’ under-20 110 metres hurdles and 400m hurdles titles, breaking both championship records in the process. He also earned bronze, the 18-year-old athlete anchoring Trinidad and Tobago to third spot in the men’s 4×400 metres relay. -Photo: CURTIS CHASE

T&T finished second on the medal table, behind Jamaica. The Jamaicans earned 37 gold medals, 22 silver and 13 bronze for a total of 72. Bahamas finished third with six gold medals, ten silver and 13 bronze.

Shortly before he boarded Cayman Airways flight 8020 for the trip home, yesterday, T&T manager Alan Baboolal told the Express that the team exceeded his expectations.

’I did not make any predictions because I did not think that was the way to go. However, in your own mind you have a target that you wanted.

The target was around 36, but 40, of course, is much better.

’It’s not a total surprise because of the fact that a lot of preparation went into the team, not only training but logistics and so on everything counts for the total performance.’

Late on Monday, Kenejah Williams captured the last field medal for T&T at Carifta 2010. Just 13, Williams produced a 42.23 metres throw to earn bronze in the boys’ under-17 discus.

Machel Cedeno, Theon Lewis, Shaquille Glasgow and Darvin Sandy combined for gold in the boys’ under-17 4×400m relay. The T&T quartet clocked three minutes, 16.30 seconds.

T&T just missed out on gold in the girls’ under-20 mile relay. Sparkle McKnight, Jessica James, Gabriela Cumberbatch and Alena Brooks produced a 3:37.32 clocking to seize silver. Jamaica got the gold in 3:37.15.

The T&T quartet of Desiree Harper, Onika Murray, Domonique Williams and Kernesha Spann secured silver in the girls’ under-17 4×400m event in 3:46.61. Jamaica triumphed in 3:44.02.

And in the final event of Carifta 2010, the boys’ under-20 mile relay, Osei Alleyne-Forte, Deon Lendore, Jonathon Holder and Gordon clocked 3:11.79 to bag bronze for T&T. Jamaica got gold in 3:10.63, while Bahamas secured silver in 3:10.69.

When Lendore handed the baton to Holder, Jamaica’s Donahue Williams had about three strides on the T&T third leg. But Holder surged past Williams and opened up a sizeable gap. On the home straight, however, Holder was a spent force and had to battle hard just to get the baton to anchorman Gordon.

Some 15 metres from the front of the race when he set off on his lap of the track, the double hurdles champion fought ferociously. But Gordon was left with too much work to do, and T&T had to settle for bronze.

Baboolal said he was impressed with all the T&T athletes who were on show in the Cayman Islands on the weekend. Among those the manager made special mention of were Gordon, London and Quincy Wilson, the boys’ under-20 shot put champion and record holder. Wilson was also impressive in the discus, the South Plains College (Texas) student earning silver.

’Those were some outstanding performances. ’One of the things about this group of people,’ Baboolal continued, ’was that hunger for medals. We see people crying who got silver, we see people crying who got bronze. They wanted gold. In that respect, there’s a great future.’ (Trinidad Express)

PRIME Minister Patrick Manning should resign and call a general election immediately due to Government’s refusal to act on allegations against the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT), its former executive chairman Calder Hart and the company’s board based on evidence long in the public domain, advised Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

She was speaking to TV6 News last night in response to yesterday’s firing of the UDeCOTT board by Attorney General John Jeremie.

Persad-Bissessar, who returned to the country last night from Florida, noted that several United National Congress MPs have officially requested criminal and Integrity Commission investigations into the entire UDeCOTT board.

’The Government deliberately refused to heed these calls and that was questionable.’

She added: ’The firing of the UDeCOTT board members is too little too late, the Government has long dragged its feet on the issue. In the circumstances there is concern that evidence may be destroyed and the Prime Minister should now fire himself and call the election now.’

Opposition politicians and members of the construction sector have repeatedly called for the entire board to be fired due to the evidence revealed during Uff Commission of Enquiry.

Persad-Bissessar also expressed her belief that the criminal probe into the company will not result in tangible action anytime soon and she assured the country that if her party wins the general election, which Manning has announced will be soon, action will be taken on the issue.

’I give the undertaking that when we form the Government we will ensure all are investigated and those who have to go to jail will go to jail according to law.’ (Trinidad Express)

Ria Taitt Political Editor

In a statement to the Senate yesterday, Attorney General John Jeremie announced that there would be a ’reconstituted’ UDeCOTT board-save for its recently appointed chairman Jearlean John- and thanked the outgoing members for their services.

Earlier, Jeremie told the Parliament that the Commission had recommended that there should be an audit of the conduct of all board members and senior staff of UDeCOTT in the period 2004 to 2009, ’as to their involvement in the errors and omissions concerning the Brian Lara Stadium project in respect of which no action was taken by the senior staff or by the board’.

But the Government continues to be driven to probe the contentious Cleaver Heights Housing Project. Jeremie said the findings of the Commission ’vindicated’ the position of Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who first brought the issue of the $10 million discrepancy to the attention of the national community in a contribution to Parliament in September 2008. At that time Manning had asked his former housing minister Dr Keith Rowley, ’Where the money gone?’. The Commission found no evidence of a missing $10 million. But, Jeremie noted, ’it was apparent from the Report…that in 2006 NHIC deliberately adjusted the contract sum for the project in its favour in the amount of $10 million. One may well conclude quite reasonably that if the Honourable Prime Minister had not alerted the national community to the discrepancies in the prices on this project and caused an enquiry to be held into this project, NHIC could easily have walked away with an extra $10 million upon completion of the project, to which it would not have been entitled. Despite the protests of the NHIC and others therefore, the enquiry into the Cleaver Heights Project was thus fully justified and the Honourable Prime Minister’s action in this regard have been vindicated’.

The Commission did not recommend a further inquiry into Cleaver Heights. But Jeremie said: ’In addition to the specific recommendations and given the findings of the Commission…and the concerns expressed over the implementation of the Cleaver Heights project, I will ask for a full forensic audit into all aspects of the Cleaver Heights project, in order to determine exactly who was liable for the myriad discrepancies, irregularities, grave errors of judgment, unexplained oversights/omissions, complete lack of security for payments already made to NHIC in excess of $140 million, poor workmanship and lax management of this project’.

Jeremie said the Commission found that it was possible that the ’deliberate manipulation of the contract sum by NHIC to increase the cost of the houses to equal the contract sum, that is to say, to benefit from the $10 million error, was no more than an attempt to reconcile the figures, but the manipulation is equally consistent with a dishonest motive on the part of NHIC’.

QUESTIONS: Attorney General John Jeremie fields questions from the media during yesterday’s news conference at Cabildo Chambers, St Vincent Street, Port of Spain. -Photo: JERMAINE CRUICKSHANK

At a news conference, at Cabildo Chambers, St Vincent Street, later on, Jeremie said, in response to questions on whether Diego Martin West MP Keith Rowley was vindicated, ’I don’t see how anyone who is connected in any way to Cleaver Heights can claim to be vindicated’.

He added that the Commission pointed to the ’inflating’ and ’backfilling of invoices’ which could amount to a criminal offence. He said this would be investigated, ’not by John Jeremie’. But he said Government had not decided who would do the forensic probe.

Jeremie also stated that the Commissioners ’have essentially accepted the vast majority of the Government’s arguments and proposals with respect to the way forward for the public construction sector in Trinidad and Tobago. This should be viewed as a major vindication for the Government.

He noted that on the issue of the performance of local versus foreign contractors and consultants, the Commissioners stated that ’ foreign contractors and consultants have levels of expertise which is unmatched by the local industry’.

Jeremie stressed that if in determining what the facts are, the Commission of Enquiry is of the view that a criminal act may have been perpetrated ’as they are in this case’, or a civil wrong committed, it may recommend that a criminal investigation is conducted or civil action should be initiated.

’This they have done. The Commission cannot express concluded views or criminal or civil liability. The Commission is not a court of law’.

’A process must be followed. The police must investigate the matter and if satisfied along with the advice of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), that there has in fact been criminal wrongdoing, charges will be laid…I say these few general words to dispel any misconception that the next step after the report of the Commission is the automatic laying of criminal charges. Such an assertion would mean that we destroy in one fell swoop all of our criminal process and the very Constitution which keeps us free’.

Jeremie said he had passed the Uff Report to the DPP and the Commissioner of Police. (Trinidad Express)