Moontown

Anna Ramdass anna.ramdass@trinidadexpress.com

In accepting responsibility for the defeat of the People’s National Movement (PNM) at the May 24 general election, the party’s chairman, Conrad Enill, and general secretary, Martin Joseph, have resigned.

Enill made the announcement at a press conference following a special PNM general council meeting at Balisier House, Port of Spain, yesterday. He read the resignation letters from himself and Joseph.

’As you aware, the party was unsuccessful at the May 24 general election and as the chairman and national campaign manager responsible for co-ordinating our efforts to ensure success at the general election, I take responsibility for the results. As a consequence, I hereby tender my resignation as chairman of the party effective June 28, 2010,’ Enill read.

He said the move was to ensure the PNM is rebranded to win back the electorate at the Local Government election on July 26.

’At the general election, that result represented a particular feeling that the population had. That feeling is no longer there, the party has in fact moved forward and therefore whatever issues there were they are no longer there. How the population is going to respond to that, we will see,’ he said.

Enill also announced that the special convention carded for June 27 had been cancelled, and instead Dr Keith Rowley will be installed as Political Leader of the PNM at a meeting for delegates only at the Port of Spain City Hall on the same date. He said the general council agreed that all constituencies will begin the process of identifying candidates for the Local Government election with screening beginning on June 28 and ending on July 3.

On July 4, there will be a special convention to present candidates. At this convention, Rowley will also be presented to the PNM masses for the first time as political leader. Enill said the installation of Rowley as leader will be his last act as party chairman. He said the party will continue to function smoothly, however, as vice chairman John Donaldson and assistant general secretary Rose Janniere will carry out responsibilities.

Enill said the PNM was ready for the Local Government election and the move by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to call the election was a move the PNM would have made were it in power. (Trinidad Express)

Ria Taitt Political Editor

Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo flies in tonight and is expected to hold talks with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar tomorrow on a number of issues, including the prospect of relocating the aluminium smelter plant initially proposed for La Brea to Guyana.

Sources have informed the Express that the discussions are expected to centre around the aluminium smelter, ethanol and hydro-electricity. Jagdeo is flying in from Canada, where he was on Government business with his Minister of Housing. (See other story)

Press Secretary Garvin Nicholas yesterday confirmed that Jagdeo would be flying in today and that a meeting was ’tentatively scheduled’ with the Prime Minister for 3 p.m. tomorrow. Nicholas could not say what the talks would be about.

However, sources said that Persad-Bissessar wants to examine the feasibility of relocating the aluminium smelter plant to Guyana. Apart from the vast amounts of land that that country has, it also produces bauxite, the raw material from which aluminium is made. The other key ingredient in the manufacture of aluminium is natural gas, which Trinidad and Tobago has. And it was because this country processed this second ingredient that it had embarked on the project in the first place.

However, the project has been stalled pending the outcome of an appeal, after the High Court found the Certificate of Environmental Clearance given by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) was deficient because it failed to consider a number of things. The EMA has appealed that judgement and the Appeal Court’s decision is pending.

But informed sources said that any cancellation of the project could cost the country dearly. The last government entered into several agreements, including a loan agreement for US$400 million with Exim Bank of China, to facilitate the construction of the project.

But the vocal anti-smelter lobby in this country is resolute in its opposition to the establishment of a plant here.

Furthermore, the People’s Partnership has on the election platform been consistently saying that there would be no smelter in Trinidad and Tobago. And since its victory, Housing Minister Roodal Moonilal has reiterated this position. ’We have said before that there will be no smelter. This is the position. Until and unless all the parties to this dispute can arrive at a consensus as to the need for such a development policy and assure the nation on the health and safety issues, there will be no smelter in Trinidad and Tobago,’ he said. (Trinidad Express)

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THE Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) deliberated for four hours yesterday in an effort to settle some issues, the chief among them relating to appointments.
The two parties met under the chairmanship of acting Chief Labour Office Victor Felix behind closed doors at the Warrens Office Complex.
The talks have been reportedly cordial and the two sides have agreed to communicate with each other before they agree to return to the bargaining table.
Deputy general secretary of the NUPW, Denis Clarke, was the chief negotiator for the NUPW while chief executive officer, Dr Dexter James, and human resources manager, Charmaine Napeleon Ramsay, put the case for the hospital.
Both parties have been tight-lipped on the talks but at the centre of contention is how the hospital hires its temporary workers. The QEH’s management has maintained that there is no right to an appointment in a relief post.
The hospital has indicated that “all substitute workers are employed on limited term contracts. This differs from appointed persons, who are permanent QEH employees who have acted in a post other than for a term of years, without prior consideration for appointment to hold the post in which they are acting”.
However, Clarke said those people who had been substituting consistently over the years must be given preference.
The lengthy talks had the effect of cancelling the meeting that was scheduled for the QEH’s auditorium in the afternoon, where the union was planning to meet with its members.(MK) (Nation News)

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THE ST MICHAEL SCHOOL principal Shelton Perkins has disclosed that the promised sixth form at the school will not be available for the start of the new school term in September as expected.
Minister of Education Ronald Jones had announced in December 2008 that with his ministry faced with an excess of 250 applicants for sixth form places, a sixth form would be set up at The St Michael School by September 2009. With no realisation of the plans by that date, a September 2010 beginning was anticipated.
But yesterday Perkins explained: “We would have liked to start, but the recession has caused a setback as the implementation of the sixth form would mean increasing staff [and] construction of  new facilities, so the development will be held back until things get better.”
However, he gave the assurance that the project was still very much in the works.
The principal also said that when the sixth form was implemented at The St Michael School, the curriculum would not offer all the areas available at the other sixth form schools.
“Courses in business, science and law will be offered on the basis of the needs of the applicants,” Perkins said.(LK) (Nation News)

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By: by Maria Bradshaw

MINISTER OF EDUCATION Ronald Jones is willing to meet with the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) on the contentious Alexandra School issue, but they must write him first.
“They have called for my intervention, but I am concerned that the president of the BSTU has issued a statement publicly but I have not seen one piece of correspondence addressed to the Minister outlining their case. I believe that it is normal and decent protocol for a trade union which wants the attention of an agency to write that agency directly.
“I should not be picking up any ad asking where is the Minister in all of this. This is not a public process. I am ready to meet with the BSTU at a day’s notice but they, through the president, must write the Minister,” Jones said yesterday, when questioned by the media about a paid BSTU advertisement which appeared in the print media outlining the long-standing impasse between its members at the Alexandra School and principal Jeff Broomes.
Jones, however, noted that his was a difficult task, since he, too, was involved in the trade union as a member of the Barbados Union of Teachers.
In relation to the teachers’ grouse about the docking of their salaries, he said the act was clear that if a civil servant withdraws his services, the employer had a right to withhold the requisite part of his pay.
He stated that the union felt that no letter should have been sent to the secretary treasurer asking for the docking of the pay.
“It is a bit difficult since I was a trade union leader and as a trade union leader who would have called members to strike that resulted in a reduction of our salary . . . I don’t think you can negotiate law set in statute. As far as I am concerned you can’t be asking to withdraw the letter at this stage,” he charged.
He said the school had suffered badly over the last year, and he had already detected a threat to “offset” the start of the new year.
“The students are the victims in all of this. I met with the principal and I look forward to having this matter settled. We have to return to a situation of normalcy and discuss all of the issues that have impacted on the school going back to 2006.”
The Minister said the Ministry had so far held eight meetings with the BSTU on the matter. He stressed that he was willing to meet the union but stated that there must be a complete suspension of any form of industrial process. (Nation News)

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Prime Minister David Thompson greeting Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama Juan Carlos Varela yesterday.((GIS))

Barbados has just signed a double taxation agreement with Panama and had a round of bilateral talks with a high-level Panamanian delegation.
Both developments took place yesterday afternoon at Hilton Barbados shortly after Panamanian Vice-President Juan Carlos Varela flew into the island for a brief visit.
Essentially, the tax agreement will stop businesses from being taxed twice in the two countries. But it also has implications for the movement of sports people and teachers between the two countries.
The convention reflects Government’s efforts to boost the island as a major international business and financial services centre, according to Minister of International Business and International TransportGeorge Hutson.
Hutson signed on behalf of the Barbados Government, while Deputy Prime Minister Freundel Stuart witnessed. Varela signed for the Panamanian government.
Hutson said the agreement “is intended to enhance trading and investment opportunities between our private sector participants while also providing a new scope for the movement of professors, teachers, artisans and sports persons between our countries”.
In the context of the current financial climate, the treaty sends “a clear message” of the two states’ endorsement of the international standard in respect of transparency and tax information exchange, he added.
Hutson, Stuart and Varela noted Barbados’ long links with Panama, dating back to the time when hundreds of Bajans worked on the construction of the Panama Canal.
The Panamanian vice-president noted that many of the Barbadians who had worked on the canal settled in Panama on a permanent basis and their descendants became integrated into Panamanian society, making a positive contribution to the development of the country.
On the tax agreement, he said Panama had negotiated several in recent months as it sought to improve its image as an international business centre.
Negotiations are being initiated with countries including Portugal, Singapore, Ireland and the Czech Republic, with a view to concluding double taxation agreement, he reported.
He said that since it came to power in 2009, the Panamanian government headed by President Ricardo Martinelli had been working to remove the country from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) “grey list” of “tax havens”.
The agenda for the bilateral talks included investment and financial services, cultural co-operation and shared ancestry, tourism, air services and export trade.
Stuart said he expected the discussions to “extend the scope of collaboration and interaction between Panama and Barbados”. (TY) (Nation News)

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WINNERS OF BARBADOS SCHOLARSHIPS should be required to pursue studies at the three campuses of the University of the West Indies (UWI), and sixth forms should be added to all secondary schools, says a major report on education in Barbados.
These are among several recommendations contained in a comprehensive report designed to form part of a new educational policy in Barbados.
The report, which was investigated and compiled by the National Advisory Committee on Education, was presented to Minister of Education Ronald Jones yesterday at the Ministry by members of the committee.
Dr Pearson Broomes, in presenting the report, noted that it focused on five principal areas – the provision of adequate and affordable educational opportunities, enhancing the quality of education, improving student performance and certification, making school a rewarding experience and ensuring that each child benefited from the educational experience.
In relation to the national scholarships, Broomes pointed out that the recommendation was that the scholarship be tenable only at the three campuses of the UWI and only national development needs should be pursued. However, he stated that if a field of study was not offered at UWI, the student could go elsewhere but the studies pursued must still be relevant to the needs of Barbados.
The committee has also ruled out the establishment of the University College of Barbados, stating that the UWI must remain the sole university. It has, however, recommended the expansion of programmes at the Barbados Community College and the revisiting and refocusing of programmes and matriculation needs at the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic, since it found that institution was excluding students that it was originally designed to cater to.
The report also recommends a sixth form and a maximum of 800 students at every secondary school. It has also asked for two schools to be taken out of the secondary system and be made special institutions catering to skills such as agriculture, mechanics, music and fine arts.
In terms of the Common Entrance Examination, the committee has advised that it remain but be reformatted to include a national standardised test to be administered from Infants to Class Four. It also called for a full zone system to be introduced with all the secondary schools divided into three zones.
Broomes noted that the committee found that there was deep seated class snobbery on why the exam should be kept. He charged that “Barbadians abhor the idea that their children from upper social standing should fraternise with children from lower social standing. Logic suggests that all schools are equal and all receive the same resources,” he said.
Other recommendations include the retaining of corporal punishment but with its administration being limited to principals; making principals more accountable to the Ministry of Education; the establishing of an alternative residential institution for deviants; and the instituting of a one-time caution fee to be paid by all students.
Minister Jones noted that the report, which took two years to compile, will be discussed at the level of Cabinet and with all stakeholders before it is made available to the public and implemented. (MB) (Nation News)