Moontown

The country’s major business groups have asked Finance Minister Winston Dookeran to reduce tax rates for small and micro enterprises and to ensure there is unbiased representation on State boards.

The recommendations were made yesterday during a meeting between Dookeran and business organisations at the Ministry of Finance, Port of Spain, as part of the government’s preparation for the upcoming national budget.

Business groups attending the session included the American Chamber of Commerce, the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association and the Bankers’ Association, the ministry said in a statement.

Other recommendations included the revision of Government subsidies and the relocation of the Ministry of Agriculture to central Trinidad, the ministry said. (Trinidad Express)

By Ria Taitt Political Editor

With a whopping cost overrun of $584.41 million, Government has ordered a forensic audit into the Scarborough Hospital project “with immediate effect”.

This was announced yesterday by Minister for Tobago Development Vernella Alleyne-Toppin at yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Prime Minister’s Office.

“The hospital, started in 2002, has not yet been delivered and has cost the State, moving from the original price of $130 million to the end cost estimated at $790 million,” she noted.

But, she stressed, the construction would continue so health care can be delivered.

Furthermore, Alleyne Toppin said: “Cabinet has agreed to advance the required sums (for work to continue) of $30 million in the first instance and $60 million later, and to eventually arrive at $240.9 million, in the interest of the people of Tobago and the national community”.

The audit would be conducted by the Central Audit Committee of the Ministry of Finance (which also did the audit of the T&TEC streetlighting project). It would also do an audit of the financial requirements of the project up to the end of fiscal 2010, Alleyne-Toppin said.

Health Minister Therese Baptiste-Cornelis said thus far, $449.58 million had been spent on the project, and an additional $240.9 million is required to finish it.

Asked under which contractor, (NHIC or the current contractor, China Railway Construction Corporation, CRCC) incurred the bulk of the cost overrun, Baptiste-Cornelis said the new contractors were keeping to the budget. She noted unfixed equipment was not budgeted for.

Alleyne-Toppin noted one of the findings of project consultants Genivar was many of the pipes were corroded and they had to be replaced, as well as sewerage systems and sewerage lines.

CRCC was supposed to complete the hospital in April, but with 72 per cent of the work done, it has been given an extension till September 2010. The final deadline for the commissioning of the hospital is March 2011.

Some $130 million was allocated in this year’s budget for the hospital, but with $128.1 million already spent, Baptiste-Cornelis had to seek approval from Cabinet to transfer sums in order to meet outstanding invoices to the tune of $30 million.

Giving the background on the project, Baptiste-Cornelis said the contract was given to NHIC in June 2002 for $136 million. A dispute arose and after paying NHIC $155 million, work was suspended and the matter went to arbitration. A further $18 million has been expended to deal with the legal costs of arbitration, she said. The National Insurance Property Development Company (Nipdec) then awarded a modified design/build contract for $477.6 million to CRCC.

The scope of work was increased to include the construction of two additional buildings.

China Railway accepted liability for the defective work allegedly done by NHIC, she said. In December 2009, Nipdec awarded a contract for design, construction and supervision services to Genivar for $16.8 million.

To date, CRCC has been paid $252.6 million while Nipdec has been paid project management fees of $11 million, she said. (Trinidad Express)

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Dr Jean Holder (right) presenting a copy of his book to former LIAT CEO Dr Warren Smith.()

 Former Prime Minister Owen Arthur believes the region is paying a price for independence, including the troubles of Caribbean carrier LIAT.

He said the region could only address issues related to LIAT if it was understood that the region had paid a heavy price for insular nationalism.

Arthur was speaking at the Caribbean Development Bank, Wildey, St Michael, on Wednesday during the launch of Don’t Burn Our Bridges: The Case For Owning Airlines, a book by LIAT chairman Dr Jean Holder.

“Our problem, whether it is putting a single economy together or a single regional carrier together, is that insular nationalism has become so embedded and institutionalised in the Caribbean, has become such a deeply emotional issue that it is . . . standing in the way of serious progress,” he said.

Arthur, who has long championed the integration movement, said when Caribbean prime ministers decided to create a Caribbean Community in 1974, they determined that the next step would be to have a regional carrier.

“It speaks to how far we have retreated as a region that the same governments of the region that want to have a regional community decided that they did not want to own the regional carrier,” he stated.

Arthur said there was a modern crisis in the region where governments could no longer afford to operate each of their societies as a separate entity.

“The societies are wallowing under the weight of trying to carry the costs of government in a small society.” (NB) (Nation News)

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Natasha Layne loading her van with one of the many buckets she uses to collect water for her family.()

For several weeks residents of some areas in St Joseph and St Andrew have not had a full day’s water supply.

However they are still being billed monthly and are expected to pay up.

Last Wednesday the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) announced that they would be shutting off the water supply to a number of areas for a six-hour period starting last night from 10 p.m - 4 a.m.

This measure is to allow water levels in reservoirs which service the area to build up.  However, residents of some of the affected areas said the water supply remains unpredictable.

One Braggs Hill Housing Area resident, Natasha Layne said: “On mornings for two weeks straight I have had to bathe out of a bucket. For three weeks we did not have water for a full day, yet the water bill has come for $104.00.”

Layne added that her mother called the BWA and was told to write a letter to have the bill investigated, but was still encouraged to pay the bill.

They also had a plumber check the plumbing system to ensure that they were no leaks.

Layne added that the water trucks rarely came to the areas to distribute water. “By the time they get to the area where we live, the tanks are empty so we have to wait for them to come back out.”

Layne added that she had been forced to collect salt meat buckets to catch water as keeping the house sanitary was important, especially with four children living in the household.

“Luckily I have a vehicle and would go and catch water, bathe the children then come back home.”

Llewelyn Nicholls, an Airy Hill resident, said residents were struggling with the situation for the past six to seven months.

Nicholls lives with his 87-year-old mother and is responsible for catching water to cater to her needs.

Nicholls complained that he was  forced to wait for the rain to fall to catch water for his uses. “We have to wait for rain to get the place cleaned because we have to save the water we catch to use in the bathroom”, he said.

One female resident who gave her name as Sandra complained: “You cannot get a good Sunday meal. Last Sunday I got up and the pipe was off. At 10 a.m it was still off. I went to work and came back home at 2 p.m and it was still off.”

However, she received a water bill for $98 “and cannot get a steady supply of water on any given day”. (Nation News)

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BARBADIANS seized the opportunity to log onto the NATION’S Facebook website Thursday evening to participate in the live discussion on Haiti and the reconstruction effort.

The panel included Publisher and Chief Executive Officer Vivian Ann Gittens, United States Embassy Charge D’Affaires, Dr Brent Hardt and USAID Director for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Jim Goggin.

Participants expressed concern about the many social problems still affecting Haiti such as housing, crime, education, unemployment and the distribution of resources and funding.

One woman made an impassioned plea on behalf of the women who have become targets of physical attacks in Haiti, suggesting there be the deployment of what she called anti-rape personnel.
Another participant pointed to the high unemployment situation in the earthquake ravished country and asked how Caribbean businesses could assist in providing employment.

“Rather than bottled water, how about employing the Haitian men to dig wells or in the drilling of boreholes? Encourage them to farm, woodwork, carpentry, constructing sheds rather than waiting for the importation of tents,” she suggested.

Goggin, in responding to the troubling rape issue said security measures had been enhanced and the Haiti police had helped with their foot patrols but he admitted that more needed to be done.

“The needs and voices and concerns of women must be considered as part of the reconstruction and longer-term recovery effort by the government and society of Haiti, as well as by the international donor community,” he said.

He also said the greatest needs now were the re-establishment of the institutions of the Haitian government and the co-ordination of the funding. He said unemployment was very high but international donors were offering employment opportunities.

Dr Hardt, pointed out that the rebuilding process in Haiti “would be a long one” but he reiterated the need for Caribbean countries to continue providing aid and support to Haiti. He said the Interim Haitian Reconstruction Commission, which was established by the government in April, was mandated to ensure that Haiti was rebuilt better than it was before.

In terms of the BDS$1.2 million, which was  pledged through the Starcom/OCM Radio Network Help Haiti Now Radiothon, the Nation’s CEO said $1.1Million was collected and was handed over to the Medianet Haiti Relief Effort fund. (MB) (Nation News)

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MIA MOTTLEY: “We are standing in the middle of the road with an 18-wheeler truck bearing down.((Picture by Gregory Waldron.))

By: Mike King

THIS country cries out for leadership to revive the economy and the time has come for a budget to chart a course for recovery charged Opposition Leader Mia Mottley yesterday.

She was speaking during a Press conference in which she responded to an economic review of the first six months of 2010 from Central Bank Governor, Dr Delisle Worrell.

Stating that little was being done to revive the economy, Mottley said the Government could not pay its bills and the productive sectors – tourism, manufacturing, international business, agriculture – were not earning foreign exchange.

Speaking in the Opposition’s chambers, Mottley said she was  disappointed that with the country in dire straits, there was a deafening silence from Government with nothing being heard from Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Darcy Boyce and acting Prime Minister Freundel Stuart.

“We are standing in the middle of the road with an 18-wheeler truck bearing down. And the two ministers of finance – Boyce and Stuart – are standing idly by without a word.

“Barbados needs a budget like yesterday.   And the budget must set out for the country a short term economic recovery plan while laying the basis for restructuring in the medium term.

“A cut here and a cut there will not help any household or business in this country see their way forward. We need to restructure both Government’s operations and the productive sectors urgently,” she said.

According to Mottley, revenue was down in the first six months of this year by $101 million from what was received at the corresponding period last year.

The Opposition Leader said that for the first time since Independence, Barbados had recorded three successive years of a fiscal current account deficit.

“We would normally as a Government only have to borrow for capital projects but we are now having to borrow to meet our normal commitments (wages and salaries,  goods and services)
on a monthly basis.

“This is a serious problem. It’s a serious problem, happening in a household, it’s a serious problem happening at the level of a Government.”
Mottley said the Central Bank report for the first five months, showed that this country had spent $182.3 million more than it earned in revenue.

“Why is this disturbing? Because for all of 2008 when we thought things were bad, they incurred a deficit of $121 million.

Mottley said this was so with the Government claiming it was holding to its medium term fiscal strategy. (Nation News)

President of Bethel Bible College, Reverend Dr Roy Notice, has slammed CARICOM as an organisation suffering from weak leadership.

Notice, who was addressing members of the Rotary Club of Mandeville at the Golf View Hotel in Manchester recently, said most people are “fed up with CARICOM” and, like Jamaica, it is suffering from “weak leadership and the absence of a clear and bold implementation strategy” to move member nations forward.

He said, though the regional body was not lacking in “cutting edge ideas”, when most hear of another CARICOM meeting, they are of the opinion it will be nothing more than the “same old same old”.

Unable to follow through

He argued that, like CARICOM, Jamaica suffers from a seeming inability to implement policies in its attempts to follow through on the various developmental plans that have surfaced over the years.

Notice lamented that, while the latest development plan, dubbed Vision 20/30, claims it wants Jamaica to be “the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business” many are still planning to leave the country.

He said this was indicative of a lack of confidence in the prospect of the plan becoming a reality.

While admitting that the issues addressed in the 20/30 plan are germane to development, Notice said Jamaicans need to know what forces they must confront in order for the plan to fulfil its goal of making Jamaica a country of choice. He said it was time Jamaicans listen and respond to those who are leaders and present such plans “critically” and out of “deep thoughts” and not as a part of any bandwagon directed by popularity. He said too many of the nation’s leaders are preoccupied with power “for the sake of what power can give”.

To maintain this, he said, “the poor are used as puppets” and conveniently, dancing to the tune of our leaders.

Notice also suggested that many civic and business leaders lack a “genuine love” for the people they serve.

As leaders, he said, many have allowed economic advancement and the desire to cling to power to consume them to the point where they have abandoned sound moral principles. (Jamaica Gleaner)