He spoke at a People’s National Movement (PNM) really at San Juan on Tuesday.

Flatly refuting any notion of multi-million contracts, Imbert said his wife had got a job to do for $100,000, of which $75,000 was used to pay reimbursible expenses such as security and phone bills. “The lady got $25,000,” he clarified, “for which she waited three years (to be paid)”. He said his wife has 20 years experience in the Caribbean as a builder of 300 homes.

Critical of Opposition Leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Imbert vowed, “Lawsuit coming!” Imbert also defended the wife of Energy Minister Franklin Khan, saying that some $15 million in valid contracts awarded to Mrs Khan had been approved and paid out by the former PP government. “Not one was under the Keith Rowley Administration.” He said that if Mrs Khan is so unworthy why did the PP award such contracts and pay up?

Addressing hundreds of children from 20 primary and five secondary schools from the Laventille/ East Port-of-Spain area yesterday at the Ministry of Education’s “School Improvement Project” rally held at the Grand Stand, Queen’s Park Savannah, Rowley told them that their parents and teachers were working very hard for them, and the nation was depending on them to bring about positive changes in their communities.

The School Improvement Project, a pilot in the Laventille area has four components – infrastructural development, school safety, parental involvement, and improvement in numeracy and literacy. The two and a half hour programme consisted of brief words of advice by Members of Parliament in the area, National Security Minister Edmund Dillon, Minister of Youth and Sport Darryl Smith, and Minister of Education Anthony Garcia among others. The programme also featured the talents of students in music, song and dance.

A symbol of the beauty that was TT, Rowley said, was demonstrated in the performance of an East Indian dance by a troupe of Afro Trinidadians.

“Only in Trinidad and Tobago you will see that,” he said.

Speaking of the change required in Laventille, he said if students agreed, they should commit themselves by saying it. They responded in loud choruses of, “I am the change. I am the future.” As a pledge, he told them that they will be provided with T-shirts emblazoned with, “I am the change” because change is on the way for Laventille.

Noting that Laventille is known in many instances for the wrong reasons, he urged them to focus on themselves as disciplined, tolerant and productive students. “Once you tell yourself what you want to be, let nobody tell you, you can’t get there because of where you come from. You set out to demonstrate that in your life, it is not where you come from, it is where you want to go and how you set out and intend to get there,” he said.

“Where there is indiscipline,” he said, “it will require resources to deal with it. Every act of indiscipline whether it is breaking a window or taking up a gun, requires a consumption of resources to respond to it.” Noting that the State has a responsibility to the special circumstances of Laventille, he said, “Special people need special attention and Laventille, you are getting and you will be getting that special attention.” Using himself as an example for students to set themselves high goals and to strive to be the best, no matter where they come from, Rowley said, he was not always Prime Minister.

Born in Mason Hall, Tobago, and then moving to live with his mother in Laventille during his primary school days before moving to Morvant, he said,

Speaking at a local government election campaign meeting in San Juan on Tuesday, Rowley challenged the Opposition to now say what they would do against crime.

“What is it you would have done to prevent persons killing other persons,” he asked. “You just fool the public by saying it is a matter for the Minister of National Security and you keep changing ministers of national security.” Vowing to fight crime everywhere including on the streets and in the home, Rowley said, “We are fighting blue, red and white-collar crime!” Rowley accused the Opposition of glee over the country’s high homicide- rate asking aloud, “What is your target? Is it 600? 650? You will only have a good Christmas then?” He also hit Naparima MP Rodney Charles for meeting French farright leader Marine Le Pen over dinner instead of shunning her like other diplomats, in New York.

“He (Charles) sell out for a plate of food. She’s a thousand times worse than Trump.” Charles in a letter yesterday defended his action, saying 17 other diplomats attended the dinner, and that the rise of the political right now proves the wisdom of his actions in making the acquaintance.

Newsday understands that the child is now resting comfortably in hospital in a stable condition.

According to police reports, Janiay Cummings, four, from Wallerfield, was with her father Keron Joseph standing in front a store on the second floor of the mall yesterday afternoon.

That was when one of the straps, cordoning off the area of construction came loose, causing the child to fall one storey and land in front Glendale’s Drugs, which is located on the lower floor. The child was rushed to hospital, where she was treated for fractures to her toes, right foot and skull.

“The situation is even more critical and urgent because London is one of the most expensive cities in the world and the forecast is for an extremely cold winter. The students are enduring untold hardship,” Gopeesingh stated, and alleged that the education sector was riddled “with an endless stream of schools repair issues” while cutbacks have occurred in the laptop grant, School Feeding Programme and After-School Homework Centres.

“In the interest of the entire education fraternity, Mr. Garcia must be removed from this critical portfolio.

He has inflicted widespread damage at all areas of national education and is clearly on a path of destroying all the major academic and infrastructural gains of the prior electoral term,” Gopeesingh stated, and called on Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley to “show a commitment to the education sector by dismissing his pathetic and useless Minister of Education.” Meanwhile, former Trade and Industry Minister, Vasant Bharath, also described the situation as “nothing short of an abject failure of the Government to secure the well-being of Trinidad and Tobago citizens both at home and abroad.” Bharath stated: “It is completely unacceptable that eight weeks into a new semester, not even tuition fees and stipend payments have been made to these children of Trinidad and Tobago who have sacrificed so much and are courageously making their way in education in a foreign land.”

Economist Dr Daren Conrad advocated the former stance while the latter view was championed with equal passion by UWI deputy principal, Dr Rhoda Reddock, at the forum held by the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES ) and the Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS).

Conrad proposed that education is both a public service and a private benefit but slightly more so the latter, meaning that the recipient should pay part even if by a deferred payment plan. He quoted economist Milton Friedman’s view that for primary and secondary levels, the role of education is for citizenship, but that at tertiary level it is for the benefit of that given individual.Conrad said mass-production of tertiary education leads to wage-suppression, and that in TT now graduates are frustrated in jobs they could have gotten with their CAPE results. Saying mass tertiary education can wreck the TT economy and lead to a brain-drain, he urged a targeted approach that takes account of the labour market and the country’s developmental needs.

He said literature suggests education is a privilege, not a right.

Reddock took a different view.

She lamented that trying to fit tertiary education to national priorities usually relates to economic factors but ignores what is happening to the country’s social fabric, including the society’s social, psychological, environmental, health, artistic, aesthetic and other needs. Reddock referred the audience to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Looking at various models of funding tertiary education, she contrasted the United States where students spend the rest of their lives paying off their university loans, to the Nordic nations which give free education from cradle to the grave, resulting in the world’s highest standards of living.

Reddock remarked how noticeable it was in the recent US Presidential Election that pollsters kept referring to either college-education persons or otherwise, as she suggested an absence of mass tertiary education in the US and UK.

UWI Guild president, Makesi Peters, a member of the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) Committee, said GATE expenditure had risen from $102 million in 2004 to $624 million in 2010 to $757 million in 2011. Tertiary enrolment grew from 15 percent in 2004 to 40 percent in 2008 to over 60 percent now.

He drew sighs of exasperation from the audience when he said some voice(s ) on the GATE Committee had argued that persons over 50 years – who will be debarred from GATE – are no longer able to contribute to this society’s development. Peters admitted to complexities in the means test, such as the case of someone earning the $10,000 limit but who has three children to send to university.

In the claim, filed in the Civil Registry of the Supreme Court in Port-of-Spain in February of last year, Francisco is seeking compensation from Sharon Toussaint for trespass on his property at Lot 12, Bird Street, Union Road, Four Roads, Diego Martin.

Francisco’s claim is also seeking an order that Toussaint pull down and remove the galvanise fence around the property as well as an injunction restraining her from entering the premises.

There are supporting signed documents attached to the claim, including a certificate of truth signed by Francisco on February 26, 2015, when the action was filed in the High Court.

However, one of the attorneys who appears for Toussaint, Ngozi Ihezue, has claimed in court that the case was not filed by Francisco.

Ihezue claims Francisco is her uncle and knew nothing of the matter, and her client has also stated in her defence filed in the matter that the calypsonian told her he did not know of the claim against her.

The case was previously before Justice Charmaine Pemberton who had asked that Francisco appear in court or for documentation to show that he authorised the court action being taken on his behalf.

Neither was forthcoming before Pemberton was elevated to the Court of Appeal. And when the matter came up for hearing before Justice Frank Seepersad on Monday, he noted that all the documents bore a signature purporting to be Francisco’s.

He said he was not prepared to go behind the presumption of regularity of the documents filed in the case and unless Francisco appears before him or submits an affidavit in support of the defence attorney’s assertion, he was prepared to proceed with the case.

Seepersad has given orders for the filing of replies by both parties, as well as authorities, and has adjourned the matter to March 6, 2017. He noted that the allegations made by the attorney for the defence were serious and should be taken up with the Disciplinary Committee of the Law Association.

According to Francisco’s claim, Toussaint erected a fence around his (Francisco’s) land on August 12, 2014. She lives in the two lots (Lots 13 and 14) adjoining his.

He said he has been unable to complete a land purchase agreement because of Toussaint’s actions.

According to Toussaint’s defence and counter-claim, she denies that the action was brought against her by Francisco or that he was the owner of Lot 12.

She said some other person and not Francisco brought the case against her as he told her he knew nothing of it, having spoken to him in February of last year, when he came to Trinidad to perform at a show.

Toussaint also said in her defence, she spoke to him one month later and he told her that the land belongs to her and had told his prospective buyer so. She also contended that that the certificate of truth which bears the signature of Slinger Francisco was false.

She claimed that Lot 12 was given to her father in March of 1989.

Francisco was represented in court by Stephen Maharaj, instructed by D Hannays and Company.

In summarising the concerns of committee members during a public hearing with CISL representatives at Tower D of the Port-of-Spain International Waterfront Centre, PAEC chairman Wade Mark called upon the Community Development Ministry and the Investments Division of the Finance Ministry to “step up their game” as it involves the monitoring of State Enterprises and special purpose companies in TT.

Mark expressed the PAEC’s alarm that neither of these entities seemed to be aware of the existence of the PWC report or its contents until very recently.

He said such a situation was unacceptable when it came to ensuring proper accountability of taxpayers’ monies and ensuring that State entities do not act as laws unto themselves. “We are shocked, Mark said. He also expressed concern about a lack of documentation regarding projects undertaken by CISL during the period 2005 to 2010 and one instance where a project started at $1.5 million but was completed at a cost of $180,000.

CISL chairman Raees Patel said there was an absence of documentation prior to his time and this issue is being addressed.

Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste- Primus said the PWC report showed that CISL had “many weaknesses.” She listed some of these as an absence of documented policies regarding projects undertaken by CISL in the 2012 to 2014 period. “All is not well in the organisation. All is not well in the Kingdom of Heaven,” Baptiste- Primus said.

Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe observed the company’s expenditure regarding telecommunications was particularly high.

In response, Patel said that cost has been reduced through the use of Wi-Fi and messaging. Social Development Minister Cherrie Ann Crichlow Cockburn spoke about a centre for disabled persons that was built by CISL under the former People’s Partnership (PP) government which still cannot be used to this day. As an example, Crichlow Cockburn said the centre had an elevator which could not accommodate a person in a wheelchair.

US Embassador, John Estrada, in a statement yesterday said non-US citizens convicted of crimes in the US can be deported to their country of origin.

This happens in Trinidad and Tobago, as all over the world, he said, noting that the vast majority of local citizens with US visas follow the laws while they are visiting the US and return home within the permitted time of stay.

“We look for the close relations and travel between our countries to continue,” Estrada said.

He quoted President Barrack Obama as saying, concerning the democratic transition in the US, that “there is enormous continuity beneath the day-to-day news that makes us that indispensable nation when it comes to maintaining order and promoting prosperity throughout the world. That will continue.” Concerns have been expressed about deportations and remigration to TT and the Caribbean following the victory of President-elect Donald Trump who, on the campaign trail, promised to deport undocumented migrants in the US to their countries of origin.

More recently, however, Trump said there were some two to three million migrants with criminal records who he will target immediately for deportation.

Speaking during a JSC sitting at the International Waterfront Complex, which examined the operations of the geriatric homes, Mahabir wondered whether the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services had considered implementing CCTV cameras as a “permanent monitoring device,” at elderly citizens’ facilities.

“Do you think that should be a requirement so that persons giving care in these homes know that they are being monitored all the time and that will serve to somehow reduce the incidence of elderly abuse?” he asked a ministerial panel which included Director, Division of Ageing, Dr Jennifer Rouse.

Mahabir, an independent senator, said he did not know if the measure to implement CCTV cameras was contained in the Homes for Older Persons Act, which was yet to be proclaimed.

Rouse, in response, said CCTV cameras were being considered for geriatric homes but there are concerns relating to privacy.

She said, though, that CCTV cameras will definitely be a deterrent in curbing incidents of elderly abuse.

There are currently 187 senior citizens’ homes operating in Trinidad and Tobago, ten of which are managed by the State, through the ministry.