Hosted by Slam’s energetic duo of Ryan Spartan and Kris Kennedy, the pair kept scores of avid patrons bubbling in a Carnival cauldron as artistes filed on and off the stage in soca unison at the La Romaine venue on January 25.

Climaxing the talented cast of musical icons was Bunji Garlin (Ian Alvarez) and Fay Ann Lyons-Alvarez, alongside their Asylum Band and Ground Empire family.

Belting out world-renowned tracks such as “Differentology”, “Truck on the Road” and “Carnival Tabanca”, Garlin kept the adrenaline pumping. However, upon his chant of the recent freestyle hit “New York”, LIV Nightlife was sent into euphoria. Fay Ann followed with her famed songs such as “Break Away”, “Meet Superblue” and “Heavy T Bumper”; but sent the audience into ecstasy with long-time hit, “Get On”, said a media release.

Prior to their performance, LIV enjoyed other soca acts such as 5Star Akil and Shal Marshall who delighted the audience.

Also gracing the south stage were artistes Jaiga, Ravi B, Milko, Devon Matthews, Revelation, M1, Farmer Nappy, Miss Cali, Problem Child, Jungle, K-Rich, GBM Nutron, Eyeslam Superstar Mical Teja and Chutney Monarch favourite Omadarth Maharaj aka “Balkissoon”.

Officials of the NLCB announced its sponsorship to Valley Harps to the tune of $179,000 at its panyard.

The band will now be known as NLCB Valley Harps and will be seen in this light tonight when the judges hit the Morne Coco Road, Petit Valley panyard.

Last week Wednesday’s handing-over ceremony was very quiet and simple as NLCB chairman Marvin Johncilla presented Valley Harps management with a symbolic cheque. Minister of Community Development, Culture and The Arts Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly was on hand for the presentation.

According to acting director of NLCB Ricardo Borde, “The sponsorship is for one year and the company will review the relationship over the time before moving further.” Members of Valley Harps played several songs for the evening including their 2017 Panorama piece “Total Disorder”.

Montano brings his energy and charisma to one of the most anticipated shows in Carnival. This year’s event is expected to be a “white night” to remember.

The newly NLCB- sponsored massive soca showcase will attempt to assemble the most women dressed in white in one venue ever. In celebration of the event’s 14th anniversary, promoter Randy Glasgow Production (RGP) is offering a $50,000 cash prize to the bestdressed female in white on the night.

“Women all over the Caribbean and the diaspora are interested in this show. They go all out to look their best on the night and this year we have decided to reward their efforts with some mind-blowing cash prizes,” Glasgow said in a media release.

The next bestdressed woman will get $15,000 in cash while the third will pocket $10,000. The men are not being left out and there’s a prize for the best-dressed man who will earn $10,000 for the winning outfit.

Hosted by Crime Watch’s Ian Alleyne and comedian Nikki Crosby, the showcase will feature all the big names of soca music from across the region and including USAbased Angela Hunte and Yankee Boy, Bajans Rupee, Peter Ram and Marvay, St Vincent’s Skinny Fabulous, Antigua’s Ricardo Drue, St Luica’s Freaky Boy Ricky T and Jamaica’s Linky First.

Reigning International Soca Monarch, Voice lead is on the cast which also includes Bunji Garlin, MX Prime, Orlando Octave, Iwer George, Swappi, Fay Ann Lyons- Alvarez, Nadia Batson, Patrice Roberts, Uncle Ellis, Tobago soca queen Adana, Chutney King Raymond Ramnarine and more, all backed live by the A Team band.

Tickets available at the usual outlets and online at ticketfederation.

com. For more info: 628-9158 or randyglasgowproductions.

info or any of RGP’s social media pages.

The spirt of Pan Trinbago’s response to the announcement suggests that, as an organisation, it is above reproach, has been an efficient steward of its affairs and is the unfair target of a media vendetta.

A statement from the organisation last week essentially accused the Ministry of Culture and the NCC of attempting to hijack pan affairs in a “hostile takeover of Carnival groups”.

According to the statement, the authorities were “hell bent on usurping the role of Pan Trinbago and the two other major interest groups in the national festival and the authority given to them by acts of Parliament.” It also said that the artform (pan and the fraternity) had moved from the point where its members were considered the criminal element and “nurtured and developed from nothing, to a potential billion-dollar industry” But perhaps the most intriguing line of the release is the declaration that the audit is nothing short of an attempt by government to infringe upon “the right to enjoy the fullness of our heritage instrument that was carved out of the blood sweat and tears of our pioneers.” Pan Trinbago then declared that it was not against the audit and had in fact been providing audited statements for decades, unlike the NCC.

Another statement which catches the attention is the one made by Richard Forteau, Pan Trinbago’s acting President, “This private organisation is willing to share our business with our line minister, but apparently, there are people out there who want to try matters in the court of public opinion.” Again, in the spirit in which Business Day has been doing these Carnival pieces over the past few weeks, questions need to be asked. Has Pan Trinbago been running its affairs in a manner that would keep it from the “interference” of outsiders? Indeed, Pan Trinbago seems deeply offended by the mere suggestion that such outside intervention is necessary.

Business Day has obtained a copy of Pan Trinbago’s unconsolidated financial statements as of June, 2016.

According to this document, Pan Trinbago received a capital grant of $2,420,200. A capital grant is one disbursed by the government.

Therefore, Pan Trinbago is in receipt of taxpayers’ money. Moreover, it is the result of an Act of Parliament. Do members of Pan Trinbago’s executive believe that they are a “private organization”, unaccountable to anyone but the line minister? The financial statement goes on to say that Pan Trinbago has “an accumulated deficit of $10,485,685 as at June 2016 and total liabilities exceed its current assets and investments by $14,954,960 as at the year end.

Additionally, International Conference and Panorama, a subsidiary of Pan Trinbago, has outstanding liabilities totaling $9,081,621, which the organization may be liable to pay in the near future.” This information should be taken in tandem with the fact that Pan Trinbago is reported to be in the vicinity of anywhere between $31 million and $87 million dollars in debt in total.

Several of the accounts listed for regional pan activities also showed deficits/losses. What Dr Nyan Gadsby Dolly, Culture Minister, seems to be asking for does not appear unreasonable. She said that a “right to audit” clause will now be inserted into the contracts of all Special Interest Groups and NGOs that receive large subventions from the government in an effort “to ensure accountability and transparency in the use of public funds.” Why should this be interpreted by Pan Trinbago as an effort to deprive the people of the right to enjoy the national instrument, flying in the face of all those who worked hard to bring the national instrument to this point? Pan Trinbago in its response to the Minister’s statement, alleged that the National Carnival Commission (NCC) is unfit to manage it, the organization itself being several millions in debt.

The culture minister has said while initial audit efforts will focus on the pan body, it is likely to widen as time passes. The NCC may in fact have its own questions to answer.

Business Day has reached out to Kenny De Silva, the NCC chairman, several times over the past month, about this and other issues facing the organization. So far, we have been unsuccessful in setting up an interview with him.

For years, there has also been some confusion about who has the ultimate right to manage Carnival: the NCC or the special interest groups, like TUCO, the NCBA and Pan Trinbago.

Again, the legislation is unclear because even though the NCC appears to have the right to regulate special interest bodies, there are other pieces of law that give the special interest groups the right to encroach upon NCC powers.

Perhaps this is another area the culture ministry can look into in order to further cut down costs and streamline Carnival’s management.

“That is where they go wrong a lot of the time,” said Dr Vindel Kerr, a lecturer in Ethics at the UWI, St. Augustine and a corporate governance and corruption researcher.

Business Day reached out to Kerr to get his views on the findings released at by the Transparency Institute of Trinidad and Tobago last week where TT was shown to have scored 35 on the Corruption Perception Index in 2016, down from 39 in 2015. The score has earned the country a ranking of 101 out of 176 countries. In 2015, our ranking was 72 out 168 countries.

His own country had a score of 39, earning them a ranking of 83.

“Additionally, there has to be political will,” said Kerr, “It is all well and good to create laws. But it is the politicians who have to ensure that the appropriate mechanisms are in place for effective and efficient enforcement. When they turn a blind eye to the situation, nothing is going to happen. We see a lot of that.

For example, in the matter of campaign finance, it has been 15 years since it was initially brought up in Jamaica and several in Trinidad. In the same period, they have expedited many other simple, mundane and sometimes self-serving legislation, such as raising their salaries, or giving themselves pensions, which is now being discussed by the TT senate.” Over the years, Jamaica and several other Caribbean territories have managed the feat of arresting public figures caught in financial wrongdoing, whereas TT is yet to make any significant arrests or convictions on this score.

We asked Kerr, how Jamaica and high scoring Caribbean countries like the Bahamas and Barbados were able to do this. Kerr acknowledged that even though the region’s and Jamaica’s scores were generally still too low Jamaica had several mechanisms that helped contain corruption.

“Jamaica is known in the corruption literature and the Western hemisphere for having a considerable anticorruption model.” He said the island has several different layers of corruption checks including a parliamentary Integrity Commission, a Corruption Prevention Commission and a Commission of the Contractor General.

He said a weakness of TT’s anticorruption mechanism was that too many times, State enterprises boards had sole authority to determine who received contracts. The UWI lecturer said in Jamaica, this authority was tiered in that contracts above a certain amount were approved by the CEO, the board and finally by Cabinet, depending on the amount.

“The Cabinet in Jamaica, is the highest authority to decide on contracts.” He also advised that TT to set up anti-corruption mechanisms that gave the investigatory body independence and full police powers, the establishment of an independent procurement body to monitor public service contracts and a special corruption court.

“A next thing TT needs to do is to bring politicians and public figures before the courts,” said Kerr. “And charge them, like most other Caribbean countries.”

Jeff Simmons, Country Manager of Esso Exploration and Production, Guyana, the Exxon Mobil subsidiary, said since the discoveries of the Liza and Payara fields, the company has invested US$700 million in the country, $100 million of that having gone to Guyanese companies. He also indicated that local content issues were at the top of the company’s mind and was worked into the development plan, with 400 local workers to be hired during the installation stage (over a 6 month to 1 year period), 250-500 workers during the development drilling stage (over a 3-5 year period), 200 workers during production operations (a 20-year period) and 150 to 200 workers as the local affiliate settles down in the period after the first 20 years.

Noting that Esso was starting “from scratch”, Simmons said there was still the challenge of working out what skills would be needed, how workers would be trained, what percentage of this talent would be Guyanese and whether they would be located in the high or low skilled brackets, as well as how this would be done in a way that benefits the company, Guyanese energy sector and the country as a whole.

With an estimated 400 billion barrels in recoverable oil worth US$200 billion at current prices, Guyana needs a way to take the guesswork out of setting up its industry in a way that benefits the country and its people. Fast.

Kevin Ramnarine, a former energy minister of TT, has written and spoken on the topic and offered Business Day his thoughts.

His first, was the hope that Guyana not turn into Venezuela.

“Nobody symbolises the Resource Curse and Dutch Disease better than Venezuela.

There is a spectrum that starts with Venezuela and ends with Norway. Guyana has to decide which position it occupies along it,” said Ramnarine.

He also encouraged the energy newcomer to learn from Trinidad and Tobago’s experience, to adopt what we got right and to reject our mistakes.

Among the things we got right, he said, are the stable political and business environment, the establishment of downstream industries, the creation of NGC, transfer of skills from multi nationals and establishment of programmes to benefit the country based on oil and gas revenues, such as GATE and the establishment of the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund.

Ramnarine said one of the things we keep getting wrong however, is the compensation of qualified energy personnel employed with the government.

“One of the weaknesses of the Ministry of Energy is that it sits as part of the wider public service,” said the former energy minister.

“This means that salaries for professional staff at the Ministry are much lower compared to their peers in the oil and gas companies.” He said this resulted in a constant turnover of geologists, engineers, commercial analysts and lawyers at the ministry and he said if Guyana wanted to retain its best and its brightest to Exxon, the best way would be to provide adequate compensation from the start.

Ramnarine also listed inefficiencies at the state-owned oil company, Petrotrin and what he termed the sector’s “counterproductive” industrial relations climate as negatives.

The lack of sufficient insulation from political decision making at Petrotrin and to a lesser extent, the NGC has also proved to be problematic and TT’s energy infrastructure was aging with little being done to address the issue.

The former energy minister also spoke about misuse of our energy earnings.

“While we have used the two oil and gas windfalls to invest in infrastructure, health care and education, it is accepted that there was a lot of wastage and inefficiency in how various governments of Trinidad and Tobago expended the oil and gas rents.” He warned our Guyanese neighbours to avoid these pitfalls.

He advocated that the government negotiate local content terms that would be truly beneficial to the country and that Guyana could go the route of legislating local content like Norway or Nigeria or including it in Production Sharing contracts with the companies, like TT. He recommended that Guyana stick with the Production Sharing contracts since these gave the government more control over the industry.

“Local content also means local private equity participation.

I am of the view that the local capital market should participate by financing a portion of oil and gas investments. This could be mandated by the Government,” said Ramnarine.

However, the situation demanded that Guyana understood some realities. The first, said Ramnarine, was that the industry was unlikely to employ many people. The second, was that Guyana’s energy sector had to develop downstream industries to be truly beneficial to its people, something he said was unlikely to happen at this point since the Liza field was too far out at sea to pipe oil back to land for any land based activity.

The former energy minister also said Guyana should establish its own State Energy company.

“This company’s board and management must be insulated from politics. A percentage of this company’s equity must be listed on the Guyana Stock Exchange. This will allow institutional investors and citizens the opportunity to directly own Guyana’s oil industry.” He said two separate companies must be formed along with the main enterprise: one to develop support infrastructure and the other to take on marketing activities.

With regard to starting “from scratch”, Ramnarine believed this may not necessarily be a bad thing for Guyana.

“Guyana has an opportunity to take the best from the experiences of other countries and make its own model. It may be that 20 years from now, we won’t be talking about the Norway model. We may be talking about the Guyana model.”

Designed for ‘power’ users, the Mate 9’s features includes long battery life, low power consumption design, a second generation Leica dual-lens camera and the new Kirin 960 chipset.

Launched at the “CONNECT @ bmobile Tech Expo” at Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, on January 18, the Mate 9 is expected to be available in stores this month.

Asked what makes it ideal for “power users”, Huawei TT’s Sales and Marketing manager, Jason Ifill, said the Mate 9 targets ‘power’ users “who seek the best in technology with a focus on business functionality and productivity.” Namely, “corporate customers and entrepreneurs who frequently use their handsets as a business tool, would appreciate the 5.9” FHD display screen, two plus days (of) battery life, split screen function, speed of processor and exceptional camera quality.” Regarding the cost, Ifill said that is to be determined by the carrier (bmobile), “based on their plans” but that the “open market pricing” for an unlocked, pre-paid, phone is approximately TT $4,500.

Knowing that “power” users often travel for work, Huawei said the Mate 9 was “built to support faster data communications and better network signals. It offers global connectivity with dual-SIM support; the secondary SIM supports 7 WCDMA bands and 4 GSM bands.” Having reported a favourable response in TT to the P9, the latest version of Huawei’s other premium model series, Business Day asked what were Huawei’s expectations for the Mate 9.

“Huawei TT is confident the Mate 9 would double the sales of the Mate 8,” Ifill said, “now that the Huawei brand awareness is growing and local customers are becoming more aware of the quality of the devices. The Mate 9 would provide…great value for money (to) business users and consumers seeking extended battery life, large screen size and great photography.” Being relatively new to the TT market, accessories for Huawei devices are not readily available. Business Day asked Ifill how soon customers would be able to walk into a store and buy items for their devices.

“Huawei original accessories would be available through select after-sales retail outlet within this quarter. All original accessories would be available for sale. We do have a few retail dealer stores offering third party accessories and are working to increase the availability of accessories for the Huawei handsets.” Regarding partnerships with local phone carriers, Ifill told Business Day the company “offers its handsets to both Digicel and bmobile. Each carrier determines based on their strategy what handsets they offer to their customers.” He added that “Open market retailers are also showing increased interest and demand for Huawei handsets and customers are able to purchase unlocked devices with full one-year warranty.” Huawei currently holds approximately 11 percent of the local market. Ifill said the company expects to almost double that by year’s end. “Local market share should reach 20 percent by the end of 2017.” Regionally, Huawei also has a presence in Barbados, The Bahamas, Jamaica and Suriname.

Trinidad and Tobago was included in the CPI for the first time in 2001 when we scored 5.3 out of 10 and was ranked 31 of 91 countries surveyed. By way of explanation, a country perceived as free of corruption would score 100. This year, out of the 176 countries surveyed, Trinidad and Tobago ranked 101, scoring 35 out of 100, and moving downward four points from our 2015 scoring of 39.

While it is a perceptions index, it is well known that perceptions play a role in shaping and representing what might be occurring in reality. However, Transparency International notes that “Over two-thirds of the 176 countries and territories in the 2016 index fall below the midpoint of our scale… The global average score is a paltry 43, indicating endemic corruption in a country’s public sector.”

While some have questioned the methodology used for the survey, the danger of low rankings in these and other international indices is their potential to affect our investment reputation.

In international commerce, ratings and indices are used to assess the risk of doing business in countries. Assessments made are used to guide decisions relating to the terms on which business is transacted or conducted. A perception of corruption can result in additional costs that could lead to higher product prices, lower competitiveness and an increased cost of living.

Corruption harms the business sector by facilitating decision-making for reasons other than the best value for money. This results in the destruction of capital, as honest firms lose out to the dishonest. It results, too, in the loss of trust and integrity in the marketplace, which can add both visible and invisible costs to doing business.

The TT Chamber also recognises that there is both a supply and demand element to the corruption equation, and we believe that we can adopt a systematic approach to addressing this problem.

While some legislation has been introduced, there is still much work to be done to eliminate avenues for corruption which have become entrenched over the years. Several reforms – for one reason or another – have not been advanced. The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act, 2014 has been only partially proclaimed, while the Revenue Authority and the Licensing Authority, remain in abeyance, despite commitments to expedite them.

Legislation such as the Whistleblower Protection and FATCA seem to be moving ever so slowly, while enactment of legislation to regulate political party financing and election campaign financing remains but a pipe dream. Today, the Integrity Commission is akin to a near non-functional agency with very little power to compel the necessary adherence.

Despite very vocal objections to corrupt practices in several quarters, TT appears to have become steeped in an accepted “status quo” which is proving difficult to break free of. Sadly, the future of our nation depends heavily upon a re-thinking of our position on acts of corruption – real or perceived – in all spheres of life in our country. It matters little if the focus is business, labour, government or otherwise – more must be done to quell the perception and reality of corruption.

Understanding what to expect in the future is crucial to ensuring finance leaders in the Caribbean can lead effectively.

Economic growth, quality and availability of the global talent pool and business leader’s responsiveness to change are among the top three drivers of change in the public sector globally says ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) in a new report.

Drivers of change in the public sector uncovers a total of 50 key forces that will affect the global public sector landscape between now and 2021, which encompass challenges from governance and strategy through to operations and talent development.

Using global survey responses and data from roundtable discussions, the report focuses exclusively on identifying the key factors that will change in sector and to assess how they will shape the future, with ACCA asserting that global changes will have a local impact and governments will need to be at the forefront of tackling their effects.

Economic growth unsurprisingly leads as the top driver of change globally, crucially because it’s a key measure of a nation’s health and prosperity. Respondents from Western Europe and Asia Pacific rated this issue particularly highly. Secondly, respondents considered the global talent pool to be the second most critical driver for the public sector, which echoed particularly strongly by respondents in Asia Pacific region who ranked this most highly (49%) followed by South Asia (44%), North America (41%) and Africa (36%). Attracting people with the right skills is a long-term challenge for the public sector throughout Africa and sustained efforts will be required to close the ‘talent gap’ globally.

Thirdly, business leaders’ responsiveness to change and disruption is also crucial as organisations are generally defined by the qualities of their leaders. People and their ability to lead will always be the key to unlocking organisational value, something that respondents in North America, South Asia and Africa rated particularly highly.

Each driver was assessed against eight categories: economy, politics and law, society, business of government, science and technology, environment, energy and resources, the practice of accounting and the accountancy profession to determine the likely and timely impact they will place on the sector.

Collectively these drivers of change are making the public sector environment more fluid and forcing it to evolve. Today is an exciting time to be a professional accountant in the public sector. There is a huge opportunity to help shape the public services of the future, achieving value for money and long-term sustainability. Arguably, there are few other areas that provide the diversity of challenge and fulfilment found in the sector. To perform their roles well, public sector finance professionals need to be able to navigate the present and prepare for the future to ensure that the best value is obtained from public funds. This also echoes our professional accountants – the future research which laid out the skills needed by future employers.

Governments and finance professionals must work together to ensure public services are fit for the future. Their partnership influences how the funding is used to address national and local priorities, the availability of resources for investment and the effectiveness of public services. Finance professionals play a pivotal in promoting public confidence and trust in the stewardship of public finances as they navigate through operational, governance and risk management issues.

This is public financial management and good public financial management instils trust. Trust is created when the public are able to understand how their money is spent, and on what.

To ensure that the public is able to hold public sector organisations to account, this information needs to be understandable, accessible, clear and timely. Practices of disclosure and reporting, whilst retaining accuracy and precision, should be communicated with their interests firmly in mind. Financial management in the public sector must also strive to ensure that the public receive the best possible service.

Like other organisations, finance professionals need to be efficient to identify and mitigate financial risk. An efficient department means that financial planning, monitoring and control are integrated in performance management, so that there is a strong emphasis on budgetary control, reporting and decision making.

Another is to ensure that budgets are effectively linked to policy objectives and that value for money is secured, as well as to improve the credibility of financial reporting.

Given the pace of change and size of expenditure, it is critical that finance professionals working within the public sector are equipped with the right skills to deal with the challenges ahead.

Professional accountants in the public sector finance function will need to adapt to these prevailing winds of change by honing in on their technical and specialist skills, as well as developing new attributes, in order to meet emerging challenges and make the most of fresh opportunities.

The more recent of the very audacious moves, being the refugee based restrictions being imposed by the United States. This, coupled with a burgeoning relationship with Russia, the straining of a relationship with Mexico – which is a traditional United States ally – amongst other swift and daring moves send a very strong signal to the rest of the Globe.

Based on the immediate response emanating from the media, the diplomatic operatives seem left in the lurch, having to play ‘catch up’ in order to craft diplomatic responses and approaches to what was already decreed.

Such a paradigm questions the role and functionality of diplomatic positions within today’s tweet inspired circumstances. Why is this relevant? Simply because the decisions and directives made by the various global superpowers, including the strengthening or weakening of their relationships will impact on the rest of the world, including on the way we do business, whilst impacting the bottom line for many local, regional and internationally operating business organisations.

These circumstances call for diplomatic plasticity to be infused in the way we choose to do business in a very fast changing global structure. The channels that formerly presented as stable and dependable are now presenting as fluid and uncharacteristic. Such environments call for a measure of international relations that are very distant from the norm. Essentially, this poses a very new and dynamic challenge to corporate structures already operating within international confines, as well as those choosing to operate within these confines to become as knowledgeable as is possible with the ever-changing face of global and diplomatic realities and to make the requisite adjustments. One such adjustment would be to remain current, perhaps even ensuring your presence on the information superhighway in a very direct manner – after all, this seems to be where global diplomacy takes place, for all the world to see.

In addition to investing in a social media presence with real time reporting, it would be of good measure to invest in cross cultural understanding, to appreciate the international community, what was traditionally expected, and what the new normal might become. This is extremely important as it lends to the corporate culture being empowered to understand and appreciate the impact international and diplomatic relationships have on the various trade markets. These are inextricably related, and cognizance must be placed on keeping abreast.

As I pen this article, I am trusting that our very own Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs would have been proactive in updating its various Missions and High Commissions on the changing global dynamic, and finding ways to ensure nationals of Trinidad and Tobago can access information on such adjustments, be it via updates to the ministry’s website, or by being able to simply visit various overseas missions to be guided accordingly. I would expect a similar system be developed within our Foreign Affairs Ministry designed to facilitate the provision of guidance and support to nationals, businesses and other relevant persons in adjusting to this new paradigm of fast-paced, tweet diplomacy and its subsequent impacts.

All together, we are experiencing an extremely interesting global dynamic from which we in Trinidad and Tobago are certainly not isolated, and as such, we must ensure we understand and appreciate the various economic, social and multi-pronged impact such geo-politics can and will have on this nation.