Debates on these kinds of motions often give MPs the opportunity to speak about crime in the country.

That sitting will also be the first opportunity for Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to field questions from the Opposition in the first Prime Ministers Question period for 2017.

Under the House Standing Orders, Prime Minister’s Questions takes place on the second sitting of every month.

Also this week, the Energy Affairs Joint Select Committee (JSC) and the Public Accounts Committee hold in camera meetings at Tower D of the Port-of- Spain International Waterfront Centre tomorrow.

He was admitted to hospital last week and underwent successful angioplasty surgery to unclog blocked arteries in his heart. In the wake of Diaz’s health woes, Richard Forteau has been installed as Acting President of the pan body. On the weekend, Assistant Secretary Cindy Rosemin resigned from the executive citing lack of transparency and leadership as her reasons for doing so.

Also leaving the executive on the weekend was Aquil Arrindell, who quit as Education Officer.

Panmen have been demanding that Diaz and his executive tender their resignations and for a new executive to be elected citing several irregularities the latest of which was the issuing of cheques individually valued at $1,000 to panmen as appearance fees for the 2016 Panorama competition, but said cheques not being honoured and cashed when taken by the recipient to the bank. Panmen staged protests last week outside PanTrinbago’s office in Port-of- Spain.

An emergency meeting carded for Saturday last, was called off after Diaz collapsed. Yesterday, the remaining board members including Ag President Forteau, Michael Joseph (PRO), Keith St Cyr (External Relations Officer), Andrew Salvador (Treasurer) and trustees Allan Augustus and Trevor Reid plus regional chair persons Carlon Harewood (East), Gerard Mendez (North), Marie Toby (Tobago) and David Balbosa (South) were in a meeting for most of yesterday. Last year, Byron Serrette tendered his resignation as VP.

Pan activists Dane Gulston, Gregory Lindsay and a third person joined the meeting after lunch and remained there until very late yesterday. Contacted last evening, Gulston said that in his personal opinion nothing fruitful had come out of the meeting which lasted for several hours. A meeting with band representatives and the executive has been called for today to discuss the issue of the bounced PanTrinbago cheques.

The objective of the bill is to amend the Marriage Act, Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act, Hindu Marriage Act; Orisa Marriage Act and the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act.

The bill requires a three-fifths majority for passage in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

In the case of the Senate, the Government will need to get four votes from either the Opposition or Independent benches to add to its 15 votes to pass the legislation. In the House, 25 votes are needed to pass the bill. The Government has 23 MPs in the House and will therefore need two Opposition MPs to support the bill.

The legislation changes the heading of “consent to marriage” in the current Marriage Act to the, “age at which a person may contract marriage.” At Section 23 (1) of the bill, it states, “The age at which a person is capable of contracting a marriage is 18 years.” Section 23 (2) adds that a marriage shall not be solemnised by a Marriage Office or District Registrar, “if either of the parties to the marriage is under 18 years of age.”

In a new Section 41A, any person who willingly makes any false declaration or signs or marks any false application, notice of certificate, required by the Act for the purpose of any marriage, commits an offence. Such a person, under this proposed section, is liable on conviction to a fine of $50,000 and to imprisonment for seven years. The bill further states at Section 41B (1), “A person who knowingly and willingly solemnises the marriage of a person under 18 years of age, commits an offence and is liable to a fine of $50,000 and to imprisonment for seven years.”

Section 41B (2) adds that any person convicted under Section 41B (1) shall cease to be eligible to hold a licence or to solemnise any marriage. The Registrar-General shall publish a notice in the Gazette of persons who are no longer entitled to hold a licence

Not only is it a well established fact that the US engages in that kind of behaviour, but it is equally well established that they are prepared to do anything to disguise their duplicity.

Even now Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, remains holed up in the Uruguayan embassy to avoid being taken back to the US because he had the temerity to release information about US spying on foreign governments, including those friendly to the US.

Information revealed that such spying included tapping the private cellular phones of several heads of state and taping their most private and confidential conversations.

How can such a country be trusted? What limit is placed on their spying? These people are the leaders of the so-called free world and feign outrage when they think it has been done to them.

They should be ashamed of themselves. They have no credibility to criticize others.

They fully deserve Donald Trump!

Karan Mahabirsingh Carapichaima

As I previously wrote, I will continue to be the voluntary eyes of WASA for the good of the nation and conservation of precious water.

There is a leak on O’Connor Street (South of Ariapita Ave.) in front of house #12 to be exact, where there is a huge electronic billboard. It appears to be coming from the main as it is coming from a crack in the road. This has been so for over a month and has been reported by residents in the area. Thousands of gallons of precious fresh water literally going down the drain, as it is not a small leak. WASA’s rapid response would be appreciated, but please, a word of advice, do the necessary repairs on a Sunday as O’Connor street is a very busy main artery to the Avenue, and to disrupt the flow of traffic on a working day could cause a back up all the way to Wrightson Road, a situation we could do without.

W.Dopson Woodbroo

Firstly, the Energy Chamber needs to clarify which companies were surveyed in order to determine the ‘rest of the sector’? Did it include Atlantic LNG, BP, BG, BHP Billiton etc.? If so, it would only be fair, and also interesting, for the Energy Chamber to publish the pay rates of these multinationals. In addition to not including multinationals, the survey did not include companies such as YARA. If their survey did not include the multinationals operating in Trinidad and Tobago, then it is flawed and cannot be said to compare Petrotrin’s wages to the ‘rest of the sector’.

Secondly, the survey failed to take into consideration that Petrotrin is an integrated production and refining company, and it is the only such company in Trinidad and Tobago.

Therefore, Petrotrin cannot and should not be compared to any other industry. How can you compare refinery workers when there are no other refinery companies in Trinidad and Tobago? The answer is simple: you cannot.

Therefore, since there are no comparators in Trinidad and Tobago, Petrotrin can only be compared to the global average. This is not difficult for the Energy Chamber to produce as the average global salaries for oil and gas can be found in the Hay’s Oil and Gas Salary Guide 2015. According to the report “Over the past 12 months, we have seen the average global permanent salary increase by 1.3 per cent from last years’ average salary of US$82,239 (TT $575,673 ). This breaks down into a local talent average of US$71,569 (TT $500,983), and an expat talent average of US$99,013 (TT $693,091). The average contractor day rate globally in 2014 was US$540 per day (TT $3780)”.

The Hay’s Oil and Gas Salary Guide further stated that the average annual salary for an intermediate person working in the electrical field was US$48,500/ year (TT $28,300/month), and US$70,000/year (TT $ 40,800/ month) at the senior level. In the mechanical area, the average annual salary at the intermediate level was US$42,600/year (TT $24,850/ month), and US$62,000/year (TT $36,166/month) at the senior level.

The Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union is positive that no electrical or mechanical employee of Petrotrin earns anything close to the intermediate level, far less the senior level. Therefore, when considering the global and regional average, Petrotrin’s only comparators, the Energy Chamber’s survey, should have revealed the truth: that contractor workers in the oil and gas service companies of Trinidad and Tobago are in fact significantly underpaid.

Thirdly, it is unfortunate that the Energy Chamber’s survey follows the apparent trend of publishing the salary of ordinary workers, as they conveniently omitted the pay of Petrotrin executives. It is only fair that the country also knows the executives’ salary and not only that of Petrotrin’s cleaners (which is inaccurate).

Petrotrin’s President receives TT $180,000 per month, the Vice President is paid TT $120,000 per month, and senior managers receive some $64,000 per month. Not to mention the salary of the four expat managers at the refinery which accounts for TT $6 million per year.

While this disparity is extreme, the situation in the private sector oil and gas service companies is indeed worse.

As a result, the wider discourse should be about how underpaid workers are in general throughout Trinidad and Tobago rather than the propaganda being mounted against Petrotrin workers founded on inaccurate salaries and surveys.

When we consider the workers who are not unionized, then we have to take a comprehensive look at workers who are paid under what can be considered a living wage. How many are denied basic terms and conditions? How many face the threat of losing their jobs, and therefore must accept working for next to nothing, and under very unsafe environments at great risk to themselves? How many of these workers’ rights to join a trade union are violated on a daily basis? These are the questions that the Energy Chamber should publicly address.

Ozzi Warwick
Chief Education and Research
Officer
Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union

Not in Tobago. But Tobago, always 99% cleaner looking than Trinidad, remains green, but not politically serene. The scramble for control of the Tobago House of Assembly is now in the final days with elections carded for January 23rd. Tobago is important because Tobago is where we plant and grow many of our successful political leaders. So in the final stages of this important race, we must now move beyond platform promises and consider the prospects of the contenders. Hopeful of winning the post of Chief Secretary, Tobago House of Assembly are Christlyn Moore, Tobago Forwards, Eudine Job-Davis, Movement for Transformation, Kelvin V. Charles, Head of the Peoples National Movement in Tobago and Watson Duke of the Progressive Democratic Party.

It is crucial for the opposition to have a political toe hold in Tobago in preparation for general elections due in 2020. However, Mr Duke’s political aspirations have seen him set to self destruct. Like Icarus, flying too close to the sun, he has unstuck his own political trajectory by having allegations against him that are yet to be determined in a court of law.

So, what is to be determined is if the Tobago electorate will vote in favour of a previously considered brilliant young man who was allegedly foolish enough to believe himself untouchable. Allegations are like mud. They stick. Will a Chief Secretary be allowed to travel outside of Trinidad and Tobago if he has court matters pending? He should not be promising what he might not be able to deliver.

Lynette Joseph Diego Martin

What is saddening, maddening and frightening, is the fact that some people who don’t have a clear history of the evolution of the steelpan are recommending that it be taken away from us, and placed in the hand of big business, who they believe are more capable and more competent to manage the business of pan. This has brought tears to the eyes of many who made great sacrifice.

The same steelpan that society rejected and branded its early pioneers outcast, rogues and vagabonds, who stood up and faced all the prosecution and persecution to preserve it. I have never seen any business man that invested in a business venture to benefit his employees. And I have not seen any big business that was or is successful with out their dependency on government for concessions or bailouts.

The impasse between the Minister of Community Development Culture and the Arts and Pan Trinbago, has nothing to do with accountability on the part of the steelpan organization.

That is all red herrings in order to implement their bigger agenda. Those who pay the piper call the tune.

And today, big payback is expected.

Pan Trinbago produces an audited financial statement annually to NCC, the Minister and the Permanent Secretary, unlike most other entities across this nation. Yet, today, this very new line Minister is saying to the nation, that she has to protect the public purse: from whom, Pan Trinbago? What a shame! Pan Trinbago Inc is now the whipping horse for all the years of mismanagement, corruption and wastage of our national patrimony, taking place in sweet TnT, and must be reined in as an example for all to see how serious the government is, in dealing with corruption.

It is clear that higher education does not define one’s character, but morals and principles do go a long way. What a shame. Now that Pan Trinbago is maximizing its efforts to benefit from the billion-dollar industry that we have created across the globe, by meaningful investments that would redound to the benefit of all its stakeholders, all the red herrings and stumbling blocks are being placed in its way forward.

All organizations have challenges. Did the goodly Minister see it fit to offer to the organization, a few million dollars for capacity building and institutional strengthening? No, but she is hell bent on making a contribution at destroying an institution that is much older than she, because of malicious gossips __ thereby showing contempt and total disrespect.

But I must say to the goodly minister that this battle between Mardi Gras and Canboulay began long before her existence, and that one ought to be more tactful in dealing with such sensitive matters.

Today, Carnival has developed into a financially viable industry, heavily influenced by Canboulay groups.

Mardi Gras is hell bent on taking back control by any means necessary.

This battle, if not managed sensibly, could go on long after this Minister demits office, and it would record her as a major contributor.

The panists’ remittance will be paid, and debts incurred through events, not corruption, will be serviced as is the custom over the years.

While it seems to be the intention to distract and bog us down in petty internal struggles that would keep us in a state of eternal servitude. We are asking the government to extend the same concessions to us that is extended to all foreign and local investors in this country. We have invested over sixty years and today when we are poised to trigger our industrial thrust, some are working hard to keep us in Panorama mode, but history would not be kind to them.

The struggle continues.

Long live Pan Trinbago.

Michael L Joseph Public Relations Officer.

Pan Trinbago Inc T.C.

The hypocrisy of people being concerned about violence against women and human trafficking is a big joke because citizens are exploited daily in the security industry, being paid far less than $10,000 monthly.

How can we really expect crime to diminish if those citizens that are overpaid for less risk demand more and set back the country, and don’t also support fellow working class citizens? As I tell people daily for years, it’s not money at the root of evil and society’s problems but selfishness.

Wake up TT M.Hernandez San Juan

The OWTU’s threat of strike action against Petrotrin was called off yesterday when the union accepted a five percent offer from Petrotrin for the period 2011-2014/2015.

The threat of strike inspired many to criticise the OWTU’s demand for a wage increase as untimely as the nation is experiencing an economic downturn and Petrotrin is operating at a loss. The OWTU responded to that critique citing corruption and mismanagement as the cause of Petrotrin’s unprofitability.

To this, Sookhai said, “We understand that and we do sympathise with the OWTU’s concern that maybe it is time for a national conversation to revisit salaries across the board and maybe if some of these high level management that are making exorbitant amounts of salaries, that needs to be revisited.” Leading up to yesterday’s settlement, the business community had called on the OWTU to call off their strike.

These business leaders have now praised the settlement and are calling for focus to now be turned to Petrotrin becoming a profitable company.

“The most important thing right now is the restructuring of Petrotrin,” said Liaquat Ali, President of the Couva/ Point Lisas Chamber of Commerce. “Petrotrin cannot afford business as usual and continue to be losing money. They have to wean, whether it is corruption or inefficiency.

They have to sit down and have a conversation to ensure that Petrotrin becomes profitable at the end of the day. If it means privatisation, then so be it. I think they will seriously have to look at getting private investors into Petrotrin so that it would be more viable because as you know, with most of the State enterprises, it is difficult to get them profitable.” Daphne Bartlett of the San Fernando Business Association said, “We would ask that the same way the President of the OWTU has been clamouring for more money for these workers, he must go out and clamour for them to go out there and improve the number of barrels per day that is being produced by Petrotrin. He should ensure that management does whatever it needs to do to increase the production of oil so that when we sell more, we get more money.”