Speaker Bridgid Annisette- George permitted the matter to be debated as matter of urgent public importance.

Imbert said Petrotrin has lost ,“$800 million in 2015, $600 million in 2016, and it owes Government $1.2 billion in unpaid royalties and taxes.” Imbert disclosed he met earlier in the day with Petrotrin President Fitzroy Harewood who has informed him that “Petrotrin was challenged to offer anything on cost items, and has come to the Government for direction.” Imbert said he discussed with Harewood possible scenarios with respect to this matter because Petrotrin was integral to the credit rating of the country. Imbert said Harewood was adamant that, “whatever we settle on, whether it is five percent, three percent, ten percent, or one percent, whatever it is, we will require the support of the Ministry of Finance, either by way of a direct subvention to pay the increased annual cost of wages and salaries, or and back pay, or by way of a Government guarantee of a loan for Petrotrin to borrow (thereby) increasing our debt to GDP ratio and affecting the credit worthiness of TT.”

Imbert said while he was in the US last July on a road show to raise US$1 billion, every investor asked what Government was going to do about “Petrotrin’s very difficult financial situation, and what we were going to do about the US$850 million bond that Petrotrin has to pay in 2019.”

He said under the former Kamla Persad- Bissessar administration, Imbert said that Petrotrin did not pay royalties and taxes when oil was US$100 a barrel. Under the former government, Imbert said oil production fell from 64,000 barrels a day down to 42,000 barrels a day because, “they took no steps to deal with asset integrity and the made no capital investment in infrastructure causing a significant reduction in production.”

In addition, Imbert said oil prices last year dropped from US$100 a barrel down to below $30 a barrel so that the revenue of two years ago which was in excess of $25 billion a year was now down to half of that. Imbert said Petrotrin told him yesterday that they have decided to resume the quarterly payment of royalties and taxes, no matter how difficult the situations are. “They will not however, be able to pay the $1.2 billion owing in arrears at this time,”he said.

Imbert said all of this could have been avoided, if the previous government had settled the increase for the period now under conciliation. However Imbert said the Persad- Bissessar regime was spiteful to the OWTU and did not arrive at agreements for State Enterprises because the Movement for Social Justice which represented the bulk of the union’s membership had severed its relationship with the coalition government which was the first to offer them “zero, zero, zero percent” increase in wages and salaries in their negotiations

So said the FIU Annual Report 2016 laid in the Lower House yester- day. In her Director’s Statement, FIU head, Susan Francois, said the conviction won in the case of “United States versus Trenton S Somerville” had involved the FIU, IRS, US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Florida Office of Financial Regulation.

The FIU had also shared information to its foreign counterparts in 38 other instances.

The report said intelligence from the FIU led to the designation of TT national, the late Kareem Ibrahim, as a terrorist after his conviction in the United States for conspiracy to commit a terrorist act at JFK Airport and to the freezing of his assets.

“Thereafter the FIU provided intelligence to successfully list 77 other individuals and entities as terrorists and to freeze their assets including the group known as Al Qaeda in Iraq also known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.” Otherwise the report said the most prevalent type of suspicious transaction reported to the FIU was money laundering (174 cases), followed by fraud/forgery (142 cases), suspicious activity (126 cases), drug trafficking (116 cases), financing of terrorism (68 cases), tax evasion (67 cases), human trafficking (15 cases), misbehaviour in public office (12 cases), other (11 cases) and breach of Exchange Control Act (eight cases).

Overall some 739 suspicious transactions were reported worth some $805 million in sum, a doubling in value from the year before. Of this were $456 million in 617 cases of successful money-laundering, and $6.8 million in 68 successful cases of financing of terrorism.

There were 53 attempted (failed) cases of money laundering worth $341 million, and one attempted (failed) case of Financing of terrorism worth $24,018. The total number of dubious deals linked to terrorism was 69 cases, triple that of the year before.

The main source of reports of suspicious deals were banks (284 reports) and money transfer (217 reports), out of 739 reports in all.

The report in its glossary revealed that terrorist financing can come from legitimate sources (such as charitable donations) and criminal activities (such as the drug trade, weapons smuggling, fraud, kidnapping and extortion).

Dillon was one of the speakers at the “Side by Side We Stand for a Safe Trinidad and Tobago” anti- crime rally at the Waterfront, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain.

Several civil organisations came together to highlight the escalating crime epidemic surging through the land.

After he spoke, several people began shouting at him demanding to know what he intended to do about crime.

“What you doing about crime in this country, Minister? You answer me that. What you going to do, Mr Minister?” one young man asked. Another chimed in, “Go back to the podium and answer the question, Minister, and tell us what you doing.” However, Dillon just shook his head and said, “There will always be a minority who have their own agenda.

“When you ask what the minister is doing, you have to ask yourself, what are you doing? What are we doing as citizens of TT? What are we doing to assist law enforcement in the fight against crime and criminality? That is what we need to ask ourselves,” he said.

During his speech, Dillon said he did not see yesterday’s rally as a protest, but rather a coming together of people of TT who wanted to make a difference, people who wanted to stand up and make a difference for each and everyone against crime and criminality in TT.

“We have a number of bystanders who stand up, who criticise and talk, but where are they today? Where are they today to come and take a stand as you are doing to take a stand against crime and criminality in TT?” he asked.

Dillon said in today’s world of interdependence, no one entity could treat with the issues that confronted us. He said with the issue of crime and criminality, law enforcement was at the end of the spectrum.

“They are not at the beginning that shape the minds and change the behaviour of the individual.

They are at the end where the minds are already shaped and we deal with that so far law enforcement and national security is concerned.

“What is required is a wider application, wider intervention and that is why I compliment you all in taking this initiative. We have to encourage the coming together of a wider society,” the minister said.

Dillon said his neither he nor his ministry could fight crime alone, but it must be based on a collective effort from a wider TT.

He said there are things being put in place, and they are developing new strategies and plans for 2017. There were 463 murders in 2016; there have been ten so far for this year, 2017.

Brown was one of three killed in an ambush upon the birthday party of Daniel Spencer at about 12.30am on Wednesday morning at Spencer’s home on Commonwealth Drive, Freeport.

Brown’s funeral service was held at the home of his grandparents, Jean and Harry Seebran, 75 and 74 respectively at Limefruit Road, Freeport.

“Everybody know that we call him Blue Boy, but not many people know why,” said Deodath Brown, one of Brown’s uncles, as he wished his nephew farewell.

“But it is because when he was born, he had a little hole in his heart, and it made his skin blue.

The doctors said it would get better as he got older, and we thank God it did.” Brown’s family was an evidently practising Christian family, but neither Brown nor his common-law wife would attend church on Sunday mornings despite being invited, according to presiding Pastor Gloria Stewart.

“He used to say that he prefers to go on a Saturday because it is too crowded on a Sunday. That way, he could get to talk with his Father alone and get all the attention and love from him that he wanted,” said one of his shaken older sisters, Karen Brown, who celebrated her birthday on the day her brother was killed.

“My brother didn’t even get to wish me happy birthday and now I will have to remember him every year I celebrate my birthday.” However, every Saturday afternoon, he could be seen cleaning the same church he declined to attend, mopping the floors spotless.

“I watched him cleaning that floor, and I ask him where he learn to clean so well,” said one church member remembering him. “He say ‘Mama taught me.’” Before the ceremony officially began, Brown’s mother Kamla Brown, stood over her son’s casket alone, smiling, whispering to him as if he were still alive, and she kept smiling towards the heavens while the over 200 mourners sang hymns.

He was later laid to rest at Calcutta No.2 Cemetery. Also killed in Wednesday’s shooting were Winston Edwards, 39, and Elton Amorer, 35.

For this entire week, the school was covered by tents and fumigated by Rentokil in an attempt to rid the premises of whatever insects, if any at all, which caused the rash that.

Prior to the decision to fumigate the school, tests were conducted to determine the cause of the rash but the results returned “inconclusive.” The school’s Parent, Teacher Association (PTA) then fought to have the school temporarily relocated to the National Enrichment Centre in Carlsen Field. Though Education Minister, Anthony Garcia, promised the relocation would occur after getting a “likely” approval from the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, the application was denied, forcing the school to be closed one month before the official end of the term.

According to Larry Dilchan, President of the PTA, this week’s fumigation of the school and treatment of the surrounding areas went well and the school is expected to re-open on Monday. However, the fumigation has racked up a bill of $87,000. Dilchan said that the Vedic Board and some corporate entities have committed to footing the bill, but they are still falling short of the figure. The school is open to accepting donations from the public.

Anyone willing to donate can contact the school’s principal, Ms Ranu, at 672-3514, Dilchan at 352- 0019, or Vice President of the PTA, Felisha Isahak at 681-4819.

This is according to PNM founding member, Ferdie Ferreira, who eulogised his friend and colleague yesterday at his funeral held at the Church of the Nativity, Diego Martin. Ferreira said that Simonette’s contribution to the PNM, and by extension the development of the country, has been “conspicuous” due to the absence of any accurate records by those who were responsible for the transition from colonialism to independence and onto republicanism in the 1970s.

Among those present at the funeral service were Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Minister of Planning and Development Camille Robinson-Regis. Officiating priest was Father Harold Imamshah.

“Today our party members shout from the roof tops, “great is the PNM and it shall prevail,” without a clue as to who was responsible for maintaining and strengthening the 60-year-old fortunes of the enduring balisier estate,” Ferreira said.

Credited as the PNM’s longest serving general secretary, Ferreira said that Simonette took over the position in 1962 after the party had used the services of six members as general secretaries during a period of chaos and confusion which included the misappropriation of party funds.

It was at that stage, he said, that former prime minister, Dr Eric Williams, persuaded Simonette, then a senior teacher in Cedros who was known for his organisational skills and unlimited capacity for work, to move north to take up the position.

Ferreira credited Simonette for reorganising and restructuring the party, as well as the promotion of “Buy Local” through Buy Local Jamborees in the 1970s which produced three calypso monarchs.

In tributes Simonette’s daughters Helene Anne Lewis and Laura Nicole Simonette described their father as shaping their lives according to their dreams and aspirations. They both noted his love for the arts including poetry which he taught them, and in Lewis words, teaching them also “politics, prayer and propriety”.

Lewis said that on her father’s 90th birthday, celebrated in December last, he described himself as the “oldest Simonette who ever lived.” As one who encouraged his children to build relationships based on character and not race, she said, “Long before Dr Williams admonished against the use of the words ‘nigger’ and ‘coolie’, Daddy had forbidden us to use those words so often heard and spoken at school.” As a cultural promoter, Lewis said that her father promoted as fund raising efforts for the PNM, concert tours to Trinidad by the Jamaica National Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Senegalese Dance Company – Les Ballet Africaines, Millie Jackson and a US variety concert called “Around the World in 60 Minutes”.

Rowley said while many persons associate former President Arthur NR Robinson (deceased) with the movement for greater autonomy for Tobago, it was Murray who crystallised this ambition in insisting that the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) be re-established as the administrative authority in the sister isle.

Rowley said Murray’s efforts to re-establish the Assembly came at a time, “when there was great anxiety in Tobago that independence was not working for us as a country and Tobago was falling behind.” He said Murray’s efforts played a key role in the re-establishment of the THA in 1980.

I can tell you today that no Tobagonian now is conceiving of a Tobago without the THA,” Rowley said. Leader of Government Business Camille Robinson-Regis paid tribute to Balgobin Ramdeen, the last surviving member of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) from the pre-Independence era.

Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh praised Ramdeen as a representative who fought tirelessly to ensure that persons in rural communities received the most basic ammenities.

The US President-elect is a billionaire many times over and has been able to entice the votes of millions of unemployed workers.

Mr Duke is the president of a Public Services Association that has thousands of members who appear unable to disengage themselves from his strangle hold. Interestingly, some 95% of these workers are from Trinidad and not Tobago. Is it possible that Tobagonians view Mr Duke as some exceedingly powerful figure, able to put a spoke in the wheel of a PNM central government by orchestrating government workers to strike in both Trinidad and in Tobago? Why else hold on to the PSA presidency? Perhaps this is what can be termed ‘political window dressing’ to enhance a feeling of invincibility.

As in all things, including love and politics, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholders. The outstanding belief of Tobagonians about good moral behaviour is what differentiates these two gentlemen. Mr Trump has it within his power to deliver millions of jobs to his supporters.

Mr Duke does not have the power to deliver jobs. Mr Trump’s colourful personal past with the opposite sex did not stop his political ascendency.

Various US church people had little say in the matter. Mr Duke has not yet been absolved from the allegations brought against his good name yet he aspires to head the THA.

There ends the similarity of the powers of these two ambitious gentlemen. Politics and moral location can still reside at the same address.

How clean is the face of the PNM in Tobago? Who will be cutting off whose nose to spoil whose face? Lynett e Joseph Diego Martin

Presently we are ranked No 8 out of ten in ICC world ranking.

How I long for the eighties when we had dominance in this area, feared by all, for our fast bowling and our consistent bating. I am one who holds the view that West Indies test cricket can rise again. In this light I would like to humbly make a few suggestions and while it may not give a sudden turn around I do believe it can assist in the process.

No 1. WICB and players must function as one unit: This has been a long existing problem where these two parties seem to always be at loggerheads with each other. It has become so bad that at times decisions taken by the WICB you wonder if it is not a personal vendetta at times.

Just as a house divided will not stand the same principle applies for any unit.

There must be better ways of solving disagreements and once there is a series we go out there truly united.

No 2. Play at all times the best team: We are the West Indies and the team is made up of players from several islands. This at times to me poses a slight problem for us; everyone would like to have players from their respective Country.

Maturity is needed here and what we want at all times is the best team. After all winning is our goal.

No 3. The competitive edge: In the past our competitive edge was our fast bowling. We need to once more develop genuine fast bowlers. In order for this to be accomplished we need quicker pitches in the Caribbean.

These types of wickets will be conducive to stroke play by our batsmen also.

No 4. Proper training for our youth coaches: It is at the youth level that players develop bad habits. A well trained coach can help rectify some of these bad habits and so produce a first class player.

Remember at test level we are competing against the best in the world.

No 5. West Indies cricket academy: In this academy a rounded player is the main goal.

General development such as: Learning the rudiments of the game, discipline, mental toughness, temperance and teamwork just to naming a few.

I do hope something is done positively to improve test cricket in the region. It begins with the WICB having the foresight to bring about lasting change

Andre Roberts Malick, Barataria

I would like the Ministry of Health to do something about this situation.

My age is 71 years and I live alone. Can the Ministry of Health do something about this immediately? I am feeling sick and weak. I write on behalf of all the out patients of Trinidad and Tobago.

Dwight Lalla Valencia