“We are twice as poor than we were in 1981,” said Dr Colin Furlonge, Head of the Medical Professionals Association of TT (MPATT) last Thursday at a media briefing at Kam Po Restaurant, Chaguanas to give a rationale for the salary package doctors are seeking from the Regional Health Authorities.

To illustrate his statement Furlonge provided the 1981 salaries for doctors and the “buying equivalent.” Specialist Medical Officers earned $6,785, Registrars $5,913; House Officer $4,881 and Interns $3,377. The “buying equivalent” of the SMO salary was $3,049, Registrars $2,785 House Officers $2,346 and Interns $1,466. To keep up with inflation from 1981 Furlonge said in 2003 the basic salary for SMO should be $22,000, Registrar $19,000, House Officers $16,000 and Intern $10,000. Including overtime (an additional 8 hours, or 16 hours for senior doctors) doctors’ basic salary would be higher. “Our basic salary is much less in terms of what we can buy, and even with overtime we are paid, we are way below in our buying power we have lost in the last 20 years 50 percent of our buying power,” said Furlonge.

A comparison with the salaries in the legal profession also showed a disparity which has widened since the 1980s. Doctors are seeking salary parity with other professions, and with their colleagues in Tobago and other islands like Barbados and Jamaica. Citing overtime, Furlonge said, community doctors and those who worked in Accident and Emergency Departments in Tobago received 14 hours guaranteed overtime. A&E doctors in Triniad were only guaranteed for seven (eight-hour) sessions ie — they are paid whether or not they worked all the sessions. The overtime rate is 1.5 the normal rate.

“So you work 40 hours and you get paid seven guaranteed sessions, whereas doctors on the ward who are not dealing with immediate emergencies every minute of the day have to work the seven sessions but you are guaranteed that because hospitals are short staffed.” Furlonge said the RHAs have put out inaccurate misleading figures in the newspaper stating that doctors were offered 14 hours guaranteed overtime at $26,000. He said the offer to House Officers (junior doctors) for 2003 was $17,180 (with seven guaranteed sessions). Doctors in Barbados are earning more than $18,000 and Jamaica $25,000.

He questioned which doctor would return to this country at current salaries with the disrespect they received from the public. He accused the Ministry and RHAs of causing animosity between patients and doctors. “Which doctor wants to come back to work in a situation where the Ministry is taking a stand of forcing the public to look on doctors as the evil people in society, when the true fault has been their underspending in the health sector.” Furlonge said public health care spending must be significantly increased and the authorities should not continually look for the cheapest labour and cheapest facilities.

Asserting that insufficient money was spent in health care (2.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product), he said even when money is allocated, the full amount is not utilised. “Every year since 1990 to now almost $200 million and in some cases much more that was supposed to be spent on health care is not utilised.” Furlonge added that this money was not spent to hire personnel or equip facilities. He said with globalisation, doctors could work anywhere and the salaries given should encourage them to stay. Doctors undergo expensive training which lasts five years and postgraduate training which ranges between three and 10 years depending on the speciality.  He said if doctors were really greedy they would be working for more money abroad. “Many of us want to provide our service because this is our country, but if we are forced out, many of us will go.”

The Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco airport project has entered its second phase. That is the phase where persons who were implicated by the evidence of witnesses are summoned to appear to challenge the evidence by cross examination, direct evidence or by calling supporting witnesses. So far the Commission has sat for 128 days. It will resume on Monday at 9.30 am.

Tuesday
Gopee ditches Inquiry, NIPDEC afraid of Humphrey

FORMER Airports Authority (AA) Chairman Tyrone Gopee withdrew from the Inquiry on Tuesday. At the start of the sitting Gopee’s attorney Carol Gobin announced that Gopee would no longer be participating, for which the reasons were outlined in a letter dated April 17, 2003. In the letter, Gobin claimed the Commission was acting contrary to Section 7 of the Commission of Inquiry Act Chap 19:01 which states that the Commissioners have a statutory duty to make a “full, faithful and impartial enquiry”. She also alleged that the procedure adopted by the Commission was flawed and had unfairly condemned Gopee “in the public eye and through the media without affording him a timely and fair opportunity to rebutt allegations which have been made against him”.

Commission chairman, retired Chief Justice Clinton Bernard, said Gopee was summoned to appear before the Commission on February 28 to question persons who had made allegations against him and to give evidence on his own behalf. Bernard added that the records showed that Gopee ignored that summons. He said Gopee was again summoned to appear on March 17 and did so. On that occasion, Bernard continued, the former chairman was represented by Gobin who questioned matters that were outside the Commission’s terms of reference.  Bernard said Gopee was summoned to appear on April 16  and produce a firearms contract reportedly signed between the AA and the Firearms Training Institute which he was unable produce.  At a previous hearing, Deputy Security Manager Leo Reyes said he had no knowledge of that contract.

Asked by Bernard if she had received a transcript of evidence given by Secretary to Cabinet Andrea Woo-Gabriel in which Woo-Gabriel said Cabinet had no record of giving permission to the Customs Department to waive duties on specialty equipment from American company Calamaquip for use at Parco, Gobin said she had not. The attorney added that the transcript was irrelevant since Gopee was withdrawing from the Inquiry. Bernard said that if Gopee and his attorneys disagreed “with all that has gone on here, they have a right to go to the High Court and question it”.

WEDNESDAY
No evidence taken

NO evidence was taken on Wednesday when the Inquiry continued for the 126th day. When the sitting began attorney Keith Scotland, who represents the Ministry of Works and Transport client representative, Peter Cateau, announced that after a perusal of the notes of evidence of NIPDEC’s Project Manager, Kenneth Critchlow, he decided he had no questions for Critchlow. Cateau was absent from the sitting because he was ill.

Thursday
Cateau was watchdog of public purse

NIPDEC’S General Manager Margaret Thompson on Thursday agreed that a NIPDEC document which she described as containing “unapproved” payments in the sum of US$1.5 million made by the Ministry of Works and Transport client representative Peter Cateau, were really “unreconciled” payments based on NIPDEC’s records. She said it also could have been that NIPDEC was merely unaware the payments were approved. She also agreed that Cateau was more the “watchdog” of the public’s purse on the project. Thompson was being questioned by Cateau’s attorney Keith Scotland leading Dawn Mohan.

The NIPDEC document was prepared by Thompson and represented the “unapproved” payments she said Cateau made to Birk Hillman Consultants (BHC) during the duration of the project. Thompson explained that NIPDEC did not approve the payments which totalled US$1.5 million because there were no letters from the company authorising payment which could be found in its records. She agreed with Scotland that the sum may not necessarily have been unapproved but it could have been that NIPDEC was merely unaware of the approvals. She was later shown several letters by Scotland, some of which were signed by NIPDEC Director Trevor Romano and representatives of the Airports Authority (AA), which Thompson agreed were approvals for various payments. Such approval letters reduced the sum of “unapproved” payment in her statement by at least half a million dollars, bringing the total sum of  “unapproved” payments to US$1.064 million.

Friday
Towfeek Ali to be summoned to explain servicing of airport firearms

A SUMMONS is to be issued for Towfeek Ali, managing director of the Firearms Training Institute, by the Commissioners’ enquiring into the Piarco airport development project. The reason for the Commissioners’ action, as announced on Friday by Chairman Clinton Bernard, is for Ali to assist the Commission in understanding the circumstances involving the Airports Authority (AA) taking away the servicing of firearms contract from the Defence Force and giving it to Ali’s firm. The decision of the Commissioners arose following the questioning of former Inspector of Operations at the AA, Leo Reyes by attorney Sean Cazabon, who represents the AA’s former Security Manager, Dennis John.

Bernard said the Commission “had a duty to go further” into the awarding of the contract, since Reyes was of no help to the Commission. Bernard said it was especially important since they could not tell in whose hands the firearms could have gotten into or where it could have ended up. Lead attorney for the Commission Theodore Guerra, SC fully supported the Commissioners’ decision saying the matter was a serious one. Guerra said it he was very concerned that a State authority could not account for the servicing of its firearms not knowing where they could end up. Bernard also warned Reyes who was employed in the police service as a Corporal for 14 years that in its report they may have to say something about the matter, saying they were there to “seek the truth”.

He told Reyes “clearly you have not been of assistance to us and it’s disturbing that you were in charge and you seem to know nothing of the whereabouts of the firearms”. The whole issue of the firearms arose after Reyes’ evidence coming out of  the questioning by Cazabon,  contradicted that which he had given on April 10, 2003. Reyes also held the firearms users licence for the AA. Reyes said on that occasion John had told him the contract was in writing. But yesterday he told Cazabon that wasn’t so. He explained that he was of the opinion that a contract should have been in writing. He told Cazabon that he never saw a written contract and efforts to get a copy if it existed proved futile. He said he had enquired about the contract’s existence from John but was told that he (John) had also never seen the contract.

FOOLS step in where angels fear to tread but does this phrase apply to the newly formed Guardian Angels (GA) group whose genesis was announced some two weeks ago by United National Congress (UNC) Member of Parliament, Dr Fuad Khan? The Opposition MP attributed the reason for the GA’s formation to the Government’s seeming inability to deal with crime in TT. Khan said the GA would comprise persons between the ages of 15 to 18, who would carry out anti-kidnapping and anti-crime manoeuvres, including surveillance operations.

He also indicated that the “Angels” would be trained in martial arts and that he had written to Police Commissioner Hilton Guy asking that the GAs be trained in the use of firearms. To date, there has been no reply from the Commissioner to Khan’s request. According to the UNC parliamentarian, the small size of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) makes it difficult for the police to effectively handle all kidnapping incidents and there was need for some form of  “divine intervention” to deal with the scourge of kidnapping. He claimed the group had received the blessing of UNC Political Leader Basdeo Panday, the San Juan Businessmen Association and even “some” members of the Police Service. However up to this day, no one knows who Angels are or whether they can help take a bite out of crime in Trinidad and Tobago. Khan said his group was modelled after a similar organisation based in New York but according to UNC chairman Wade Mark, Khan never told the party’s leadership much about that organisation or whether he had consulted with them in forming his Angels.

The original GAs had their genesis 24 years ago on February 13, 1979. Their founder was a man named Curtis Sliwa, a former night manager of the McDonalds Fordham Road outlet in the South Bronx, New York. Sliwa was famous for his clean-up and beautification projects in the South Bronx. The elderly often sought refuge in the McDonalds, knowing that Sliwa and his co-workers would walk them home safely. When a retired transit worker pleaded with Sliwa to do something about muggers and street thugs, he decided to expand his “Rock Brigade” clean-up and pride programme to patrol the subway and the “Muggers Express” was born. Recruiting a team of multi-racial volunteers from the ranks of his own workforce, Sliwa and his team “agreed to ride the subways between the toughest stops, without weapons, to find the gang members who had been mugging the straphangers and detain them for the police to arrest.”

From this group, known as the “Magnificent Thirteen”, the GAs were born in 1980 and commenced their first safety patrols of the New York area. The objectives of these patrols were to be a visual deterrent to criminal activity; act as positive roles within the community; provide extra eyes and ears for law enforcement and to report all suspicious activity; to intercede and assist civilians and exercise the right to perform citizen’s arrests. However the GAs have always maintained that the latter objective is not their primary role. The GA website section on Civil Law/Citizen Arrest Training clearly states: “The GAs have no special powers of arrest. Making a citizen’s arrest and detaining someone until the police arrive is the right of all Americans as well as the right of the people of many other countries. Making a citizen’s arrest within the boundaries of your country does not make you a vigilante; it makes you an upstanding heroic citizen. A vigilante is someone who makes the decision over guilt or innocence and administers the punishment as well. GAs are not vigilantes. The decision over guilt or innocence can only be made by a court of law, which also has the power to decide the penalty for any crime committed. These decisions cannot be made legally by the GAs, nor by a peace officer or a police officer. GAs are accountable to the laws of the countries that we operate in just as everyone else.”

Persons who form part of GA safety patrols are trained in a number of self-defence skills. These include a wide array of martial arts systems such as the Japanese grappling arts of aikido, jujitsu and judo; Chinese Wing Chun Kung Fu, western wrestling, Brazilian jujitsu, Thailand Muay Thia kickboxing and the Filipino art of Kali.  However it is to be noted that despite this type of training, the GAs do not see themselves as vigilantes. The GA website section on Martial Arts training states: “Safety is a top priority in GA training and we are not impressed with overly aggressive types of behaviour. Machismo or machisma are poor qualities in a true warrior. To become a GA, you do not need to be Bruce Lee or his sister. A positive attitude, a willingness to learn and a desire to help others are the qualities that we are looking for.” 

Potential applicants must satisfy certain criteria to join the GA with one of the most important being that “no applicant convicted of any serious felony or any sexual offences shall be considered for membership.”  Today the GA has a membership of over 5,000 volunteers in 60 cities and five countries around the world. Things have hardly been a walk in the park for the GA and since their inception, six of their members have been killed in street violence. GA founder Curtis Sliwa himself has also been marked for death by criminal elements on three occasions. In 1992, Sliwa was attacked by a gang of bat-wielding thugs outside his Brooklyn home and then five weeks later, was wounded in five places by a gunman while he was seated in a taxi. The most recent attempt on his life took place in June 2002, when Sliwa was ambushed as he entered as taxi near his home. Shot in both legs, his chest and back, Sliwa survived by  leaping from the moving vehicle and slammed into another car as he did so. He underwent several operations and through the sheer force of will, recovered in record time. Today, the GA has shifted its crime prevention focus to programmes dealing with safety education, inner-city children and Internet safety programmes.

Mark said the GA or any other crime watch groups which UNC MPs form in their constituencies would operate strictly within the tenets of the law. This was reiterated by GA public relations specialist Anderson Morris who told Sunday Newsday that the GAs “are not involved in intervention” in any type of crime. Using the Barataria/San Juan unit as an example, Morris said the group comprises approximately 60 persons and none of these persons are under the age of 15. “We do not accept anyone under 15,” he stated. The GA official claimed that a 60-year-old woman came to him recently to volunteer her services. Morris explained that these individuals operate in clusters of four which are headed by 15 “operations chiefs”. These “chiefs”, according to Morris, are trained in the surveillance techniques and the use of surveillance equipment. Morris claimed that these “chiefs” have trained GA members to be able to differentiate between criminal and non-criminal activities. He said the GA also has a network of undercover operatives in several key institutions and this was how the group was able to detect the alleged “new dimension to the spate of kidnapping in Trinidad and Tobago” in the postal service. Morris said this “discovery” was made two weeks earlier and the information was forwarded to head of the AKS, Snr Supt Gilbert Reyes. A source at the AKS said they were not aware of it but they would look at it.

The GA official conceded that the group’s investigations into the matter are far from conclusive. Morris also indicated that the GA operations are being advised by two sergeants in the Police Service. On the response of the police to the GA and their operations, Morris claimed that while some “feel jittery”, there is support within the Police Service for their work. Morris said he receives information from the public about suspected criminal activities and he then forwards it to the GA’s “nerve centre” in Barataria/San Juan. However the GA official said he could not disclose the centre’s location for security reasons.

Finances for the GA’s operations, Morris continued, come by way of donations from individual businesspeople and are used for “operational expenses” which include things such as equipment and meals. He added that GA volunteers use their own vehicles to undertake surveillance operations and are urged not to do anything to draw attention to themselves. This was aptly reflected when Morris turned down Sunday Newsday’s request for photos of the GA and the manner in which they function. “I don’t think Dr Khan would like that,” he stated. In sharp contrast, the real GA are highly visible both inside and outside of the United States with its founder Sliwa hosting a regular radio programme in New York and speaking at several public fora on the work of the GA. Morris said public response to the GA to date has been good because people are confident the information they supply will be confidential and this information is only sent to the police once it has been “vetted and ratified”.

Morris added that the local Angels have contacted the original GA in New York and have received their blessing to use their name and logo. He claimed GA units have been also formed in the UNC constituencies of Pointe-a-Pierre, Fyzabad, Oropouche and Chaguanas and in the People’s National Movement (PNM)-controlled constituency of San Fernando West. Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West MP John Rahael last week turned down a request by Khan to establish a GA group in his constituency. Both Khan and Morris have denied that the GA was formed either as a public relations gimmick or a means whereby the UNC could get some kind of political mileage in advance of the upcoming Local Government Elections which some political pundits suspect could be called in June. Government has up until July 12 to announce an election date. The Opposition has been consistently condemning Government for its handling of crime and is refusing to support key pieces of legislation (including the Anti-Kidnapping and Police Reform Bills) until there is constitutional reform.

Asked why the GA decided to publicise its allegations about a kidnapping link in the postal service instead of reporting it first to the police, Morris said this was done to alert members of the public. He added that if the information was sent to the police first, it was possible that time would have passed before any action was taken on the matter. Prime Minister Patrick Manning meanwhile has expressed skepticism about the modus operandi of the local GA dubbed in some quarters of the society as the “Fuad Squad”.  The Prime Minister said he hoped that Fuad’s “Angels” would not operate as a vigilante group and reiterated Government’s confidence in the ability of the police to deal with kidnapping and other types of crime.  At a dinner hosted by the San Juan Businessmen’s Association on Thursday in Trincity, Khan insisted that his Angels were not vigilantes and persons with a political agenda were trying to paint them in this light. However in the same breath, the UNC MP went on to allege that underworld elements from PNM-controlled areas were behind the criminal activities, including kidnapping, in his constituency. All of this begs the question whether the “Fuad Squad” is the answer to the prayers of a population fatigued by crime or a means whereby some are hoping a political resurrection could occur in the near or distant future? We await the day of judgment.

Businessman Ramsawark Lal Dharrie Maharaj, nicknamed “German” since he was born in 1914, the outbreak of World War I, and his wife Heamdai celebrated their 72nd wedding anniversary yesterday at their Sorzano Street home in Arima.

The Maharaj family didn’t hold any prayers customary to Hindu wedding anniversaries or a lavish gathering like what they did on their 50th anniversary as man and wife but simply enjoyed a quiet day at home with family. In recalling his wedding day, March 26, 1931, a night wedding which ended the next day, Maharaj said: “I didn’t see her good enough until the day after the wedding when she was sweeping the gallery…” Their arranged marriage came about, according to Maharaj, since “they say I was the best looking boy in D’Abadie”. His wife he described as “a beauty. She was very nice.” He didn’t resent the arrangement because “in those days you couldn’t refuse or oppose your parents.”

Maharaj grew up in Red Hill, D’Abadie and his wife, in St Augustine. After their marriage, the teens (Ramsawark, 17 and Heamdai, 16),  lived for many years in Red Hill,  D’Abadie and later moved further up the Eastern Main Road, D’Abadie. They have 12 children: Roopatie, Bhagwandat, Kamal, Kalawatie, Amoutee, Latchmenit, Lowie, Shama, Ramesh, Suresh, Heera and Surendra, 35 grandchildren and 47 great grandchildren. In his teenage years Maharaj worked as a bus conductor with his father who was a single bus owner. Not satisfied with earning $120 a month, he bought a truck, delivering construction material to various businesses and later increased his fleet to 11.

In 1948, Maharaj opened the first filling station in Arima at the corner of Hollis Ave and King Street. The second was constructed in 1955, at the corner of Broadway Street and Old Blanchisseuse Road, Arima. He also owned other properties in Arima, which he sold off years ago. He counts many prominent people as friends including former President Ellis Clarke and former Speaker of the House of Representatives in the PNM administration Matthew Ramcharan, now deceased. The key to a marriage of 72 years, Maharaj intimated: “You have to be very honest. Everything in my home came first, my wife and children. We live very, very comfortable. Sometimes we have a little problems but there was never any fighting. If I wanted to do business, we would sit down and talk about it and my wife (a homemaker) took care of all the children.”