To substantiate our statement, we have been voting out administrations in the hope that the incoming government would understand the message.

Somehow it seems that in opposition the message is clear and in government the message is lost.

Perhaps we need to clarify the message so that those in office understand exactly what we voted them into office for. We the people, in an effort to improve the quality of life for all citizens, place a political organisation in office to: * Enact legislation to establish policies, standards, operating procedures and structures that ensure all the people, regardless of ethnicity, religion, community, political organisation or gender, are treated equally and with respect.

* Restructure the economy from reliance on a single sector for hard income to a multipronged approach incorporating agriculture, food processing, tourism and manufacturing.

* Restructure the governance from centralised control to community governance.

* Partner with the business community in restructuring tourism, transportation, agriculture, preservation of heritage sites and buildings, port development and Carnival.

* Immediately stop the practices that place undue hardship on citizens — like having to pay dues and fines in cash rather than online or by mail; lengthy processes in accessing government documents like passports and certificates, and ridiculously high fines and fees.

* Establish modern police practices that ensure efficient community patrols and expeditious resolution through the justice system.

* Restructure the prison system to allow for reforming prisoners and clear the backlog of cases in the courts by a system of plea bargaining and pardon for exceedingly old cases.

* Cultivate a culture of patriotism by utilising the talents of the best of our citizens, regardless of political affiliation.

After the results of a general election is announced, we live with hope that perhaps this time we will have the change we voted for.

Instead, we are confronted with new people continuing the system of jobs and contracts for party supporters, water woes, poor road maintenance, criminal activity with impunity, and a structure of government that continues to oppress our citizens.

This is our land and we should not allow our nation to fall prey to a handful of political financiers. Perhaps it is time to look beyond the traditional politicians who continue to wait for their turn to access office to continue the status quo.

STEVE ALVAREZ via email

Last July, the community group applied for and received funding in the sum of TT$65,000 from the Digicel Foundation, which assisted in the establishment of a community bee apiary. Since then, the Association has been working closely with experts in the field to get the necessary advice and best practices to ensure optimum success.

Success came on May 3, as the Group launched their brand of honey known as ‘Honey Seco’ at the Brasso Seco Community Centre. The farmers displayed their first honey harvest to the community and other key stakeholders, including the High Commission of Canada, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI).

High on the agenda of the association is the use of climate change adaptation models in the apiary initiative. To date, these include a rain water harvesting system and solar energy. The group also receives the support of the stakeholders in this regard as they too are keen on incorporating strategies to combat climate change.

The association hopes the business enterprise will increase employment and foster further community development.

According to a release from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, these reforms, which will be implemented by various ministries in the short- and medium-term, commenced in April and will span some 44 months.

The release listed a number of short term reforms (2017-2018) medium term reforms (2018-2019).

One short term reform is the operationalisation of the fixed container scanner at the Port of Port-of-Spain. This, according to the release, will have an immediate and significant effect on the private sector and consumers by considerably reducing the time and cost of importing and exporting goods.

Capacity building activities will be conducted for the Inland Revenue Division (IRD) with the aim of, among other things, improving taxpayer services which includes the launch of electronic services offered by the IRD and improving the efficiency of processing tax returns and tax payments.

The processes to start a business will be re-engineered by, among other things, conducting public education initiatives regarding the processes involved in starting a business to minimise application/registration errors and undertaking ICT improvements to remedy any existing defects within the online registration process.

An Automated System for Construction Permitting will be developed and implemented to reduce the administrative burden for obtaining a construction permit.

This system would allow for the: electronic submission of applications and supporting documents, communication with and notification of applicants via email or SMS and processing and shared decisionmaking across multiple agencies.

The Construction Permit System, the release said, will seamlessly integrate with existing systems, including the Government’s Single Electronic Window for Trade and Business Facilitation — TTBizLink.

As one of the medium-term reforms, a Secured Transaction and Collateral Registry System will be developed and implemented.

This system is a legislative and institutional framework designed to facilitate the use of movable property — intellectual property, agricultural products, accounts receivables, machinery and equipment — as collateral. This system will provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with increased access to finance, which will improve their productivity levels and growth. A policy that will guide the development and implementation of this system is being developed.

Another medium-term reform, resolving insolvency, would seek to improve the regulatory framework for insolvency. Work is in train to create a unified legislative framework by harmonising the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act with other relevant legislation, including the Companies Act, and fully operationalise the Office of the Supervisor of Insolvency, which will create an improved level of supervision for insolvency practitioners.

An Electronic Funds Transfer system will be developed, which will allow the Government to make and receive electronic payments, provide the public with more efficient and convenient options for transacting with the Government and provide a safe and secure Electronic Funds Transfer environment for consumers to transact business with Government agencies.

The interoperability of TTBizLink with all other trade-related agencies will be improved. This will facilitate the seamless exchange of data between TTBizLink and key stakeholders such as the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, the Customs and Excise Division, the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, the Ministry of Health, as well TT’s trading partners. This seamless exchange will allow for a reduction in the processing times of several documents required for trade.

Newsday spoke to several residents who said that they were living in fear following the murders.

One resident who gave his name as Shurland claimed that many of the criminal elements in Laventille are outsiders fleeing arrest from other parts of the country.

“Laventille was quiet up until a few weeks ago.

A lot of these people doing the killings are coming from outside the community and are making it a living nightmare for us who have lived here for years.

We really need the intervention of the police at this point,” he said.

Speaking at the TTPS weekly media briefing yesterday, Ag ASP Michael Pierre said that while he was aware of the plight of Laventille residents, there were no immediate plans for a permanent police post.

He revealed that the Police Service intends to intensifying patrols and exercises in the Laventille area as evidenced by a pre-dawn raid yesterday in East Port-of-Spain which resulted in the arrest of 20 people.

“There is an Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) base in the Laventille area already and on Duncan street.

There are also constant around the clock patrols, even now there is a large police exercise ongoing in that area.

We have already intensified our patrol system in Laventille and we will continue that way.”

Guatemala, Guadeloupe and TT were the only three teams participating in the playoff of 100 boards, at 50 per day. The TT women won the round-robin contest and played Guadeloupe in the two-day finals, of another 100 boards. And the TT team prevailed, with a 289-200 result .

According to TT captain Howard, “our team (were) not able to play in the pairs tournament because we arrived too late for the start of the game, but Denise and myself were allowed to drop into the consolation segment where we won gold medals .

“Our team should have been going to the World Tournament, which is called the Venice Cup, in Lyon (from) August 12-26 2017, but we did not meet the qualification as a pair was not sent to Poland last year

This year’s star-studded line-up of contestants are gaining momentum as the tournament progresses daily. Once again, bmobile has given its commitment to providing local sportsmen and women with an avenue to compete alongside each other as they vie for coveted national honours in varying divisions.

In doing so, the main sponsors have strengthened their support towards the Tennis Association’s goals for elevating the standard of the tournament.

Meet Director, Dion Auguste, applauded their efforts and was pleased to play host to the sport’s biggest local tourney at the new state-of-the-art tennis facility. He highlighted some of the welcomed changes to this year’s edition.

“This year is the first time that the women’s winner is getting the same amount of prize money as the Men’s Singles winner. To me, this is very encouraging for the female players,” Auguste explained.

“I’m happy that we can use the new facility for this competition.

We must ensure that maintenance is always done and the facility is well kept all the time to maintain the highest standards.” Jermille Danclar, Tennis Association of Trinidad and Tobago (TennisTT) secretary and also a Director at the 2017 meet, held in high regard the many benefits of hosting a competition of this calibre at the Racquet Centre for the first time. Originally, previous local and international tournaments were played at other facilities throughout the twin-island. However, none possessed a whopping 12 courts, inclusive of seven outdoor, four indoor and one stadium design.

“The fact that we have indoor courts is a positive,” revealed Danclar. “On Saturday, all of our matches were scheduled to take place outdoors but we got rained out. On a regular day at, let’s say at King George V Park courts (St Clair), that would have been a full day of tennis lost. Luckily, we can now stick to our programme by simply moving the matches indoors.

Everyone’s impressed.” Thus far, it has been smooth sailing at the Racquet Centre for players and officials alike. Of the competing bunch, there are three foreign-based players in the running for the Singles crowns. They are defending Men’s champion Luke De Caires (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University), Joe Cadogan (Florida Atlantic University) and Breana Stampfli (Florida Gulf Coast University). However, a talented line-up of locally based athletes such as Richard Chung, Vaughn Wilson, Keshan Moonasar, Akiel Duke and Dexter Mahase have also progressed to the quarter final stage.

In the women’s equivalent, Stampfli – even though a multiple national champion who also boasts a wealth of experience- also has her work cut out against the likes of last year’s Singles winner Carlista Mohammed, long-time representative, Shenelle Mohammed, and Abigail Jones among others.

Camille Campbell, TSTT’s VP Marketing, welcomed another year of sponsorship loyalty towards the local tennis fraternity.

She was elated to observe the return of some of TT’s best foreign- based players for this particular competition.

Categories being contested are Men, Women and Veteran Singles, along with Doubles events in all three aforementioned divisions and Mixed Doubles.

“The persons deported are not criminals, but they should be deemed persons of interest in that they may have information pertaining to matters of national security, whether it is aiding and abetting known terrorists and as such there whereabouts should be known at all times within the boundaries of the law.

At the moment they are of no threat to our security but it would be important information to understand what their intentions were.” Griffith added that while it was difficult to prevent nationals from migrating and joining terrorist organisations, such persons once identified, should be red-flagged and barred from returning to Trinidad or face jail-time upon their arrival.

“It is virtually impossible to stop persons from leaving Trinidad to go to other countries and participate in terrorist activities, but what should be done is that once these persons are positively identified.” Griffith said that while the Ministry of National Security appeared to have the right ideas in the fight against terrorism, he lamented the absence of proper units within the Ministry to treat with the issue of domestic terrorism, adding that local law enforcement agencies were unprepared to tackle returning terrorist fighters and is concered that this may place authorities at a disadvantage to terror groups which may use Trinidad as a recruiting ground for fighters.

“In my tenure as the National Security Minister, I established the Special Operations Group and the Counter Terrorist Intelligence Unit (CTIU), which served to act in a way similar to the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States, to deal with the issue of international terrorism and I was disheartened to learn that the Special Branch of the police service handled the interrogation and information gathering of these individuals, when they do not have the proper training or resources to do so.

What I would urge is that the Minister play a more proactive role in the policy-making process and collaborate with the (Police) Commissioner in intelligence sharing.” Last year 12 Trinidadian nationals were detained by security forces in Turkey as they attempted to enter Syria and were suspected of being affiliates of terrorist group ISIS. In April, the group including two children were deported to Trinidad where they were questioned about their activities and later released.

This was announced by TTNGL chairman, Gerry Brooks, during TTNGL’s Annual General Meeting on April 25, at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre, Port-of-Spain.

“The management outlined a host of initiatives – product trading, commodity trading, marketing initiatives, and we’re also looking at a couple possible acquisitions as well, which would only further enhance the performance of the organisation, having taken TT$161 million of costs out of the organisation.” Brooks told reporters now that the organisation is operating in a low-cost environment, “as prices come back and as the market comes back, all of that will flow to the bottom line and provide an improved yield, both for Phoenix Park and for TTNGL.” During the formal proceedings, TTNGL shareholders heard that these growth initiatives are designed to maximise value and growth to ensure a consistent future healthy earnings stream for the investors.

In a statement issued on May 5, TTNGL explained that, “More specifically, PPGPL is at an important stage in evaluating these options to enable the processing of natural gas that will be supplied to the consumers at Union Industrial Estate at La Brea.” “The company is also exploring the option of maximisation of spare fractionation, storage and terminal capacity. Additionally, the benefits of importing product to address the issue of gas curtailment by supplying propane directly to the downstream companies as fuel gas, are being examined, as is the possibility of product trading. Other targeted areas include the creation of a commodity trading desk, cost saving initiatives and expanding into other regions such as Africa,” TTNGL stated. Following the AGM, Business Day asked Brooks whether these proposed acquisitions would be local, regional or international.

“For Phoenix Park, the acquisitions will be regional and international because we are the largest player regionally and therefore our outlook has to be hemispheric and international. They’re going to be very selected jurisdictions that we’re looking at, where we run our (due) diligence. Once there’s a good strategic fit, we’ll proceed with it.” Regarding TTNGL’s performance in 2016, Brooks said the board and management were “very, very encouraged.” For the year ended December 31, 2016, TTNGL recorded total comprehensive income of TT$344.8 million. Earnings per share was TT$1.16 for 2016, while TTNGL’s share of profits from its 39 percent shareholding in PPGPL improved operationally by 20.3 percent from TT$136.3 million in 2015 to TT$164.0 million in 2016.

This improved performance at PPGPL was directly linked to the deliberate efforts of the company to rationalise expenses in the face of lowered Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) production caused by continued gas supply challenges and lowered product prices.

The board approved a final dividend of TT $1.00 per share (2015: TT $1.00) bringing the total dividend for 2016 to TT $1.50. Brooks said this is consistent with the dividend payout for 2015 and represents a dividend yield of 7.14 percent at the end of 2016.

“It is the highest dividend yield on the TTSE. The final dividend will be paid on April 12, 2017 to shareholders on the Register as at March 28, 2017,” Brooks stated.

At the AGM, shareholders voted in favour of a resolution to receive dividend payments in either TT or US currency. However, US dollar dividend payments completion of, “a number of steps first,” including getting necessary approvals from the TT Stock Exchange and the TT Securities and Exchange Commission.

Brooks said, “It’s also going to be extremely important that shareholders establish a US dollar account because if they do not have (one), there’s no basis on which to pay. We want to work through those steps very carefully first and then, of course, we’d want to have a conversation with Government; in terms of a policy, but it’s an important step.” TTNGL and PPGPL are subsidiaries of the National Gas Company (NGC) Group of Companies, which Brooks also chairs.

Asked about NGC’s involvement in Guyana, Brooks said this is taking place on several different levels.

“We’ve had National Energy go across to Guyana, we’ve had Professor (Andrew) Jupiter go across to Guyana. We’ve also had Phoenix Park go across to Guyana. Guyana is extremely important because we’re talking about 1.3 million barrels of oil that could play directly into Petrotrin in terms of refining capacity, but you also have some other potential from an NGC standpoint as well, in terms of ship to shore services.” “How do we use Brighton (port at LABIDCO, La Brea)? Our phase one development of Brighton is very important in that regard as well as the exchange of technical capability and technical skill. Here, the NGC, as a group, is trying to lift the entire energy service sector because TT has a service sector that has over 100 years of energy experience, and that technical expertise, that energy expertise has to be made available to the people of Guyana in the context of the CARICOM agreement that we have, in the context of some bilaterals.” “The Prime Minister himself visited, there is an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) in play. We’re looking to deepen that from an NGC standpoint, from a National Energy standpoint and our sister company, Petrotrin, is also looking to do the same as well. So those discussions are going well and we want to progress them,” Brooks stated.

Responding to questions from JSC chairman Dr Dhanayshar Mahabir, Hutchinson said there is no publicly run suicide hotline in TT. He added there is one run by non-governmental organisation Lifeline. Hutchinson said, “As part of the suicide prevention plan that is being developed and will be implemented soon, is a proposal to either work alongside Lifeline supplementing their service or or setting up an alternative hotline which the ministry could fund and support.” Hutchinson said Lifeline has been experiencing problems with getting volunteers for its service.

Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Vishwanath Partapsingh said this was an element of a wider “suicide surveillance system” which will supplement existing health sector protocols to treat with people who may be contemplating suicide.

Hutchinson explained that self harm and suicide can be a feature of several different types of mental illnesses. He also said stress is something would could result in people becoming mentally ill.

Hutchinson said people who were sexually abused as children, are likely to develop mental health problems when faced with situations such as unemployment or relationship problems.

Responding to a question from Cumuto/ Manzanilla MP Christine Newallo Hosein, Hutchinson said, “In situations where there is increased social stress, you do see more mental illness.” However he added that some people are more resilient in dealing with stress than others. St Ann’s Hospital Medical Chief of Staff, Dr Hazel Ann Othello, said some drugs used to treat mental illnesses are available on the Chronic Disease Assistance Programme (CDAP).

According to him 82 per cent of Trinidad and Tobago private firms were in decline. Meanwhile in the last eight years, this country’s average growth rate was -.01 per cent.

Khadan said many, moreover, many in this country appeared undisturbed because they are expecting energy prices to go back up. “We presume that the energy sector will recover and normalise the status quo. A status quo that is highly uncompetitive, highly uncompetitive and highly inefficient.” He said however that energy prices were liable to remain depressed over the next five years.

Moreover, he maintained that the role government has played in the economy has to change.

“Providing job opportunities, providing subsidies and social programmes targeted at various sectors of the population, support of inefficient public enterprises, just to name a few. These things can continue no longer. And this reality needs to set in quickly.” Khadan said that what was needed was new ways to generate growth outside of the energy sector. Most including government turned to the private sector to fill this role, particularly when things were bad in the economy.However, Khadan argues that in its present form, the private sector is hardly able to do that.

“It could, if it were dynamic, employment generating, innovative and export oriented. But it is not,” he said. Khadan said currently, only 14 per cent of firms were exporters, only 5 per cent of firms had an innovation department and they spend less on it than other firms across the region. He also noted that TT private sector firms spent seven times more on security.

Meanwhile, senior management at private sector companies were likely to spend as much as 10 per cent of their time dealing with government bureaucracy in pushing through important works and projects.

“If you extrapolate that out to a year, the average firm would lose over 26 working days of senior management’s time dealing with bureaucracy.” As a result, Khadan said it was therefore no surprise that private sector investment is a quarter of what it is in other small economies across the Caribbean.

If the country’s economy was to thrive, then private sector firms needed to urgently change its mindset concluded Khadan.

“What the private sector needs is a more pro-business environment characterized by incentives and disincentives toward one characterized as dynamic, innovative and export oriented. For the private sector to become that key player in the economy, it doesn’t need lecturers nor to be given lectures,” he said.

During a panel discussion, subsequent to the presentation by Dr Khadan, participants, InvesTT chair, Moonilal Lalchan, Chamber president, Ronald Hinds, Professor Avinash Persaud and former TTMA president, Andrew Aleong, elaborated other problems that the private sector had in becoming what government and the country needed it to be.

These issues included the overvalued foreign exchange rate and the challenges presented to the private sector by it, the mismatch between the supply and demand components of labour and the mistrust between the private and the public sectors.