This was revealed by TATT’s deputy chair- man Dr Kim Mallalieu on Thursday.

She was speaking at the opening of a twoday workshop titled Exploring Innovation in Transactions and Financing in the Caribbean II, at the Parliament Building, Port-of-Spain.

Mallalieu said after the first workshop was held, it generated considerable interest in exploring how transactions and financing can be improved in the region.

“A level of interest shown at that workshop led to the hosting of this follow-on event,” Mallalieu said.

“While electronic payment has been growing in popularity around the world, slowly but surely, Caribbean entrepreneurs, the traditional business community, regulators, governments, government agencies, and other regional leaders are recognising the benefits of more richly and more deeply leveraging information and communications technology (ICT) in finance.

“The first phase of the initiative will facilitate free WiFi at specific public locations such as hospitals, libraries and transportation hubs.

As services become increasingly affordable and accessible, demand for value added services such as mobile money would increase.” She said since the last workshop, tangible strides have been made towards the reality of digital financial services in the region, yet the success in digital finance is inextricably linked to a number of enabling factors including, but not limited to, a healthy vibrant telecommunication sector with considerable investment in infrastructure, as well as high penetration rates and affordable access.

“In the case of TT, the telecommunication and broadcasting sectors grew from $3.3 billion in revenue in 2006 to an estimated $5.51 billion in 2016.

During this period mobile and internet services experienced double-digit growth.

Mobile voice subscriptions rose from 1.5 million subscribers in 2006 to 2.2 million in 2016.

The demand for fixed internet services increased from 82,000 in 2006 to an estimated 255,000 in 2016.” She noted the increase in mobile internet subscriptions was 10,000 in 2007 to 707,000 in 2016 with approximately 63 percent of mobile service subscriptions using mobile internet.

The accused women, Anisa Pegus, 29, and Alyssa Rajkumar, 27, appeared before Magistrate Brahmanan Dubay who read the charges to the women that on April 26, they had in their possession 21.68 grammes of cocaine and 1.77 grammes of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking at Bonne Adventure Gasparillo. The women were arrested within 500 metres of a primary school in Gasparillo, the court heard. Pegus pleaded not guilty to both charges. Rajkumar pleaded not guilty to having in her possession for purpose of trafficking the cocaine, but she entered a guilty plea for the possession of marijuana for the possession of trafficking. Police court prosecutor Sgt Gordan Maharaj, told the court that about 10.30 pm, police were on mobile patrol along the Bonne Adventure Road when they had cause to stop a vehicle. The court heard that Rajkumar was the driver of the vehicle. The prosecutor said police searched the vehicle and found under the front passenger seat a pink cylindrical object containing marijuana.

With respect to the charge of cocaine trafficking, the prosecutor gave a description of the drug, saying it was found in an empty cellphone box in the vehicle.

Attorney Annalee Girwar, who represented the women, said Rajkumar was a business owner.

Girwar said her client was going through a break-up with her boyfriend and upon her arrest, she was at the time delivering items that belonged to him.

The attorney said that the breakup had also taken a toll on Rajkumar’s emotional state and to calm herself ,she resorted to marijuana.

On the charge of possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking, the magistrate fined Rajkumar $1,000 or in default six months hard labour. She was given 30 days to pay the fine. On the charge of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, Rajkumar and Pegus were granted surety bail in the sum of $30,000. The matter was adjourned to May 26.

Addressing a large crowd at the Macaulay Community Centre on the contentious property tax, Ramdeen called for the return of the previous means of paying land and building taxes which, he said, was used many years ago and raised approximately $200 million.

Ramdeen said given the 400,000 homes which Finance Minister Colm Imbert said exists, the government can raise approximately $400,000. He accused government of trying to instil fear in the minds of people by telling them if they do not pay the property tax, their homes would be seized.

“Well not as long as they have a strong opposition like the UNC.

Imbert is saying that if people do not fill out the forms he will get the information regarding properties from WASA, TTEC and TSTT. Imbert so desperate that he said he will get an aerial view of people’s property and deal with those who are not willing to pay property tax.” Saying there could be discrimination in assessing people’s properties, Ramdeen told the gathering it should be the concern of every owner of property, whether residents living in other parts of the country would not be evaluated as well. “Will they evaluate properties in Laventille and in the Beetham?” He said the people of Penal, Point-APierre and Chaguanas spent years developing their properties for generations, “And this government will come now to say pay tax or you will lose your property.”

The court heard that on September 4, at SS Erin Road, Debe police constable Ramcahran was on mobile patrol in a marked vehicle when he stopped a vehicle driven by Manki. The court heard that the policeman detected the smell of alcohol on Manki’s breath. The accused man confessed to the police that he had a few drinks. A field sobriety test was conducted, reading 63 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml per breath.

Another test was done which read 67 micrograms. The court heard that before the officer conducted the second test, Manki told him he was willing to pay him.

Diop heard the accused man went into his pocket and took out $4,800 and gave it to the officer.

On the charge of drunk driving, Manki was fined $4,000 or in default will serve nine months hard labour. On the charge of bribing a police officer, he was fined $5,000 or in default nine months. He was given two months to pay the fines.

Deyalsingh was speaking on Wednesday at the Metal Industries Company Limited (MIC) Administrative Professional Symposium titled Unlocking Your True Professional Potential at the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, UWI Campus, St Augustine.

The symposium was launched in 2008 in commemoration of Administrative Professionals Week, and this year’s theme is Excellence, No Exceptions.

Quoting from Proverbs 12:11, Deyalsingh said those who work the land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.

“Let us not take the land literally, lets just say those who work, whether you work the land or in the office or you work for yourself, washing cars for a living, will have abundant food. That means you will not go without.

And don’t take abundant food literally. Those who work will have a sense of purpose. But those who chase fantasies, blame others for their circumstance, depend on the government of the day for their daily bread, have no sense.” He continued, “What the government will do, is put everything in your path to take advantage of opportunities so that you can work. Free education, subsidised electricity, subsidised water, free health care.

Take advantage of the opportunities so that you can work the land.” Deyalsingh told his audience they must have a plan and execute the plan in order for the entire1.3 million citizens here to excel.

He said the duties administrative professionals do go beyond the value of their pay check.

“We are in the business of building a nation.” Other speakers included chairman MIC-IT Professor Clement Imbert, former education minister Hazel Manning, dean at the Faculty of Law, UWI Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antonie and motivational speakers Luke Quamina and Akosua Dardaine Edwards.

Khan said this information was contained in the Integrity Asset Report which was commissioned in July 2015 under the then People’s Partnership (PP) government and completed last April under the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) He said it was the Government’s intention to implement the recommendations of this report, “in the shortest possible time.” Khan said the report comprises the audits of 30 companies in the upstream and downstream companies. He added that, “areas of specific improvement were discussed with the individual companies.” Earlier in the sitting, in response to another question from Paray, National Security Minister Edmund Dillon assured him that a fire tender would be assigned to the Mayaro Fire Station. Dillon added that this station would be supported by appliances from the Rio Claro Fire Station if necessary.

In a letter to Newsday, Ramroop said a large number of people could lose their lives or limbs if emergency response is not appropriate. Dealing with the issue of whether the country is prepared to handle a stadium collapse, Ramroop said a lot of work dealing with such disasters and with events featuring large crowds had been done in the past with tournaments such as the Under 17 FIFA Soccer World Cup, the ICC World Cup Cricket and major events such as the Summit of the Americas and Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference (CHOGM). But, he said, a lot of the standard operating procedures developed for those events had not been practised and shared among the heads of the fire, police, military and ambulance services.

He said while any stadium is being built or renovated, mitigation procedures must be provided and especially in a country such as this with a high risk of earthquakes, structural mitigation should be embedded in the planning for any large event or function. Even in a building which cannot sustain a major earthquake, it is equally important, he said, for people to be able to evacuate the building quickly, and proper safety systems should be in place.

He said it was also important to have police and private security and fire officers on hand to ensure that safety and security protocols and laws are followed.

The arrangements should include a venue operating centre staffed by a senior commanding officer from the police, fire, ambulance, venue security and operations, event organiser and communications officers from the venue and the event.

This permits better exchange of information and decision- making and has been found to save more lives and limbs than even having 100 safety officers with no proper system of communication amongst themselves and between the different agencies controlled and co-ordinated by the members of the venue operating command centre.

He said large crowd events can present many hazards, among them poor security checks at entrances and infrequent monitoring, which could allow people with dangerous weapons to enter the venue and cause panic and even stampedes leading to building and stage collapses with deaths and serious injuries.

Whenever there is a large crowd event, he said, hospitals in the area must be prepared and have the capacity to accept an increased number of admissions, usually called a surge capacity, amounting to about 20 percent of their normal operating capacity.

The hospital’s emergency department should also have a field response team in place and ready to deal with any mass casualty event – usually defined as an event involving serious injury to more than 25 people.

If the event does materialise, Ramroop said, it is better to stabilise victims at a safe place near where the incident happened rather than at the hospital, because this prevents a large number of people with minor injuries from being sent there at the expense of the critically injured.

He said more lives and limbs are lost that way and where there are large numbers of victims, it is better for trained medical personnel to assess them at the scene and perform life-saving procedures there rather than transferring all the victims, which increased the possibility that some who could be saved might die en route.

The medical centre has named attorney Khemraj Harrikissoon, his wife Hynia, and their law firm Harrikissoon and Company, as defendants in the lawsuit filed in the San Fernando High court. They are seeking a claim for monetary compensation for alleged breach of contract and professional negligence. Tesheira’s husband, Russell, 54, who was an insurance executive, died at the Gulf View Medical Centre in 2004 while undergoing a prostate operation and she sued the nursing home, urologist Dr Lester Goetz and anaesthetist Dr Crisen Jendra Roopchand.

In March 2015, Justice Vasheist Kokaram found that there was medical negligence and the million dollar award was made.

However, his ruling has since been appealed and is currently engaging the attention of Appellate judges Allan Mendonca, Prakash Moosai and Judith Jones.

In the lawsuit filed by attorney Alvin Pariagsing against the Harrikissoons, Gulf View Medical Centre’s director Dr David Ali swore to an affidavit in which he outlined a number of grounds for pleading professional negligence, one of which stated that the defendants consented, contrary to the nursing home’s interests and without instructions to do so, to setting aside the High Court ruling of July 2012 in favour of the nursing home striking out the claim from the estate of the deceased Tesheira.

It alleged that the effect of that was that the claim was restored against the nursing home to its detriment. Therefore, new life was given to Nunez-Tesheira’s claim which exposed the nursing home to a trial which resulted in Kokaram’s judgment of $18,034,722.33. plus interest and cost.

Junior advocate attorney in the action against the attorneys and their law firm is British-base attorney Anand Beharrylal and senior advocate is British Queens Counsel Mary O’Rouke.

The school has been there going to waste with overgrown bush for a few months. Is there a lack of funding? The school looks 70 percent complete on the outside. Urgent attention should be given to its completion.

ANDRE ROBERTS via email

He and those who follow him blindly are clearly the ones suffering from, according to him, “post-colonial mentality syndrome.” Roget must see that it’s called globalisation, defined as the process by which businesses or other organisations develop international influence or start operating in an international scale.

Any country driven by a government with vision embraces globalisation in order to create sustainable growth and development for the betterment of the country and its people.

We have seen evidence of globalisation over the years with the introduction of visionary companies in various sectors such as automotive and transport, food and beverage, consulting, energy and gas, computer hardware and services.

These include Toyota Motor Corp, Coca Cola, PepsiCo, KFC, Nestle, PriceSmart, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, BP, Halliburton, Xerox Corp, and IBM, to name a few.

These organisations boost the economy by creating jobs at all levels and also partner with local suppliers and manufacturers for the supply of goods and services.

I wonder if Roget or any relative or associate has ever patronised or worked in any of the above companies or whether they boycott them because “massa day done?” So Roget, if BP can “take their rig and go,” should all foreign-based companies do the same? Will you be providing jobs for all, or only demanding them?

VASHTI BOWLAH