Last week they complained about the intense heat and dust they had to endure. They also complained about the lack of washroom facilities and a proper place to have meals.

After their plight was highlighted by Newsday on Monday, Deputy Commissioner of Police Deodath Dulalchan intervened.

The police were told that the refurbishment should be completed in three weeks

Police conducted the search at about 5 am and found two pistols, and 119 rounds of ammunition in a locker. Police arrested a man in whose locker at the depot, the items were found.

The man will be charged with unlawful possession of two firearms and 119 rounds of ammunition.

The suspect, up to press time, was assisting police in other investigations. Police also found 64 grammes of marijuana in another area of the fishing depot but no arrest was made in connection with this find.

He said Government should also fully effect campaign and party and finance reform and local government reform legislation.

Addressing a large gathering on Tuesday evening at the St Augustine South Community Centre, Ramadhar said the property tax law is bad and some people will not be able to meet the May 22 deadline to submit forms for valuation.

“The first person who is charged, I will defend them together with my team,” Ramadhar said.

On his call to fully implement procurement legislation, he said, “We have a long history of corruption in government, where taxpayers dollars have been stolen in the past and I am almost certain being stolen in the present. Unless we fix things, they will continue to be stolen.” The People’s Partnership government, he said, insisted on procurement legislation and this Government must introduce it.

On party and campaign financing, he said, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on elections.

“When a Government gets into power they have to pay the piper.

Unless we fix that, the people of Trinidad and Tobago will continue to pay back the financiers.” He said the last government had begun draft legislation but the current administration is still to deal with the issue.

Local government reform, he said, was necessary to ensure that property tax was paid to local government organs to meet the needs of communities, and must not go into the Consolidated Fund as is currently prescribed.

Agreeing that taxes are payable to a government, Ramadhar said people do not agree that their homes should be made uncomfortable due to taxation.

Noting that some were saying that they will not paint their houses because the uglier it looks, the less tax they will have to pay, he said, “We cannot allow this nation to become a slum.”

More needs to be done to promote the area,” he adds, but also observed that some level of infrastructural development needs to be looked at.

“There should be some activity for children when they get here, more options in terms of food and drink for when people come too. Visitors often are looking to sample local rums and alcohol on these trips,” he adds.

As for residents, he has observed that about 25% of the residents benefit from investments in the area with about 75% of the work force coming from outside.

“The Mitsubishi plant is likely to be more of the same and residents know little about it.” There has been a definite slow down in visitors to this wonder of the world and he also noted that proper facilities need to be added to match visitors’ expectations which would likely increase the number of arrivals to the site.

“In this economy, we don’t know what’s really happening – whatever the people are working for in La Brea isn’t as much as it should be plus land and building tax coming, so things (are) going to get much harder.” Still he remains hopeful that the summer period would improve visitor arrivals.

Since 2006 they have provided these needed services to companies and contractors in the area and have subcontracted to other security firms as well but they are dealing with the complication of a slow down in overall business as well as the problem of late payments as other businesses are experiencing the same.

“There are quite a few security companies in TT,” he notes, “but more regulation is needed to avoid these fly-by-night companies that spring up to provide work because someone knows someone who can give them a contract. This is also putting a damper on all the investments we have made to be fully compliant with international standards.” He has also observed that people of the area aren’t benefitting as much as they should from the plants being constructed in the area and sees that poverty continues in areas like Palo Seco and environs as a result of a mix of persons not having the right skills and others with the skills being bypassed for positions by persons from outside of the area. He hopes that firms will instead look to qualified companies like his own who have the right infrastructure and training to execute security services and to also seek to higher closer to home where the impact would be greater.

In reply to Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial, SASC chairman Jagdeo Maharaj said homes often don’t report incidents immediately to the SASC so that the worker can be removed and an investigation begun, despite being told to.

Opposition Senator Khadijah Ameen asked if the SASC Act has been amended to allow the Children’s Authority to help in such probes.

SASC executive officer, Utra Ali, replied no, but said talks have been held with the Children’s Authority whose resources can be used once the law is amended. SASC state counsel II Djallon Frederick said the Children’s Authority’s expertise is about children, but the SASC’s interest is probing the workers. “So we have to be very careful in our emphasis if we want to get the report in and get the person properly investigated, that we parallel the two and co-mingle what we have.” Frederick said the SASC investigators do not have the specific training or resources as the Children Authority.

“Many a time we’d get an investigator, they’d begin and many of them deny doing the investigation.

They don’t want to do the investigation.

It’s a whole ‘begin again’ process to start from scratch. The way the regulation is worded, we are not even allowed to direct the investigator as to how to do the job. So what tends to happen is that when the report comes in certain questions aren’t answered. We’ve had incidences when reports have come in two and three times and it still doesn’t satisfy the questions.” Frederick said these delays open the SASC to pre-action protocol letters from workers on suspension protesting the lengthiness of such probes.

He’d love for the Children’s Authority to supply investigators trained in both child and adult aspects, to spare the SASC from unearthing a senior employee willing to investigate a peer.

“The issue most times is that the senior person is on the same compound. They don’t want to be investigating their peers and I get the impression that sometimes that impacts on the report that we get in the end. I’ve been stymied by getting disciplinary action, either because the reports are insufficient or people start and they stop halfway through and we have to start all over again.”

On Monday residents staged a fiery protest in the Santa Maria community to highlight some of the major issues which have been plaguing them for many years.

Two of the main issues were a lack of water as well as deplorable road conditions.

Pensioner Francis “Chico” Hospedales, 76, said he had not received a supply of water since Carnival and called on the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) to be more consistent in their distribution process.

“I am a sickly man and water is something we need daily.

Today water came for a few hours.” Under the previous government, water lines were installed in the rural community.

However not all the lines are functional and so, whenever there is a supply, only a few people benefit.

There are also public tanks within the community but the truck-borne supply is also inconsistent.

“No everyone gets water from the trucks. The trucks ensure however that the school (Santa Maria RC) receives a supply and whatever remains, the people get. No one wants to come in here. Just look at the road condition,” said another resident.

Residents complained that for too long the authorities have neglected them although the Penal Rock Road is the major road which links various communities like Penal, Barrackpore and Moruga.

On Monday president of the Penal Rock Road Community Council Lester Guevarro vowed to continue protest as residents’ patience have run out. He added that there are landslips, inadequate street lighting and no community centre to facilitate residents

Yesterday, the judge gave a ruling in the San Fernando High Court stating a suggestion he had made in a previous case, for the Integrity Commission (IC) to consider investigating an employment relationship between Warner and his former secretary while he was a minister in Government, ought not to raise doubts about his (Seepersad) impartiality.

Justice Seepersad adjudicated last year in a case against the TT Football Federation (TTFF). The TTFF, Warner and Local Organising Committee (LOC) South Africa 2010 Limited were sued by Graphix Advantage Limited, for monies owed.

Imamuddin Baksh, managing director of Graphix Advantage Ltd, testified that he worked for Warner who was then a Government minister, as his secretary, but on a gratuitous basis.

His company received a contract from the LOC, to provide signage for the 2010 Under 17 Women’s World Cup hosted in Trinidad.

Justice Seepersad ruled against the TTFF, but did not find Warner personally liable to pay the monies.

In fact, the judge found that there was no case established against Warner but commented that public officers must always jealously guard the integrity of their office and that the acceptance of gratuitous labour, by holders of high office, was unacceptable. He suggested the Integrity Commission may have to investigate further.

Justice Seepersad is currently adjudicating in a case filed by Reynold Ricardo Bahadoor, through Senior Counsel Anand Ramlogan, against the Sunshine Publishing Company. But the Sunshine filed an application last November requesting that Justice Seepersad recuse himself because of his comments made in the Graphix Arts judgement.

In delivering a 14-page judgement yesterday on the issue, Justice Seepersad stated that there is no connectivity with the Graphix Arts case and the Libel case and there was no attack on Warner, but for the employment arrangement.

The court, in the eyes of the public, Justice Seepersad stated, would not be looked upon as not having a fair-minded approach to sitting in judgement in the present lawsuit against the Sunshine Publishing Company.

He dismissed the case seeking his recusal and ordered the Sunshine Publishing

Unable to find one relevant to her skill set in the area, her aunt, a food vendor, nonchalantly suggested that she make something that could be sold – a pizza to be exact. So Shimone found a recipe and made her first pizza for her aunt to sell and surprisingly it sold. Soon she began selling pizza slices in front her home and before long she started getting demands for whole pizza orders. Occasional weekend sales turned into weekday sales as her clientele grew. She went on to register her business, now called Shimmerlicious Pizza which is well known throughout the La Brea community. To keep up with the increased demand she even had to recruit staff which includes several young women from the area.

“A lot of people from our area buy – and though we would get more activity if we weren’t in a residential area and more on a main road, our customers are consistent.” She hasn’t seen a significant downturn in her business but rather marginal but meaningful increases. “People always need to eat and once it’s tasty and affordable, they will buy,” she points out.

From her personal interaction with the residents of La Brea as a small business in the area, she notes that people do get a substantial number of jobs within the industrial area there, but it’s not enough because there are still a lot of people with jobs outside the area. Most people are concerned with job security at this time and where their next meal or pay cheque is coming from.

“The Trinidadian mentality is one that we are never really as concerned as we need to or should be.

“Whenever these things happen, customers stay away,” said fisherman Sunil Supersad.

“They do not want to buy anything because they are afraid the fishes are unsafe to eat. It is bad for us because we lose out and no one pays us any compensation for our loss of earnings.” Supersad operates at the Otaheite Fishing Depot at Bay Road in South Oropouche.

He believes because of the direction of the winds and currents at sea, the fuel did not wash ashore at Otaheite. Instead, it made its way to the south-western peninsula.

“It is 35 years now I am in this business.

Our men went out fish at Point (Fortin) this morning and spotted oil in the water. We want to know what chemicals Petrotrin is using to clean it and what effect it will have on the fish.” Another fisherman from Otaheite said the fish on sale were purchased elsewhere and not from the area.

Petrotrin estimated that an estimated 300 barrels of the fuel entered the Gulf of Paria after the leak. Since the discovery, officials from the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, Environmental Management Authority and the Institute of Marine Affairs together with other bodies engaged in clean-up activities.

Petrotrin, in a media release, said aerial and marine surveys revealed that the oil was moving in a west north-westerly direction.

There were also reports of oil in the Guaracara River. However, the company reiterated that the spill occurred in the port of Pointe-a- Pierre which is northwest of that river.

According to the Ministry’s head of corporate communications Rory Subiah, the ministry is employing the Incident Management System to manage the spill in coordination with Petrotrin and other government agencies. All of this, Subiah added, was in accordance with the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan.

At Coffee and Carat Shed beaches in La Brea, there were no visible indication of oil in the water.