“All the cargo for Tobago was delivered and there have been no hiccups and we don’t anticipate any. This was an unfortunate situation, and I know there was a lot of misinformation in the public domain so, I’m happy we were able to weather it through,” he told Newsday yesterday.The Atlantic Provider and The Transporter barge have been selected as short-term replacements for the cargo vessel MV Super Fast Galicia on the inter-island ferry service.

The barge will cost Government between US$8,000 and $10,000 a day while the other vessel will cost US$14,500 a day.

“In the maritime industry, the longer you rent a vessel for, the cheaper the rate is. This is a very short-term thing so the rate will be a lot higher,” Sinanan said. The Port Authority took immediate action to find a provider for the inter-island service after it received a 14-day notice that the Galicia vessel would be withdrawn.

The minister said because it was an emergency situation, the authority went out to find a provider that would have been in the Caribbean region. He said it received seven unsolicited offers and three solicited ones. These were submitted to the board, he said, and two out of the three providers were chosen. Sinanan said the Government’s medium-term plan was to lease a vessel for three years.

He said the tender for that was expected to close at 4 pm yesterday.

For the long-term plan, Government will seek to purchase a new vessel

“With the amount of data that we are producing today, we believe we are sitting on a huge reserve of untapped wealth in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean,” he said.

Cuffie, who holds the portfolio for telecommunications and information communication technology (ICT) said, TT is ideally placed to attract investments in the business processing outsourcing (BPO) sector.

In the main address yesterday at the opening ceremony for the Internet of Things Forum: Smarter Living in the Caribbean held at the Parliament Building, Portof- Spain, Cuffie said a number of businesses including Amazon Web Services, the world’s largest provider of cloud services, two weeks ago, visited TT to explore business opportunities.

“What was not announced then,” he said, “is that Amazon already has a toe-hold in Trinidad and Tobago by partnering with iQor, the business process outsourcing provider, to provide its services to Amazon from new offices, located in Barataria.” He noted that iQor also has offices in the Tamana In-Tech Park which is serving US telecom providers Sprint and Metro.

The Barataria location, Cuffie said, “will see iQor moving up from not just voice, but also SMS, online chat, and of course, email in due course.” This project is expected to employ over 1,000 nationals.

Three weeks ago, he said, Cabinet approved an offer from the Indian government to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Public Administration and Communications to establish an ICT Centre for Excellence and Innovation in TT. Consideration is being given to accommodate the centre in the Tamana In-Tech Park, he said.

Also, he said, BHP Billiton’s announcement that it has moved its North American Petroleum accounting and reporting functions from Houston, Texas to Port-of- Spain shows TT is being considered a a major centre for BPO.

By relocating its accounting services from Houston to Portof- Spain, BHP Billiton (headquartered in Australia), he said, will be exporting accounting services from TT to the USA and other countries in the region.

This is in addition to RBC and Scotiabank which, he noted, are already using BPO services in TT.

Meanwhile, he said, discussions are ongoing to attract more companies in the financial services and energy sectors.

At the governmental level, Cuffie said, Cabinet is considering refining its ICT road map “fastforward II” which has a facilitative component in providing ICT infrastructure.

“Our ICT infrastructure must be continuously upgraded and enhanced to keep in stride with the country’s growth and development path,” he said.

With broadband internet becoming more widely available in TT and more devices created with wifi capabilities and sensors built into them, he said, the level of potential connectivity presents the perfect storm for the mushrooming of Internet of Things (IOT) and “we believe that data is indeed the new oil.”

The company announced its results at its Annual General Meeting held at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre. Darbasie also announced that the bank’s total assets had increased from $37.5 billion to $38.9 billion and its capital base increased by more than 5.6 per cent from $6.3 billion to $6.7 billion.

Darbasie began her presentation to the meeting not with the hard numbers but by talking about the bank’s contribution to its customers and various interest groups. She said First Citizens is constantly upgrading its ATM network to provide better security and protection for its customers.

She also spoke about the bank’s consistent monitoring of customer transactions to spot and highlight suspicious transactions, and said First Citizens had introduced profit sharing for its employees.

She said while the benefits to employees were clear, it also benefitted shareholders by aligning compensation to maximise profit which benefitted the shareholders. She said that the just concluded Additional Public Offering allowed the bank to invest in the first Employee Stock Ownership Plan available for a majority State-owned company which ensured that employees’ compensation and retirement benefits were linked to the performance of the share price and as the share price performance improved it benefitted the shareholders.

She added that the bank works on staff creativity and camaraderie through staff conventions and other employee initiatives while it also gave back to communities through its corporate social responsibility programme which she said is built around women’s issues.

“We have been monitoring the situation. Officers of the Ministry of Education have been visiting schools, officers of the EFCL (Education Facilities Company Ltd) also have been visiting schools, all in an effort to ensure that every school is opened, and our children will have access to the quality education that this Government and this ministry are determined to provide,” Garcia said.

The minister encouraged students and teachers to perform to the best of their abilities while keeping focused for the next 11 weeks.

He reiterated his commitment to ensuring a safe and nurturing environment conducive to the teaching/ learning process. He also wished students well in their SE A, CSE C, CAPE and end-of-term examinations.

The ministry said this is part of Government’s national development strategy toward producing a disciplined, caring, and tolerant society comprising healthy, happy and educated people.

The TT Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) described yesterday’s start of the new school term as “relatively smooth.” According to union president Lynsley Doodhai, reports reaching TTUTA were that almost all of the nation’s schools opened yesterday. He said the only exception TTUTA was aware of was the Cunupia Government Primary School. Doodhai said the union was informed that a small fire occurred in an air conditioning unit at the school at 3.20 am but it was quickly brought under control.

He said the school was closed yesterday as a result of that incident and a determination will be made as to whether the school opens today.

Even as Coast Guard divers and Air Guard officials continued to search, relatives yesterday told Newsday they would not give up until Sammy John of Henry Street, Orange Valley, is found.

Police said John and another man went out to sea in a pirogue and then transferred to a trawler to do repair work.

A rope which fastened the boat to the trawler became loose and John jumped into the sea to stop the pirogue from drifting away. He got into difficulties and disappeared.

John’s sister, Samantha Gayah-Lallo, said yesterday her brother’s disappearance came as a shock to the family. She said only a few months ago their mother had suffered a stroke and now she is not coping at all.

“She can’t sleep at nights; she keeps crying. We did not expect this as all. I can’t believe he is gone.

This really hurts,” Gaya-Lallo said.

She said all the family wants now is to get closure. “We just want to find his body to put him to rest.

This is all we want and we will not give up the search until he is found,” she said.

In the statement, Gopeesingh described Garcia’s announcement as a “terrible howler.” He repeated his call for Garcia’s dismissal and suggested a “a timely public apology” be issued to UWI and the regional community it serves.

In an immediate response, Garcia said, “I pay no credence to what he has said.” Garcia, who is also Arima MP, said Gopeesingh has been calling for his removal as education minister since he assumed office after the September 7, 2015, general election. He said Gopeesingh, the Caroni East MP, is “struggling” to accept the fact that he is no longer education minister. Gopeesingh was education minister in the former Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration.

In a release last week, UWI noted that chancellors are appointed in accordance with the university’s Statute 4 which clearly states, “The chancellor shall be appointed by the University Council.” UWI confirmed that over the past few months, it has been working through a specially-appointed search committee to identify an appropriate successor to Sir George Alleyne, who is carded to demit office in the latter half of this year.

The university said the appointment of the its new chancellor will be discussed at the upcoming annual business meeting of the University Council on April 27 in Barbados.

The Education Ministry, in a statement last week, said Garcia was directed by Cabinet to report to the general public on the facts pertaining to the recommendation of the Search Committee on the appointment of the new UWI chancellor.

The ministry said, “Cabinet waited until, in its opinion, it was safe and prudent to advise our population on this development.” The ministry said Bermudez was the Government’s nominee for this post.

“We are leaving this to God,” said his father Carl Coutou at the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday.

“I believe that I will see the day when his killers are brought to justice.” Coutou added that he has full confidence in the police who are investigating his son’s killing.

Seecharan was shot at Los Charos Junction, Palo Seco at about midnight on Friday.

Police said he had gone to a sport event and was standing on the road when an unknown gunman opened fire on him.

Another man was shot during the incident, however he survived.

He is hospitalised at the San Fernando General Hospital.

Relatives expressed shock at Seecharan’s death.

They said, to their knowledge, he never complained about being threatened. They added that he only had minor run-ins with the law for traffic offences.

I contributed much more than expected to her bank account. I don’t regret doing so, and I wish her well.

However, had I known that political lawyers were standing by to exploit this situation for their personal and party’s political gain I may have reconsidered.

DR DAVID SALINGER Maraval

I parked along the northern wall near the entrance and to my great consternation, within a sixfoot radius of my car, I picked up 14 nails and screws from among the gravel. When I drew it to the attention of the attendant, I was told they were trying to remove them. (There was no evidence of such activity at that time, though.) There is not even a sign warning motorists about this hazard, which could cause significant damage to tyres. Suffice it to say, I will not be parking there again.

I urge the owners/agents of this car park to please do the responsible thing of scouring the entire area and ridding it of these dangers to motorists who pay to park there. And I urge drivers to be especially cautious.

MARY LOCHAN via mail

The TDC ad is disturbing in many ways.

First, it shows that tourism will continue to be a talk shop and that we know absolutely nothing about tourism marketing.

Second, Las Cuevas is an internationally renowned Blue Flag beach. It is the only beach in TT with this designation.

This means its facilities must be kept to international standards.

What signal is this going to send when the Blue Flag marquee comes up for renewal? Third, it is my understanding that there are water tanks for the restroom facilities. Is it that the TDC is unable to get a truck-borne water supply to refill the tanks? Is WASA complicit in this non-arrangement? Fourth, where are the locals and tourists supposed to go when they need “to go?” This assumes that the beach is still open.

Why is it that we always try so hard to destroy the good things we have? I will not even bother with Maracas Beach.

I hope Hinds and Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe can give us some answers.

LINUS F DIDIER Mt Hope