The TT Government must draft a contingency plan to deal with any possible worst-case scenarios emerging in Venezuela, such as a flood of economic refugees, and any spillover of criminality from that country’s societal breakdown.

While we as individuals and as a society must maintain an open heart to those Venezuelan citizens visiting on legitimate business such as shopping for foodstuffs, the authorities must have a heightened vigilance to those of criminal intent, such as several Venezuelans recently held in a boat laden with illegal drugs.

Areas to which TT is particularly vulnerable from a fragmenting State next door include the trafficking of illicit guns, illicit drugs and vulnerable people. Such activities are surely underlined by a new desperation now in Venezuela that requires the TT authorities to exercise even greater vigilance, even as we face our own economic challenges such as spates of retrenchment in the public and private sectors. Our other concern is for TT’s energy sector to not be caught unawares by putting all our eggs into one Venezuelan basket.

If Venezuela is imploding, in what resulting environment will Venezuelan and TT negotiators be sitting down to work out all the intricate details of a gas supply from Venezuela’s Dragon Field and the long-awaited cross-border Loran Manatee Field to revive our gas-starved petrochemical industries in Point Lisas? Alternatively, would a regime-collapse threaten such deals? Further, while in theory any government under economic stress would be keen to earn revenues from the sale of its hydrocarbon commodities, is Venezuela actually able to deliver? We mull not only its backdrop of street-level socio-economic breakdown, but also query the Venezuela Government’s administrative capacity in all of this, and its ability to engage in basic international commerce. A sharp decline recently in Venezuela’s oil supply to Jamaica raises questions as to the former’s administrative and commercial capacity.

Likewise are reports of foreign oil shippers seizing cargo in lieu of the non-payment of shipping fees by the Venezuelan State oil-firm, PdVSA.

Further, the Venezuelan Government’s seizure of the General Motors (GM) plant could well dampen foreign enthusiasm to invest in new or existing projects, even as we note the key role of foreign multinational oil/ gas firms to develop the Dragon and Loran Manatee Fields.

The fact of massive confrontations between protesters and the police, and the State’s banning of one opposition leader from politics for 15 years and the jailing of another, all suggest to us a hardening of positions between the government and opposition.

All this against a continued economic deterioration.

The Venezuelan Government stands accused by the opposition of economic ineptness and political heavy-handedness, while it in turn alleges a concerted plot by some to hoard State-subsidised foodstuffs and so profiteer, causing shortages and social distress.

Hyperinflation, dwindling foreign reserves, non-diversification from a hydrocarbon monoculture, huge social/political polarisation and rampant criminality can hardly be wished away overnight. Pending resolution, the internal woes of this hydrocarbon juggernaut will be eyed by many, with recent concerns expressed by the United Nations, European Union and US Government.

How will maverick US President Donald Trump view next year’s Venezuelan presidential election, given President Nicolas Maduro’s bizarre donation of US$500,000 to his inauguration ceremony? While a peaceful Venezuela is certainly in TT’s best interest, our only clout towards resolution is limited to joining international forums to advocate for good sense to prevail. Meanwhile, with global uncertainty now on our doorstep, the TT Government must heed the adage, “When your neighbour’s house is on fire…”

He also said since assuming office in September 2015, Government borrowed US$1 billion in a road show that he spearheaded last year. Imbert said $9.16 billion was also borrowed through loans and bonds, “both internationally and locally since September 2015.

Imbert also disclosed that the total amount paid to Ernst and Young for audits done on various State entities since September 2015 is $18,158,929.76. The outstanding monies to be paid to the firm is $1,979,124.89. The minister said he will present the Mid-Year Review in the first half of May and property tax will be implemented before the end of fiscal 2017.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bridgid Annisette- George, later granted permission to Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie to debate property tax as a matter on the adjournment of the House at 6 pm.

Dozens of TCL workers staged a protest outside the company’s Claxton Bay compound at 6 am yesterday. Workers waved placards as they demanded the shares as agreed to between the company and the workers’ union.

OWTU branch president for TCL workers Ahmad Mohammed said the OWTU was first informed of the company’s inability to transfer the shares, during a meeting on April 6, but was only given written confirmation of this on Thursday afternoon.

With written confirmation, Mohammed said, the OWTU can now decide on how it will proceed in terms of a response to this and other issues, In a 2014 Memorandum of Agreement, between TCL and the OWTU, after a threemonth strike against the company, around $150 million in backpay was agreed to be distributed to workers – some in cash and some in shares __ to cover the collective periods 2009-2011 and 2012-2014. Mohammed said the $20 million in shares was one of the items which was supposed to be transferred to workers.

Mohammed said the OWTU believes the move was, “calculated and a purposely done strategy of the company not to issue shares which is evident by the fact that Cemex was able to acquire just below 70% in our company.” Mohammed said TCL would not have been able to transfer the shares had they done so before Mexican cement giant Cemex bought majority shares in the company in January.

With a share price of $5.07 and the purchase of shares with US dollars, Mohammed said, “those of us who would have laboured, put our money to ensure that there was a company to transfer now, by way of sale”, are now being treated, “with scant courtesy by individuals who have chosen to profit.” Up to press time, TCL’s corporate communications department did not respond to Newsday’s queries about the matter. The OWTU said TCL workers intend to continue protesting not only over the share transfer issue but the slow pace in which the company is treating with other outstanding matters including Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) for casual workers and an end to TCL negotiating directly with workers and not the union.

The OWTU will be meeting with TCL on April 26 and 27 for discussions on how the two will settle outstanding issues. After about an hour of protests yesterday, the workers put away their placards and went to work

Bravo, who has not played for West Indies since he was sent home from Zimbabwe in November 2016 following his criticism of board president, Dave Cameron, is claiming lost earnings of around US$120,000 based upon what he could have made from ODIs against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, BPL and PSL contracts, and regional Caribbean competitions.

The claim has come as a surprise to officials at WICB who believed they were on the verge of a reconciliation with Bravo. They are also surprised at the suggestion he was prevented from playing in the BPL or PSL as no application for an NOC (no objection certificate) was made ahead of either tournament and, when Bravo did apply for such a certificate ahead of the IPL, it was granted immediately.

“It is true that Darren has initiated legal action against us,” WICB chief executive Johnny Grave told ESP Ncricinfo. “It has come as a surprise as I was under the impression we had agreed a way back for him. I’m very disappointed and yes, a bit frustrated.” Grave believed he had made significant progress towards resolving the stand-off with Bravo.

Having inherited the disagreement when he was appointed at the start of this year, Grave gained agreement from Cameron over a partial apology to Bravo (the president is prepared to acknowledge he was wrong to suggest Bravo had ever received a Grade A contract from WICB).

He also thought he had agreed on the wording of an apology from Bravo to the president with Bravo’s legal advisors. Indeed, he was hoping news of Bravo’s reconciliation could be announced during the ODI series against England with a view to him playing in the Test series against Pakistan.

As things stand, though, Bravo’s tweet calling the president a “big idiot” has not been deleted and the apology has not been made public by Bravo. The launching of legal proceedings against the board on the eve of West Indies’ series against Pakistan suggest a conflict still exists.

“I just want what is best for West Indies cricket,” Grave said. “And having the best players available is part of that. Of course a player of Darren’s experience would be an asset. “I thought everything was agreed with his legal advisors. We didn’t want this to play out publicly but yes, it is true, his attorney is asking for damages and West Indies supporters deserve an explanation as to why he is not in the squad in Jamaica.

“There is still a lot of sympathy for Darren. He was frustrated at the time of that tweet and we understand that. We want to move on and we want to move on with him. But that issue does have to be resolved before he can play for West Indies.”

In outlining the details of the report and the Task Force’s recommendations, Garcia said, “Means testing will not be mandatory for all students. Students who do not wish to apply for means testing will be required to pay 50 percent of their tuition expenses.” He stated that sanctions such as withdrawal and reimbursement of GATE funding and debarment from access to the GATE programme, “will be introduced as a deterrent for students who are found to have submitted false information.”

This is the third edition of the IAAF World Relays, with the 2014 and 2015 contests both being staged at the aforementioned venue.

Today, Trinidad and Tobago will be featuring in the women’s 4x200m event, the men’s 4x100m, men’s 4x400m and women’s 4x400m. The men’s 4x200m and women’s 4x100m will run off tomorrow.

While no start lists were unavailable up to press time last evening, the women’s 4x200m heats will begin proceedings at 7.35 pm TT time, followed by the men’s 4x100m heats (7.59 pm), women’s 4x400m heats (8.31 pm), men’s 4x400m heats (9.12 pm), men’s 4x100m B final (10.12 pm), women’s 4x200m final (10.21 pm) and men’s 4x100m final (10.36 pm).

Tomorrow, TT will be involved in a number of events, including the men’s 4x200m heats (7.35pm) and women’s 4x100m heats (8pm).

Also on tomorrow’s agenda are the men’s and women’s 4x400m B finals (8.22 pm and 8.35 pm), women’s 4x400m final (9.11 pm), men’s 4x200m (9.29 pm), women’s 4x100m B final (9.46 pm), men’s 4x400m final (9.55 pm) and women’s 4x100m final (10.13 pm).

Reigning CARIFTA Under-20 100m and 200m sprint queen Khalifa St Fort is part of the women’s 4x100m relay squad, which also includes Michelle-Lee Ahye, Kamaria Durant, Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Reyare Thomas and Semoy Hackett.

Dan-Neil Telesford, Emmanuel Callender, Keston Bledman, Kyle Greaux and Moriba Morain make up TT ’s men’s 4x100m squad.

The women’s 4x200m team comprises Chelsea Charles, Kai Selvon, Durant, Ahye, Thomas and Hackett, with the men’s 4x200m featuring Telesford, Callender, Bledman, Greaux, Morain and Jereem Richards.

Charles, Selvon, Domonique Williams, Janeil Bellille and Sparkle McKnight will form the TT women’s 4x400m team while the men’s 4x400m squad includes Deon Lendore, Jarrin Solomon, Jereem Richards, Lalonde Gordon, Machel Cedenio and Renny Quow. Trinidad and Tobago have had mixed results in the World Relays.

In the inaugural competition in 2014, TT returned home with three medals – silver in the men’s 4x100m (Bledman, Marc Burns, Rondel Sorillo and Richard Thompson ran 38.04 seconds), bronze in the women’s 4x100m (Durant, Ahye, Thomas and Selvon in 42.66) and bronze in the men’s 4x400m (Gordon, Quow, Cedenio and Solomon clocked two minutes 58.43 seconds).

TT failed to earn a medal in the 2015 edition.

Newsday spoke with an OAS Oilfield Workers Trade Union shop steward, who asked to remain anonymous, who said workers, many of whom have yet to find employment since losing their jobs, were called out to collect cheques after a year of negotiations between the OWTU and the National Infrastructure Development Company (NIDCO) following the latter’s firing of OAS, for abandoning construction of the now stalled Point Fortin highway.

NIDCO chairman Herbert George told Newsday that although workers were not contracted for labour by NIDCO, the company took upon itself the responsibility of offering some redress to workers.

“When OAS left, they left quite a few creditors, some of whom have sought redress in the courts for equipment and so on,” George said. “But workers have no such way of getting similar redress.” Herbert said the OWTU sought redress for 909 workers and NIDCO agreed to pay them 100 percent of their severance packages and 50 percent fringe benefits owed by OAS.

Workers were asked to present IOUs given to them by OAS detailing the money owed by the company and NIDCO checked it against copies of the IOUs which OAS luckily left behind.

Herbert said the payment represented only around 35 percent of the money owed to workers, however.

They are still owed backpay for salary increments not paid over five years, vacation, and salaries for two fortnights.

Asked whether workers could expect to be paid the remaining money, George said NIDCO has a duty to complete the construction of the highway using whatever money remained for the project since OAS’ departure. If the cost of the highway’s completion turns out to be less than the contracted amount, the difference would be used to offer further redress to workers.

I was a primary school teacher for 20 years and this is the first time I am hearing that the lunch break is “teachers’ time.” As far as I can recall, teachers and principals are on duty from the time they sign that register on a morning until they exit the school on afternoons. What has happened to that concept of “child-centred education?”

HARRY PARTAP Tableland

It added that at the same time it was affirming its ‘A-2’ short term sovereign credit ratings and lowering its transfer and convertibility assessment to ‘A’ from ‘AA-’. In making the changes, Standard & Poor’s said the country’s debt burden increased sharply since 2014, amid the economic recession and while government introduced austerity measures to reduce fiscal imbalances, it expects budget consolidation to be slower than initially anticipated and interest costs to be higher .

The highly respected agency said that maintaining its stable outlook reflected its expectation that the local economy will recover modestly in 2017 – 2020 based on higher natural gas prices and production, supporting deficit reduction and the stabilisation of the debt burden. It continued that the downgrade reflected further deterioration in the country’s debt burden, including a higher- than-expected rise in net general government debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the interest burden over 2017-2020 .

Its analysis said that Trinidad and Tobago’s economic recession stemmed from low oil and gas prices in global markets, disruptions in domestic production (due to plant shut-downs for maintenance and infrastructure upgrades), as well as ongoing US dollar shortages from the banking system .

It said that preliminary estimates indicated output declined by 2.3% in 2016, after falling 0.6% in 2015, as output in the energy sector dropped by 9.6%. This, in turn, affected the non-energy sector, which declined by 1.8% .

According to the agency, “Our measure of economic wealth– GDP per capita–has continuously dropped since 2013, and we expect it to be $16,346 in 2017 .

Trend growth in real per capita GDP, of 0.7% (average 2011- 2020), remains below other countries with similar GDP per capita .

We expect domestic natural gas production to rise in 2017-2018 amid fewer planned plant shutdowns and as new gas fields come on stream, particularly from the start-up of the Juniper field facility in third-quarter 2017. We expect global oil and gas prices to slightly increase following the agreement between OPEC members to restrain oil supply.” Economist at UWI, St Augustine campus Professor Anthony Birchwood said he was not surprised the country was downgraded as this was was inevitable. He added that all major producers of oil in the world have been downgraded so it’s not a funny thing that we had to be downgraded at some point in time because the oil prices continue to be low for an extended period of time so the whole economy is adjusting downwards .

He said the move downward from ‘BBB+’ to ‘A-’ does not mean that the sky will fall .

He said the economy is still strong “because we have healthy foreign reserves and I think that is what is propping it up. We have a healthy foreign exchange reserve and therefore we will not be written off and we will not be reduced to the status of junk bonds like some other countries.” He said the country had sovereign savings in the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF) and healthy foreign exchange reserves of more than a year while the standard for CARICOM countries was three months of import cover .

He added that even if the country was downgraded, it was downgraded because of its dependence on oil which has suffered a true and sustained depression in the oil prices. According to Professor Birchwood, “I think we have enough still, if we carefully manage our foreign exchange reserves and that is the key now – to carefully manage the foreign exchange reserves and don’t arbitrarily invest in things that will lose our foreign exchange reserves. So we have to be very careful from now on what we do.” Standard and Poor’s is projecting that the oil price will rise to U.S $ $50 per barrel this year, up from U.S $ $45 and the price of natural gas at Henry Hub will increase to U.S$ $3.00 per million metric British thermal units (mmmBtu) from US$2.75 .

She made this declaration as she laid the Vision 2030 document of the Dr Keith Rowley administration in the House of Representatives yesterday.

Informing MPs that this document involved hundreds of hours of consultation with key stakeholders and Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie was one of the persons who took part in those consultations, Robinson-Regis stated, “The document that emerged thereafter was not a PNM document, it was a TT document because it represented the hopes and aspirations of all the citizens of TT.

She explained that no country could hope to achieve sustainable progress, “if successive governments, without good reason and alternatives, abandon the carefully and collaboratively constructed vision of their predecessors.” Praising the “true patriots” in her ministry who prevented the PP from destroying all of the Vision 2020 documents, Robinson- Regis said the draft national development strategy outlined in Vision 2030 will be subjected to the scrutiny of a parliamentary joint select committee (JSC).

She said the House will debate the document once the JSC completes its deliberations on it. Robinson- Regis was confident that once this exercise is done, it will “mitigate against the prospects of any succeeding government abandoning the country’s developmental process.” She was hopeful that Vision 2030, “will be the blueprint for national growth, irrespective of which administration occupies the seat of Government.”