On Wednesday, an autopsy by pathologist Dr Eslyn McDonald Burris revealed a single gunshot wound to the head killed the soldier. The autopsy report did not identity any other injuries on Samaroo’s body.

Yesterday, Snr Supt Jacob told Newsday when he receives the file it will then be submitted to a Coroner and the police will be recommending that an inquest be held to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the soldier’s death.

The top cop described as “reckless”, media reports which suggested the soldier may have been murdered and the scene staged to suggest a suicide. He reiterated that the police have classified the death as suicide.

Newsday understands that Samaroo’s driver as well as two other soldiers, who discovered his body in a dormitory at Camp Cumuto on Tuesday, have submitted statements to Sgt Denoon.

At 7.10 am on Tuesday Samaroo arrived for duty at Camp Cumuto and went to the armoury where he was issued a Sig Saur pistol and an empty magazine. At 9.45 am, a shot was heard from the dormitory and soldiers who rushed to investigate, found the soldier on the ground, holding the pistol in his right hand which was resting on his chest.

He was rushed to the Arima Hospital and transferred to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope where he died at 11.30 pm.

Funeral arrangements were being finalised yesterday. Samaroo was said to be a family- oriented person who had an especially close bond with his daughter.

He had 27 years service in the Defence Force and lived in St Helena.

Officers led by Snr Supt Radcliffe Boxhill and ASP Ajith Persad and including Sgt Anthony Williams and others were involved in the exercises which saw several drug dens being raided as well as several HDC apartments.

Officers were assisted in the exercise from colleagues from Western and North Eastern Divisions.

The detained persons are expected to be placed on several Identification Parades today.

The boys aged 15 and 16 will go before a Princes Town magistrate.

Police said that at about 2.15 pm on Tuesday, taxi-driver Suresh Seujattan was near the junction of New Colonial and Papourie Roads in Barrackpore, awaiting passengers on the Princes Town/Barrackpore taxistand.

The report added that three male students approached Seujattan, 50, and asked to be taken to Princes Town. However, the taxi-driver of Congo Hill, Barrackpore refused and the male students, all dressed in uniform, walked off.

Shortly after, four female students boarded the car and two of the males returned and accosted Seujattan.

There was a verbal confrontation during which the boys cuffed Seujattan on the head and upper body.

The commotion drew the attention of police who went and arrested the two school boys.

Seujattan was taken to the Princes Town Area Hospital where he was treated and discharged.

According to police reports, 35-year-old Kevin Samaroo of Carlsen Field, Chaguanas was reported missing last Sunday to the Chaguanas Police Station, by his wife Crystal Partapsingh.

He was later found at a house in California, Couva. While being questioned by police, Samaroo alleged that he was a victim of kidnapping and robbery. But on further investigations, police found this to be false. They then preferred a charge of wasteful employment of the police’s time.

“The Government doesn’t want that because they criticised it when they were in Opposition but I think it would be good because you would be able to search houses properly and keep people off the streets at certain hours to stop them from burning down houses, from kicking down people’s doors and from killing them in their homes,” she said.

She spoke with reporters yesterday at Empowerment Hall, Maloney where dozens of Spiritual Shouter Baptists gathered to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the passing of the Shouters’ Prohibition Ordinance of 1917 and its repeal in 1951.

“Too much crime in the country, so this is a sad time.

We cannot just commemorate this being the 100th anniversary.

“We want to ask the Government, our country, let us (work together) because detection is low, everything is low and I think we left things go out of hand.” Gray-Burke advocated immediate action to train the children of today to live a morally upright life.

“We have to grab the bull by the horns; not hang people because hanging may not be the answer, and train the little ones from kindergarten right up to adulthood, because we are losing a generation but we’ve got to try to save the one coming up.” Asked if part of the problem in tackling crime involved the police having difficulty prosecuting criminals, Gray-Burke agreed.

“They can’t get a grip because the criminal commits a crime here then runs to another area and hides and commits a crime there too.” The solution? “You have to have a surge in detection. you must be able to detect crimes and then to charge people.

“Also a limited state of emergency would give you added control; criminals wouldn’t be walking about free at all hours,” Gray-Burke declared.

Aimed at promoting a sense of unity among various churches, the all-day event was organised by the National Congress of Incorporated Baptist Organisations and the National Evangelical Spiritual Baptist Faith in conjunction with about ten other groups.

Yesterday’s celebration of Spiritual Baptist Shouter Liberation Day is part of a commemorative year of events which began in November. All events, including one taking place on April 13, were organised by the Spiritual Baptist Shouter Prohibition Ordinance Centenary Commemoration Committee.

Rev Dr Hazel-Ann Gibbs De-Peza, chair of the committee told Newsday, “One day or even one week was not enough to properly mark this occasion.” She said celebrations are about the fact that, “We can come together in public to practise our faith without fear of being arrested by police.” The committee received $20,000 from Government to assist in yesterday’s celebration, an amount with the committee head said was insufficient.

Asked how the day’s activities turned out, given the smaller than expected grant, De-Peza told Newsday, “While we had asked for $1 million and were hoping to get half, we didn’t let the money stop us because we had a job to do. God has been on our side, He has helped us along.” Two weeks from now, the committee will host a Youth Explosion at NALIS, Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain.

This was one of several irregularities cited in the Auditor General’s Report of September 30, 2014 into the Health Ministry.

This report was also the subject of a public hearing held earlier in the week by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) at Tower D of the Port-of-Spain International Waterfront Centre.

During the hearing, Government Senator Dr Lester Henry expressed concern about questionable expenditure in the renal- dialysis programme from 2014 to 2015, saying companies which existed in 2015 had been nonexistent in 2014.

The Auditor General’s Report indicated there was no evidence of approval being given after November 22, 2013 by the Kamla Persad-Bissessar Cabinet for the payments to private institutions and health care providers for renal dialysis.

In response to a question from Independent Senator Jennifer Raffoul, Director of Health Policy (Research and Planning) Lawrence Jaisingh said checks showed that two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which entered into memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with the ministry did not exist.

The report said MOUs with six non-profit institutions and relevant site visits required to facilitate verification of the use of funds totalling $10,850,259 for intended purposes were not produced.

The Auditor General also said lease agreements were not provided for nine properties, for which monthly payments of $1,251,194.74 were made. A duly signed contract with Nipdec, for the construction of an outpatient clinic building at the Mt Hope Women’s Hospital at a cost of $79,333,202.05, was not provided.

Contracts between the ministry and Nipdec for upgrade works at the C40 Building in Chaguaramas, valued at $437,102.15, were not produced for audit.

In terms of physical investments, payments totalling $3,418,771.86, relating to the Hospital Enhancement and Development Programme were incorrectly charged to Physical Investments, in contravention of Financial Regulation 65 (1).

Status reports on the expansion of the maternity ward at the Sangre Grande Hospital ($650,823.50) and the purchase of ethylene oxide sterilizer by the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA), were not provided. Two projects shown as 100 percent complete on the overall status report as at September 30, 2015, were shown as ongoing on the individual reports.

The Auditor General also said the number of contract employees at the ministry increased from 391 in 2013 to 735 in 2014. The total salaries paid to contract employees increased from $117,992,023 in 2013 to $127,154,294.84 in 2014.

Responding to a question from Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie about them, Health Ministry Permanent Secretary Richard Madray replied, “I don’t think that there is a reasonable explanation.” Tewarie posed his question to Madray and other ministry officials during a public inquiry at Tower D of the Port-of-Spain International Waterfront Centre.

He asked whether this situation could have been the result of system failure, sabotage or poor monitoring. Ministry project manager Ronald Koylass said the problems with the scanners at each of the hospitals could have been the “combination of some of those things.” On Tuesday, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh outlined what was being done to remedy the scanner problems.

Koylass also said bio-medical engineering units at each of the country’s regional health authorities (RHAs) had a responsibility to monitor medical equipment at each RHA. When Tewarie asked if a failure to monitor led to the CT scanner problems, Koylass replied, “I am not saying that.” While admitting that medical equipment was always vulnerable to breakdowns, Koylass said there should be, “monitoring of service contracts and the provision of quality service being provided on major medical equipment equipment.” Tewarie said this was important in light of close to $16 billion being allocated to the health sector from 2015 to 2017. Koylass also told Tewarie two new air-conditioning units at the Sangre Grande Hospital would be installed this fiscal year.

Madray told PAC members about the need for “a strong centre” within the health sector. He said the absence of this had the “potential for dysfunction and even the potential for chaos,” as the different RHAs would act independently of each other. He also said different RHAs paid different rates for the same position.

Without making direct reference to the recent protest action, The UWI yesterday said “students and staff are our primary stakeholders.” Therefore an Operationalisation Committee was reconvened which comprised representatives from all stakeholder groups, including key administrative departments and the President of the Guild of Students.

“This Committee will be expanded to include additional student representatives, for example, the Head of the Law Society, as well as other faculty student leaders.

All students, by way of the Guild of Students, are statutorily part of every decision- making body at UWI.

The Operationalisation Committee will prepare an implementation strategy, inclusive of widespread internal consultation,” The UWI stated.

He spoke on Wednesday at a seminar organised by the Employers Solution Centre, a division of the Employers’ Consultative Association (ECA), at the Trinidad Hilton, St Ann’s.

Rousseau said another issue that would arise when the matter reaches the Industrial Court was whether charges listed in the dismissal letter were sufficient to warrant dismissal. He said it was one thing to find a worker guilty but there is an emerging view in industrial relations that the length of an employee’s service should be considered when deciding on disciplinary action.

The seminar was one in the ECA’s series on Landmark Court Judgements and its theme was, ‘Compensation for Emotional Distress.’ Rousseau said wherever possible, companies should have an investigation as well as a properly organised disciplinary hearing. He said the two are not interchangeable and in many instances where the Industrial Court has found that the dismissal of the worker was harsh, oppressive and contrary to the principles and practices of good industrial relations, it was in the absence of such hearings and where there were procedural errors.

He stressed that another important factor was the issue of the right of the worker to be heard before disciplinary action was taken, delighting the audience of industrial- relations practitioners with the biblical story of Cain and Abel.

He said even God, who knew everything and knew that Cain was guilty, nevertheless asked him for an explanation of why he had killed his brother Abel, before passing sentence.

The seminar examined the case of Dr Jacqueline Shafe, who was dismissed as a specialist medical officer with the North West Regional Health Authority on March 21, 2011. The matter was taken to the Industrial Court by the Banking Insurance and General Workers’ Union.

Industrial relations officers at the seminar heard presentations from attorney Keith Scotland, who represented the union in the matter; Senior Counsel Seenath Jairam; Rousseau; attorney Newton George and attorney and industrial-relations consultant Aisha Kujifi.