Elaborating on his decision to Newsday, Ford said, “I have been contemplating this a little while now. I was given a chance (to serve) when I was a young man…I was 26 years old.” Ford, who celebrated his 66th birthday last Tuesday, said his decision to resign was not based on any health issues, but rather, “The party has to do succession planning. The next election (local government) is 2019, the (PNM) internal election is 2018.” Ford said Prime Minister and PNM political leader Dr Keith Rowley “understands my position.” He reiterated, “It has nothing to do with the party.You know I love my work, you know I love my party.” Given his age and the years of service he has given to the PNM, he said the time was right for him to retire from politics, and people should never adopt a position that they are in any position for life., and just as he was given an opportunity to serve as a young man, now was the time for someone else to be given the same opportunity.

“You have to give the party a chance and not spring somebody new.

You have to do it from now.” PNM assistant general secretary Daniel Dookie will act as general secretary after Ford steps down on February 15 until the party holds its next convention.

Since joining the party in March 1968, Ford said, he has been privileged to serve under all four of its political leaders (Dr Eric Williams, George Chambers, Patrick Manning and Rowley). Ford said he was not taking up any government job but will remain a very active member of the PNM.

“Of course, why must I leave something that I built? My father was a foundation member, a close associate and friend of Dr Williams.” Since joining the PNM in 1968, Ford served in several capacities before becoming general secretary in 2010. These included MP for Arima (1981-1986); Mayor of Arima (1980-1981); communications specialist in the Office of the Prime Minister (1992 to 1995); communications officer in the Opposition Leader’s Office (1996- 2001); and analysis and research officer (2001-2002)

The proposal followed a meeting between the OWTU’s central executive led by president general Ancel Roget and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair.

The meeting focused on the restructuring of Petrotrin and lasted for approximately one and a half hours. It came almost a month after strike action was averted at Petrotrin.

The OWTU called off the strike after Petrotrin offered a five percent interim wage increase for the period 2011 – 2014, half of what was demanded by the union.

In a media release, the union noted that on December 29, it submitted a detailed proposal outlining the need for urgent restructuring of Petrotrin and that yesterday’s meeting was the, “first of a number of meetings to come, to deal with the issue.” “At today’s (yesterday) meeting, the Prime Minister proposed that a seven member Committee be established to deal with and make recommendations for the best option for restructuring of Petrotrin going forward. This Committee will determine the best model for the eventual restructuring of the state-owned oil company,” the OWTU release stated.

“The OWTU was invited to submit two members to sit on the proposed restructuring committee,” the union stated. Efforts to contact Roget for a comment yesterday were unsuccessful.

Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young and Minister of Planning and Development Camille Robinson-Regis were present at the meeting yesterday.

“You should be more progressive in your thinking and stop behaving as if we are still under colonial power,” Moonilal said during yesterday’s debate on the motion to adopt the report of the Joint Select Committee (JSC) appointed to consider the Tax Information Exchange Agreement Bill, 2016, known as the FATCA bill, in the House of Representatives.

Claiming “a global tidal wave” was washing against FATCA, Moonilal said, “Maybe it is being led by the Member of Siparia (Kamla Persad-Bissessar) who had the ‘Fenwickian audacity’ to stand up and ask the Trump administration” if they were keeping their election’s campaign promise to repeal FATCA. He quoted the Wall Street Journal as saying that a tiny island did what several global big shot leaders could not do.

“When the Member of Siparia did that, they laughed,” he said, “saying, ‘You think Trump taking on you’?” Noting that roughly eight million American working overseas have been hit by FATCA, Moonilal said that some foreign banks have responded by not accepting American customers.

He noted, too, that because FATCA was hurting Caribbean economies, a number of prominent Caribbean citizens including Dr Kenneth Hall, Owen Arthur, Dr Richard Bernal and Dr Compton Bourne met yesterday in a seminar in New York to look at the effects of FATCA and what should be done.

Government should follow that type of thinking, he said, instead of trying to pass bad law hurriedly.

On the JSC report, he said, the Opposition believed that it should be accepted as an interim one, and he proposed an amendment to the motion that will allow the work of the JSC to be extended to complete its work.

The three Opposition members on the JSC, he said, did not have the opportunity to submit a minority report and also was unable “in good time, to consider a final draft.” On February 3, when Finance Minister Colm Imbert declared that a report would go to the house – whether final or interim, Moonilal said, “we are very accustomed that when an interim report comes, we asked for an extension.” However, he said that the February 3 announcement purported that the report was going to be a final one and the three Opposition members expressed their concerns through emails.

The Opposition said bill was “important, far-reaching and has the potential to affect the entire financial system” and needs the input of stakeholders and experts, including the Law Association, Law Faculty, Unit Trust, Ansa Merchant Bank and Association of TT Insurance Companies (ATTIC).

Also, they had not known of any February 28 deadline, even as they complained that a February 10 deadline for public consultation was too short.

This after diagnostic testing found specific skill gaps among the students in Mathematics and English Language Arts including Creative Writing. The statement said the testing found there were 2,478 students with deficits in English Language; 2,619 with shortcomings in Mathematics and 1,794 with deficits in both English Language and Mathematics.

Minister of Education, Anthony Garcia, said the Form One Initiative was conceived in response to data from the 2016 Secondary Entrance Assessment Examination (SEA) which identified several students who were about to enter the secondary school system but had numeracy and literacy deficits.

He said these students were found in 56 secondary schools in the country’s seven education districts.

The Ministry of Education said it had conducted teacher training to equip the teachers with skills and strategies to help students fill the knowledge gap and had also provided training workshops with principals, teachers, school supervisors and district teams aimed at sensitising them to the various needs of the students as well as their role in re-tooling the students.

Garcia said, “We are in the business of education and it is our mandate to ensure that every child in this country, who is of school age, has an opportunity to access quality education. If we are to ensure that our children benefit from the quality education that we are supposed to give to our students, there must be certain things in place.”

In 2013, the Kamla Persad-Bissessar- led Government, he said, “signed onto the Global Forum and committed Trinidad and Tobago – as they did with FATCA with the United States in 2013 – to comply with 15 other versions of FATCA with 15 other countries in the European Union.” Speaking to the motion in the House of Representatives yesterday, to adopt the Joint Select Committee (JSC) on the Tax Information Exchange Bill, 2016 to make TT FATCA compliant, Al Rawi said, “The Global Forum is going to be determining in a matter of a couple of days – between February 20 and 24 in France – a fast track mechanism to do exactly what we are doing under the Tax Information Exchange Act for the Global Forum.” From 2013 to 2015, the past administration, he said, did not do “a shred of work” on the issue.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert, he said, had to approach the Global Forum to say Government was in default, and seek a way out.

To this end, he said, the Global Forum has invited Government to a meeting in France to figure out an accelerated forum.

“If we don’t have it in place by June 2017, crapaud smoke the national pipe,” he said.

Commenting on the JSC report, Al Rawi said, “We have done everything possible – everything possible to come up with a law that meets the scrutiny of members.” Opposition Senator Gerald Ramdeen, he said, complimented Imbert for the management of the JSC, and the verbatim report shows fulsome agreement on the minutes, the round robin process, and engagement with the public.

He said he was not schedule to speak but because of Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal’s contribution, which he did not agree with he spoke. “It was supposed to be one speaker on each side of the House, he said.

Unlike the Opposition that was not aware of the deadline for compliance, Al Rawi said, “The country knows that the deadline for demonstrations of commitment was February 2017.” The PNM administration was committed to the course of action, he said, because the last government elected to go down this route.

The government is seeking to take over management of the community centres under a new policy, but village councils have decided to fight back and have threatened a class action lawsuit in which it intends to petition a High Court judge to declare that the lands on which 50 community centres were built are worth millions of dollars given to them since 1930, and to take over management of the community centres is in effect taking away the lands.

Last week, the villages councils acting together as the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Village Councils (TTAVC), issued a pre-action protocol letter to the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts, warning that their action is illegal and judicial review lawsuit will be filed.

The government through the ministry, last year decided to introduce a Use Policy targeting 40 community facilities throughout the country to take over their management.

The village councils are contending through the TTAVC in their pre-action letter, that the lands are owned by the village councils which were provided as gifts by elders in the respective communities, and therefore, their action is illegal. The government, the TTAVA stated, has refused to consult with them.

The pre-action protocol letter was sent to Community Development, Culture and Arts minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, in which it pointed out that villagers’ great grandparents since the 1950’s, had donated lands to build community centres and unless the TTAVC is consulted, to take over management under the new Use Policy, would amount to attempt to illegally takeover the lands.

Senior Counsel and former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj is representing the TTAVCC. Maharaj drafted the pre-action protocol letter in which he outlined a history of how the first community centres were built in the country. He stated that they were constructed on lands donated by villagers since 1930 in which over 500 villages and community councils throughout Trinidad and Tobago, were established. The TTAVC became the umbrella body with a constitution and was registered as a non-government organisation.

It was approved in 1967 by the then cabinet and rules governing how the TTAVC should manage community centres were introduced. In 1975, government began to provide financial assistance to village councils and the TTAVCC was charged with the responsibility of disbursing the grants to individual village councils for upkeep of the community centres.

The TTAVC has always been in charge of some 50 community centres.

Maharaj, however, stated in his pre-action protocol letter that in May last year, the president of the TTAVC was contacted by telephone by the Policy Coordinator in the ministry, requesting a meeting to discuss arrangements for management of 40 community cacilities and subsequently, an email, inviting to discuss “Interim Use Policy & Guidlines For Community Facilities”. Maharaj pointed out that Section 7.3 of the Use Policy guidlines require community facilities to sign a contract with the ministry for use of the facilities.

The policy, Maharaj explained, contemplates setting up of a Community Facility Management Committee; a Community Development District Supervisor; Facility Tenders Committee; Financial reporting directly to the permanent secretary.

Each of Trinidad’s corporations is to get 100 officers, to improve citizen safety and curb crime across the country.

“This is evidence of true Local Government Reform,” Hosein said.

“We have a sense of urgency to increase our Municipal Police Service as it will fill the gaps in policing and concentrate on community safety and security.” Hwelcomed the Public Service Commission’s nod for this recruitment.

Hosein said the Office of Law Enforcement Policy (OLEP) will support this initiative and will train the recruits on core municipal policing functions.

OLEP intends to use the former Marabella South Secondary School as a training space to provide classroom instruction, drills and defensive training, for eight batches of 30 recruits at a time.

Firearms training will take place at a designated shooting range, by retired police officers and experienced security officials over a four month period.

“The intention is to restructure the Municipal Police Service to become a single entity with regional heads so that there is a greater level of interconnectedness and uniformity in the way each municipality is policed, and to elevate and modernize the standards of protective service at the local government level.” Hosein recently met Minister of National Security, Edmund Dillon, and OLEP head, Keith Renaud, to discuss this exercise in

Sources revealed that the qualifying officer is PC Sherman Maynard who was slain outside Port-of-Spain Prison. His mother Octavia Maynard, is expected to receive the money on his behalf.

Minster of National Security Edmund Dillon confirmed yesterday that five police officers and two prison officers were selected as those who qualified for the $1million payout.

He said of the five police officers killed, relatives of one were able to present all the necessary documents, which have been processed and he expects the payment to the estate of the slain officer to be paid in two to three weeks’ time.

According to Dillon, the documents of the four other police offices and two prison officers are still being processed, and he expects that once this formality is completed payment would be made. He said “We made a promise to honour this payment and it will be carried out. Once the documents are in order and processing is completed we will honour the payment,” Minister Dillon reiterated.

Checks by Newsday revealed that the finance department of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service as well as the Prison Service have received all the necessary documents from the seven families of the slain officers, and every attempt is being made to speed up the process.

On July 24, 2015, Maynard succumbed to wounds at the Port- of-Spain General Hospital after being shot following a prison break at the Port-of-Spain Jail on Frederick Street. Maynard was wounded after three prisoners exited the prison at about 12.30pm on that day, and fired at police officers who were on duty at the time outside the prison.

In April 2016, the Prime Minister said that his government intended to ensure the families of officers killed in the line of duty will receive $1 million in compensation. The Police Social and Welfare Association yesterday welcomed news that monies would be paid shortly to the estate of the five police officers killed in the line of duty. They added that they were pleased to learn that government was honouring its commitment to the payout.

National Carnival Commission officials halted the competition around 6.30 pm to allow the purge, and the Fire Service give the all clear to continue, sometime later.

It was the only hiccup to the event, which got off to a smooth start despite the controversy between Pan Trinbago and the National Carnival Commission.

Pan Trinbago’s secretary Richard Forteau confirmed all was well earlier in the day.

From as early as 8.45 am a small crowd gathered yesterday at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of- Spain, to witness the musical event.

This year’s event saw 30 small, 15 medium and 15 large bands competing to get a spot in the finals, which will be held on 23rd and 25th February.

The Small Bands category started a little after 9 am rather than the scheduled start time at 9 am.

First small conventional band, Fascinators Pan Symphony hit their first note at 9.30 am, playing Kewin Du Bois and Patrice Roberts song Unforgettable, and was off the stage in less than eight minutes.

While each band played their tune to capture the judges’ attention, another band followed quickly behind in order to have a steady flow. The bands played a wide selection of vintage songs, from Austin “Super Blue” Lyons’s 1980 song “Soca Baptist” to Dr Leroy “Black Stalin” Calliste, 1987 “Burn Dem” and “Um Ba Yao” sang by Dennis Franklyn Williams the “Merchant.” As the bands moved quickly into their position, Forteau told Newsday a lot of people questioned why the small band competition was not kept separate from the big bands.

He said, “We know people come out to support and like the big bands. As you can see they have not started to come out as yet and are at home viewing the show on the television. I know by later on in the afternoon we expect to see a much larger crowd. They will come out just around the last five of the small bands.” Forteau further explained that if the show was kept on the day before, it would not have had the amount of spectators they were expecting.

“We would have had nobody here to support the event. Most people are going to come out later.

From what I have seen this morning with respect to the bands and their performances, I am satisfied with the show. We had no problem this morning, and the show was ready to start on time.” A Grand Stand patron from Diego Martin who only gave his name as Kyle said, “I came out early this morning because I enjoy this part of the Carnival season. Even though it is a longer part of the event, I am really enjoying the show.” Natalie Wilson, from Chaguanas said, “I look forward to Panorama every year and I was a little surprise to see that hardly anyone came out this morning to support their culture.

I have no problem with the competition so far and I am here until it ends.” In the North Stand, the crowd grew thicker at around 2.30 pm where several groups of rhythm sections were seen moving the audience with their tempo on the drums.

At the Greens, the usual crowd it would usually attract, was not in sight. One vendor who did not want to give his name said, “Normally over here would be packed with people but this year it is very quite for now. Most of the spectators are in the North Stand, and maybe later on in the evening people will come out to take in the pan.”