UNC Political Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar

Bennie Campbell is coming back. More speeches for Kamla to read from the podium.

Bennie Campbell, American adviser to the Opposition United National Congress (UNC), can now enter the country after being denied entry last week.

The TNTINSIDER learnt today that Campbell will be allowed to re-enter the country to work as political strategist to the UNC.

He was denied entry on Thursday under section 8 of the Immigration Act as an “undesirable”.

It is understood that a foreign visitor can enter the country and work for a maximum period of one month. Such a work permit can only be granted once in a calendar year.

The TNTINSIDER understands that Campbell who remained here for less than two weeks before returning to the US and insists that he came to negotiate a business agreement but never worked.

The US Embassy has demanded an explanation. National Security Minister Martin Joseph has, literally, told them to go jump in the lake.

UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, in a fit of political hyperbole, has described the action against Campbell as disgraceful; and could have serious repercussions for diplomatic relations with the United States.

President Max Richards

Shock waves as Trinis hear about the dissolution of Parliament. Is the Opposition ready for a General Election?

Parliament will be dissolved at midnight.

This stunning new development means that the Prime Minister was not bluffing and there will be a general election next month- on Monday May 17 or Monday May 24- some 30 months before the five-year term.

The surprise announcement comes one day after the PNM began its screening of candidates and at a time when the two other major political parties the United National Congress (UNC) and the Congress of the People (COP)  seems at odds with each other regarding the grand plans to present an united front to confront the ruling party at the polls.

Many PNMites were shocked at this afternoon’s announcement with many constituencies said not to be fully prepared.

The Prime Minister advised the President under Section 68 of the constitution.

The last time Prime Minister Patrick Manning called an early election- in November 1995, he lost the reins of Government when the Democratic Action Congress formed an alliance with the UNC which won the same number of seats as the PNM-17.

That November 6 election ended in a 17-17-2 result.

The dissolution of Parliament means that there would be no sitting of the House of Representatives tomorrow when the main item on the agenda was to have been a motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister.

Vice-chairman Krishna Bahadoorsingh

Krishna Bahadoorsingh, Annisette and other UDECOTT board members who have been steadfastly refusing to resign get the boot. New board to be appointed soon.

The Government has removed the remaining members of the UDECOTT board with the exception of the newly appointed chairman Jerlean John.

Attorney General John Jeremie announced this dramatic new development to a stunned Senate this afternoon when he laid the 512- page report and outlined some of the 91 recommendations made by the two-man Committee into the Construction Sector, UDECOTT and the Cleaver Heights housing project.

Jeremie said that the Professor John Uff Report will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Commissioner of Police for further possible action,

The sacked members of the UDECOTT board are Dr Krishna Bahadoorsingh, vice-chairman, attorney-at-law Anthony Cherry, trade unionist Michael Annisette and Wendell Dottin. Jeremie said that Prime Minister took the decision to fire the board and certain other decisions and that “a reconstituted board will be instituted in short order”.

Board members have been insisting that they would not resign

However, they were severely chastised by the Uff Commission for failing to question the award of a $368 million construction contract to CH Development noting that the board “knowingly exposed the public purse to grave risk….”

The AG stated that the Cleaver Heights housing project and the Brian Lara Stadium would be audited.

Dr Keith Rowley claimed to be vindicated by the Report but the Attorney General felt that he did not see how anyone could be vindicated in the Cleaver Heights issue.

Rowley told a  television station that Jeremie should resign.

Ms John was appointed chairman following the resignation of Calder Hart one month ago.

knighthood of alleged fraudster  R. Allen Stanford. Read more….

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Governor General Dame Louise
Lake-Tack has signed the order revoking the knighthood of
alleged fraudster R. Allen Stanford.
Attorney General Justin Simon confirmed the move, adding that
notice of the revocation would be forwarded to Stanford next
week. He explained that this must be done since the law
prescribes that Stanford must return the insignia.
Stanford was knighted on the recommendation of the main
opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) in 2006, during Antigua
and Barbuda’s Silver Jubilee Independence celebrations.
Moves to strip Stanford of the knighthood began last year
months after he was charged by the United States Securities
and Exchange Commission of perpetrating a US$7 billion Ponzi
scheme that bilked unsuspecting investors.
Stanford who is in jail in the US awaiting trial has denied
any wrongdoing.

Jerome Taylor and Ramnaresh Sarwan are back in the West Indies squad for the World Tenty

20….Read more….

Jerome Taylor and Ramnaresh Sarwan are back in the West Indies squad for the
World Twenty20, having recovered from injury, while Wavell Hinds has been
recalled after being dropped for the recent series against Zimbabwe.
Both Taylor and Sarwan have been out of action since the Test series in
Australia late last year. Taylor pulled up with a hip injury during the first
match in Brisbane, and Sarwan has struggled with a back problem since the end of
the series and wasn’t risked against Zimbabwe last month.
West Indies ended a barren run of form with their 4-1 one-day series against
Zimbabwe, but suffered an embarrassing start to that tour with defeats in
Trinidad in a T20 international and the first ODI at Providence – the venue for
both their group matches against England and Ireland – in Guyana.
However, as they showed in England last year, West Indies have a potentially
explosive mix for Twenty20 and Clyde Butts, the chairman of selectors, is
confident of a strong showing from the team which is now coached by Ottis
Gibson.
“We have Chris Gayle at the top of the order and he can be a match-winner,” he
said. “It is also good to have our experienced players in the middle-order -
Shiv Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan – and this gives us strength in the
batting. Wavell Hinds has been recalled and he brings a wealth of experience. He
is a knowledgeable cricketer and we believe can make a good contribution in the
middle-order as well.”
“Dwayne Bravo is one of the leading allrounders in world cricket and he is the
key man with bat and ball. We are happy to have Jerome Taylor back in the
bowling department and this is a big plus. I also believe Sulieman Benn will
play a major role with the ball. Overall, we have a balanced side with good
all-round strength.
“We are confident our players will deliver on the home stage. If we play as a
unit we have a very good chance of winning the [World Twenty20]. The strength is
in the allround ability of the team.
Gayle, Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Kemar Roach are at the IPL, so will have the
advantage of recent Twenty20 action while some of the other members of the squad
will take part on the Jamaica Cricket Association festival.
Squad Chris Gayle (capt), Sulieman Benn, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul,
Narsingh Deonarine, Andre Fletcher, Wavell Hinds, Nikita Miller, Kieron Pollard,
Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome
Taylor.

Professor John Uff

The much-awaited Professor John Uff Report will be made public on Tuesday when it is laid in the Senate.

Attorney General John Jeremie gave this undertaking today.

Professor Uff handed over his 500-page report which has 91 recommendations to President Max Richards on Monday, some 18 months after the Commission of Enquiry into UDECOTT and the Construction Industry was appointed.

There have been widespread calls for the Report to be made available to the public.

This comes at a time when the ruling party gears up for what may an early general election with screening of potential candidates commencing on Tuesday.

People’s National Movement (PNM) party sources have confirmed that candidates for all 41 constituencies would be screened over the coming weeks. At the party’s special convention on Saturday, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who is also political leader, announced that there would be an early election.

He is insisting that he is not “bluffing” and the PNM is hunkering down to election mode. The theory is that opposition forces would be unable to mobilise in one cohesive force in a short space of time.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning

The Prime Minister drops a bombshell in Chaguaramas. The Opposition forces in Chaguanas were unaware of it.

General elections this year.

This was the clear indication given by Prime Minister Patrick Manning when he addressed the People’s National Movement’s (PNM) special convention this afternoon at the Chaguaramas Convention Centre.

The Prime Minister, the party’s political leader, told thousands of cheering delegates that the opposition had been calling for a general election and he wanted to ask the party to get ready for a general election.

Screening of candidates will begin on April 7 and it will start in his constituency, San Fernando East.

The Prime Minister did not give a date for the election but warned as he has been doing for the past couple of elections that the party will beat the Opposition in all the country’s cardinal points.

The Prime Minister also revealed that the party would be applying to the Commissioner of Police next month for an application to hold a demonstration in Port of Spain on the date when the motion of no confidence would come up in Parliament.

Mr Manning’s election announcement came around 3:15 p.m, towards the end of his address to delegates at the convention called to celebrate the life of Dr Eric Williams, the party’s founder, who died exactly 29 years ago.

He dealt with the Government’s achievements, pointing out that there has been a reduction in cocaine coming to the country with the country’s new radar system and interceptor boats. In a few months, this marked reduction would case a flare up among gangs, he warned.

He said that kidnapping was a thing of the past and claimed that the murder count had dropped.

Meanwhile, the Opposition forces berated the Government at a rally at Saith Park, Chaguanas, unaware of the Prime Minister’s bombshell.

Calder Hart

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which is based in the Attorney General’s office, today continued its search for documents at UDECOTT.

The Tntinsider understands that the Abercromby Streeet, Port of Spain, offices of David Montgomery and Company ,UDECOTT’s auditors, were searched on Wednesday and also yesterday and documents taken away.

David Montgomery, head of the firm, is said to be in the United Kingdom.

The searches of the offices of UDECOTT  at Sackville Street and Sunway International at St Clair Avenue, St Clair, follows serious allegations regarding family links between former UDECOTT executive chairman Calder Hart and CH Development which was awarded a $368 million contract to construct the Legal Affairs towers.

Hart, his wife, Sherrine, and daughter abruptly left the country almost three weeks ago after he resigned from UDECOTT and other State boards.

Hart is still abroad and is being sought by the police.

Calder Hart...missing

At last, some action from the Anti-Corruption Bureau yesterday as they search the offices of UDECOTT and Sunway. Still no sign of Calder Hart.

Too little, too late.

This was the unanimous view of persons polled by a local television station regarding yesterday’s search of the offices of UDECOTT, Sunway International and a visit to Calder Hart’s shuttered home at De Lima Avenue, St Ann’s by officers of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) yesterday.

The policemen left with computers and files from Sunway and also documents from UDECOTT’s offices.

On Tuesday, the ACB interviewed Carl Khan, former husband of Sherinne Hart who first blew the whistle regarding family ties between the Harts and CH Development, which got a $368 million contract to construct the Legal Affairs Towers

CH Development later merged with Sunway.

This search comes almost three weeks after Hart, his wife and daughter literally fled the country, travelling to Miami. His current whereabouts are unclear although he is reported to be in London.

Before he left he resigned as executive chairman of UDECOTT and chairman of several other state boards.

Khan, in a signed affidavit, said that Hart’s wife was related to principals of CH Development. The affidavit was produced at the Professor John Uff Enquiry into UDECOTT and the construction sector and was not challenged by UDECOTT’s battery of high-priced lawyers.

Legal manoeuvres to halt the Enquiry also failed and Professor Uff is expected to deliver his report before Easter.

Following Hart’s departure, the Attorney General announced that Hart was being investigated since September.

The Congress of the People (COP) were able to obtain what seems like incriminating evidence in documents which showed family links in CH Development and the Harts.

The Prime Minister, however, told a press conference that the Attorney General confided that Hart may have a case to answer.

Government spokesmen are admitting that the country is scandalised by the whole affair and some people are pointing to the fact that within 48 hours the Prime Minister could obtain information, albeit inaccurate, about links between Winnipeg and 81-year-old Barataria resident Percy Villafana, the man who prevented him from entering his yard, but after six months there has been no public disclosure of the Hart’s family links with officials of CH Development.

The Government has been denounced on talk shows and other fora and the feeling is that this imbroglio will have a telling effect on the upcoming Local Government elections.

The new Integrity Commission

St Cyr heads new Integrity Commission

Watch out Calder, the new Integrity Commission may soon be on your case. As long as it does not fall apart.

Dr Eric St Cyr, known throughout the Caribbean as a leading economist and academic, is he new head of the Integrity Commission, which an obviously relieved President Max Richards swore in at President’s House this morning.

Gladys Gafoor, a member of the ill-fated Commission which was appointed almost one year ago, is back and is Deputy Chairman.

Other members are Neil Rolingston, who worked with Republic Bank as an economist and was also Chief Executive Officer of PLIDECO and National Flour Mills; Sieunarine Johkoo, former Director of State Enterprises, and academic Dr Anna Maria Bissessar.

Gafoor is a former Industrial Court Judge and has been promoted to Deputy Chairman.

St Cyr spent over a decade in the Senate and piloted motions dealing with the country’s economic development and has published works in this area.

The appointments, hopefully, bring  closure to a disturbing phase in the country’s history where amidst allegations of impropriety in the public sector the country is without an Integrity. The membership of one Commission had to resign in ignominy when they were severely castigated by a High Court judge in the Keith Rowley Landate affair.

When the President assembled another Commission it also fell apart.

The new Commission may very well have to deal with the Calder Hart issue as a matter of priority