Category Archives: corruption

corruption, Drug Trade, General T&T, Money Laundering, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Security

Bridging the credibility gap

By Derren Joseph
December 13, 2011

Derren JosephTransparency International’s 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranks Trinidad and Tobago in position 91 out of 183 countries–falling from a 2010 rank of 73. Remember this is a temperature check of how corrupt we perceive our own public sector to be. So if you are a statistician; walk away–it is not a rigorous quantitative research methodology. If you are a politician, listen-up, as perception drives voting patterns. On one hand, it can be argued that this cannot be completely blamed on the present administration because it reflects a consistent slide from 2001 when we were ranked at 31.
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corruption, Finance, General T&T, Media, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics

Bacchanalian Budget Debate

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 25, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIt’s either I am crazy or the Prime Minister is going mad. She stands up in Parliament and maligns her citizens. When she is confronted she refuses to accept responsibilities for her actions. Defenseless citizens are left at her mercy. Then, the press either defends them or maligns them further. In a good season, the press may then point out that a mistake has been made and call upon the authorities to rectify it.
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corruption, Finance, General T&T, India, Media, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch

Joan Yuille-Williams on Scholarship Fund

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Following is Joan Yuille-Williams’ full statement:

Joan Yuille-WilliamsAs the former minister of community development, culture and gender affairs with the responsibility for the Financial Assistance Fund which is now the subject of salacious, misguided and uninformed comment, I wish to state the following fundamental facts for the general public’s information, even as I pursue my option for robust legal action to assert the truth unequivocally:
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Complaints, corruption, Court, Crime in T&T, Culture, Finance, General T&T, India, Integrity Commission, Law, Media, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch, UNC

PNM SCANDALS

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Budget presentation in Parliament at the Waterfront Complex, Port of Spain - October 10, 2011
Budget presentation in Parliament at the Waterfront Complex, Port of Spain - October 10, 2011

By Clint Chan Tack
October 18 2011 – newsday.co.tt

PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday dropped several bombshells in the House of Representatives, exposing what she described as major corruption scandals which took place under the former People’s National Movement (PNM) government.
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corruption, General T&T, Media, Politics, Sports

Jack Warner responds to London Telegraph video

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LEFT: Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, FIFA president Sepp Blatter and former FIFA president João Havelange at the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation's Centennial Dinner held at the Dr. Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence, Macaya on September 05, 2008
LEFT: Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, FIFA president Sepp Blatter and former FIFA president João Havelange at the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation's Centennial Dinner held at the Dr. Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence, Macaya on September 05, 2008

Jack Warner responds to London Telegraph video: Ingratitude worse than witchcraft

October 18, 2011
guardian.co.tt

Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has responded to the video recording of his CFU meeting in Port-of-Spain which was highlighted in the London Telegraph last Thursday. In the following letter which was sent to the Guardian, Warner points out that the recording fell flat despite the pressures of foreign interpretation and the anti-Jack Warner sentiments. Warner also gives an insight as to what can be expected when he reveals his tsunami against FIFA ‘in the fullness of time.’
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Caribbean, Complaints, corruption, General T&T, International, Law, People's Partnership, Politics

Unlimited Liability

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By Raffique Shah
October 15, 2011

Raffique ShahNOT surprisingly, Jack Warner is back in the international news—for all the wrong reasons. When he resigned as one of the most powerful men in FIFA earlier this year, Warner probably thought he had buried his past in the murky waters of Lake Zurich.

But that was not to be. FIFA is not the kind of “brotherhood” from which principal players simply walk away. If or when they do, they are expected to maintain “omerta”, the ancient Sicilian code of silence that FIFA has cleverly combined with the Swiss code of banking secrecy.
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corruption, Crime in T&T, General T&T, International, Law, Media, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, Police, Politics, Sports

PNM, COP on Jack video: PM must address issue now

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By Gail Alexander
October 13, 2011 – guardian.co.tt

Jack WarnerThe Opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) and the Congress of the People (COP), a coalition partner in the People’s Partnership, have called on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to immediately act in the issue concerning taped statements by Works and Infrastructure Minister Jack Warner. PNM MP Amery Browne said Persad-Bissessar must immediately suspend Warner from the Cabinet and allow a police probe to proceed. COP chairman Joseph Toney, who said he was not at all comfortable with the situation pertaining to Warner, added that the Prime Minister must speak about the issue and the country must be told whether any laws were broken.
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corruption, Education, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics

The Mis-Education of Tim Gopeesingh

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 20, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeDr. Tim Gopeesingh, Minister of Education, is a gynecologist by training. He is not an educator. At the very least, his response to my inquiry proves his mis-understanding about how a Minister of Education functions. Anyone who has been following this controversy (See “Probe SEA Results” in the July 13 issue of and my subsequent letter to the Minister of Education, July 17 Trinidad Mirror) knows that I only sought to bring to the Minister’s attention the statistical improbability of 14 students from one class placing within the first one hundred students in the recent SEA examinations.
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corruption, Education, General T&T, Politics

Letter to Minister of Education on SEA Results

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July 14, 2011

Dr. Tim Gopesingh, Minister
Ministry of Education,
Port of Spain
Trinidad

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeDear Dr. Gopeesingh:

I am sure that you were pleased as I was to learn that 14 students from one class in the Chaguanas Government School placed among the top one hundred students in the recent SEA Examination. Initially, my instinct was to accept the result and to applaud the exemplary teaching that takes place in that school; that is, until allegations of cheating were brought to my attention. Although I wanted to disregard this unfortunate conclusion, my desire for fairness led me to contact a statistician from William Patterson University in New Jersey, USA, and a mathematician from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, to determine the statistical possibility of such a result occurring.
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corruption, England, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Sports

Think the unthinkable

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By Raffique Shah
June 26, 2011

Raffique ShahLAST December, after the FIFA voted on hosts for the 2018 and 2022 football World Cup, I wrote a column in which I suggested that Jack Warner might have exposed Trinidad and Tobago to negative fallouts in international relations because of the perception that he had reneged on promises made to the US and Great Britain.
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