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Chaos at Plipdeco warehouse
Radhica Sookraj
Published:
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Calls are being made for the new Government, led by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, to investigate corruption and inefficiency at the Point Lisas Industrial Development Company (Plipdeco) warehouse. The call came as hundreds of customers were turned away from the warehouse yesterday after being told only 65 customers will be serviced a day.
Many of them arrived at the Plipdeco Less than Container Load (LCL) warehouse before dawn, hoping to collect their goods. However, security officers informed them if their names were not on the list, it was best that they went back home. Ramjit Rampersad, who came at the facility at 5.15 am, said he got number 26. However, even up to 11 am, his goods had not been cleared.
“I am still waiting and it is a long process. I don’t know why they are moving so slow. If I had reached here after 7 am, I would not have gotten through. This morning we had about 190 people waiting,” Rampersad said. A port worker, who requested anonymity, said his colleagues were deliberately frustrating the process so they could get bribes from the public.
“If people frustrated they will be more inclined to pay a little bribe to get their goods instead of waiting for days for it to be cleared,” the worker said. Ancil Pierre who was also waiting at the port since 5.30 am said Customs workers should do better than make the public suffer.
“They need to extend the hours. People are taking time off from their jobs to come here. If they are closing at 4 pm, why is it they telling people that they cannot clear their barrels if they come here after 9 am?” Pierre questioned. Saying he was disappointed with the delays, Pierre added it was unfair for people to have to spend two days waiting by the port to clear their goods.
Russel Rudder, who was waiting for his sister to clear goods, said he hoped the new Government would fix the problems at the warehouse. “This has to be more efficient. They need to speed up this process. I am coming from Tunapuna and it should not be taking so long to do one transaction,” he noted.
Mandy Powell of Point Fortin who came to the warehouse to collect goods for a church said she took a day off from work but could not get her business done. “I am hoping that I will get through today. The office at T&T Express opens at 8 am and the Customs officer comes here from 8 am, yet they telling us if we come here after 9 am, they cannot do the transaction,” Powell said.
LCL’s warehouse manager Clint Duncan was not available for comment yesterday. An official from his office took a message and said he would return the call. Plipdeco’s supervisor of corporate communications, Gizelle Crooks, was not in office. Shelly Balkissoon, Plipdeco’s manager, marketing and business, advised that an email be sent on the issue. She said a response would have to be cleared by Plipdeco’s management before being issued.
what is LCL warehouse?
LCL warehouse is a Customs-bonded facility which is located 1.3 km from the port of Point Lisas. The office working hours and yard operations are from 7 am to 3 pm, Monday to Friday with a half hour staggered lunch break between 11 am to 12 noon. The cashier’s office closes at 2.30 pm. (www.plipdeco.com/main/?page=other-management-contacts)
plipdeco responds
Contacted yesterday, the company’s manager of Marketing & Business, Shelly Balkissoon, said there were no delays in clearing barrels at LCL warehouse.
“Today there was an unusually high number of customers. Normally we facilitate an average of approximately 120 to 130 customers per day and this volume is determined by the Customs and Excise Division. This is based on the duration of the screening and examination process which varies based on the type of cargo and as such, the average number can vary and may even be in excess of 130 customers per day,” Balkissoon said.
Asked why 65 to 70 customers were being serviced per day, Balkissoon responded: “This is determined by Customs and Excise. However, within recent weeks, we have successfully facilitated all of our customers.” Denying that workers were on a work to rule, Balkissoon said: “We control the volume of customers at the facility between the hours of 7 am to 3 pm.
“Again, this will vary based on the examination process and the type and quantity of cargo per consignee,” she added, Traditionally, Balkissoon explained that arrangements are made to facilitate the increase in volumes which is normally experienced between the months of October to February.
“We are monitoring the increase to determine if measures should be implemented ahead of this year’s peak season.” With regard to allegations of corruption, Balkissoon said: “We have no information or evidence to support the claim of attempts by Customs officers to obtain bribes. In fact, such allegations can potentially be considered defamatory to the corporation.”
http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2015-09- ... -warehouse
Kamla goes home with no security escort
By AZARD ALI Wednesday, September 9 2015
A Special Branch inquiry is being done into why outgoing Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had no security escort to her home in Phillipine after arriving there in a private car when the official vehicle PM 1 stalled at her Siparia constituency office in Penal early yesterday morning.
After a 30-minute concession speech, following her People’s Partnership Government defeat to the People’s National Movement in Monday’s general election, Persad-Bissessar was taken home without a security detail, as Special Branch officers remained at the constituency office trying to get PM 1 to start. It appeared the ignition failed.
Persad-Bissessar was making her way to a door leading to a downstairs exit when a Special Branch officer informed her the keys to PM 1 were locked in the ignition and the official vehicle could not start.
Persad-Bissessar immediately responded by thanking the officer for “taking care of me”, indicating her family would take her home. The officer, however, asked the outgoing Prime Minister to wait a while until what was described as a minor mechanical problem was solved.
Persad-Bissessar replied: “No, everything is okay, I am with my family.” Another Special Branch officer chipped in, “We called a mechanic; we should get it sort out.” All the while, the driver of PM 1 was seen fiddling with the keys but to no avail. Persad-Bissessar walked downstairs and insisted to the security detail she was happy to be with her family and needed to go and repeated, “I’m okay; I’m with my family.” A white Toyota Axio then backed up in front of PM 1 and Persad- Bissessar got into the back seat.
The car was driven by a supporter and seated in the vehicle also were two of Persad- Bissessar’s relatives.
The white Axio drove off. However, Special Branch officers assigned to the two jeeps for her security detail did not follow and their vehicles remained parked near to PM 1 on the constituency office compound.
An officer from the nearby Penal Police Station then arrived as was allowed to attend to the locked steering wheel and got the keys out of the ignition.
And when another attempt was made, PM 1 started.
The Special Branch officers then got PM 1 and the two jeeps thanking the UNC supporters for helping them. The two jeeps were later seen driving into the compound of the Phillipine home of Persad-Bissessar, but it could not be confirmed whether PM 1 was driven there as well.
A c t i n g P o l i c e Commissioner Stephen Williams yesterday told Newsday he was unaware that Persad- Bissessar was not provided with a police escort to her home when she left her constituency office.
Williams said, “This is the first time I am hearing about this and I need to investigate the matter before commenting.” When contacted again, Williams said he checked with Special Branch and was the officers “did not abandon” the Prime Minister but he has asked head of the Special Branch ACP Earla Christopher for a full report on what happened.
However, a senior police officer told Newsday “police must follow protocol” and officers should have escorted her home. He said Persad-Bissessar would be, according to security protocol, afforded 24-hour security for the next three months.
http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,216753.html
BAD SWEAR-IN
By SEAN DOUGLAS Thursday, September 10 2015
A MIX-UP in protocol yesterday saw new Attorney General, Faris Al Rawi, and new Minister of National Security, Major General Edmund Dillon, each having to take their ministerial oath of office a second time, according to a statement from the Office of President.
At the Queen’s Hall ceremony, the duo were initially and erroneously sworn in before new Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.
President Anthony Carmona administered the oath to Al Rawi at 1.40 pm, to Dillon at 1.42 pm and to Rowley at 1.43 pm.
A source told Newsday that the error was discovered but the proceedings were allowed to run so as not to embarrass the Office of President, but with the two men then later taking the oath a second time away from public glare.
The admission of error came last evening at 6.53 pm in a statement from the Office of the President.
“There was a sequential error in the order of the oath taking at today’s swearing-in ceremony of elected Prime Minister Dr Keith Christopher Rowley, Attorney General Faris Al Rawi and National Security Minister, retired Major General Edmund Dillon, at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s,” said the statement.
“This has been immediately rectified and the Oath of Office was retaken by Mr Al Rawi MP and Retired Major General Dillon MP, and new instruments of appointment were reissued respectively at the Office of The President.
This error does not nullify in any way the oath and appointment of the duly elected Prime Minister.” Sources told Newsday that the second swearing-in occurred “shortly after” the official ceremony, and said that the official statement implied that it took place at President’s House.
Al Rawi told Newsday, “I noticed the order of the taking of the oath and brought it to the attention of the Office of President, and I am pleased that it was handled with immediacy.
I accept that it was a simple administrative error on the part of the organisers at the Office of the President.” Dillon too was unfazed by the mishap. “It was handled by President’s House officials quite comfortably,” he told Newsday.
“Let’s just leave it at that. It’s a President’s House function.” Asked if the mix-up took the sheen off the event, Dillon replied, “Not as far as I’m concerned.
It was handled by the officers at President’s House, and that’s good enough for me.” Fuelling speculation as to how the mix-up could have occurred, Newsday learnt that the Office of the President’s oath-book actually lists correctly the positions to be sworn-in the proper sequential order of firstly Prime Minister, secondly AG and thirdly other minister(s).
In an interview, on Radio i95.5 FM yesterday, President’s House former protocol officer Lenore Dorset said she did not know the current inner-workings of President’s House but said the two office- holders usually responsible for organising events for His Excellency are the Aide-de-Camp and the Secretary to the President.
She advocated the need to follow protocol by saying it is the mortar that holds everything together.
“We must not jump to conclusions in the matter,” she said.
“We have to think about this very carefully. What lessons do we learn? We need to be a little more careful in going over our plan.” Former government chief whip, Dr Roodal Moonilal, was scathing in his criticism which he laid at the feet of the new Government.
“They started on the wrong foot. They blunder at the first point even before becoming ministers,” he told Newsday. “It is common knowledge that the Prime Minister must take his oath first so that his advice can be acted upon to swear in his ministers. So they were swearing all day. It is a sad but symbolic of the incompetence that we expect in the days ahead.” Senior Counsel Israel Khan commented, “The Prime Minister enjoys the status of primus inter pares (“first amongst equals”). The Constitution says there is a Cabinet, comprising a Prime Minister and Attorney General. The Prime Minister is named first as he is the one who will select ministers. How come he was sworn in third? He should have been first.” The need to swear in the Prime Minister as the first member of Cabinet is implied by a reading of the TT Constitution, in section 76.
This section in sequential order mentions the Prime Minister first (s 76(1)), then the AG second (s 76(2)) and other Ministers third (s 76(3)).
http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,216805.html
UML wrote:
desifemlove wrote:UML wrote:
loolol...de man only in office a day, and iz proof these were PNMs? ha...no honeymoon period.
UML wrote:
Hyperion wrote:I callin it first, this government will be the first to lock up ex gov't ministers for corruption and misbehaviour in public office. They will also receive plenty assistance in tracking down all the bribe money hidden in foreign banks.
Rory Phoulorie wrote:UML wrote:
UML, the word is spelt "HYPOCRISY". Lalchansingh is not at all pleased by your illiteracy.
moses_boss12 wrote:Hyperion wrote:I callin it first, this government will be the first to lock up ex gov't ministers for corruption and misbehaviour in public office. They will also receive plenty assistance in tracking down all the bribe money hidden in foreign banks.
For Future LOLZZ
Gate shut on 6 Tobago med students
Date: Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Six medical students, five of them Bishop’s High School graduates, have had their dreams of becoming doctors crushed as they have been told that the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses Programme (GATE) is no longer covering their tuition bill at the University of the West Indies’ Mona campus in Jamaica.
Arlene Perreira, sister of Luke Harris, one of the affected students, told Tobago Today the students discovered GATE was no longer footing their tuition bill only after arriving in Jamaica for the new academic years recently. She said the students had by then long collected their provisional acceptance letter from the university and travelled to the island to start the process for the new semester.
Initially, she said the students were not even told they were not being funded by the Trinidad and Tobago government.
“Only after they insisted that they be told the situation, the students heard from the Jamaican admissions office that GATE was only funding 40 students and they were not even sure if it covered first-year students,” Perreira told Tobago Today.
“The students were offered to either pay their own tuition or begin a degree in science and technology and reapply for the medical degree in their second year.”
Reached via telephone in Jamaica, Harris said the entire situation was “quite stressful” as he is not “sure about anything right now.”
He also said it was “a heavy burden to carry.”
“The situation is made worse as calls to the 800-GATE line indicate that the line is out of order.
“Whenever we call the GATE number we get a recording saying the number is out of service,” he told Tobago Today.
He also said his first attempt to apply to GATE online for tertiary tuition assistance failed because the “site was not working for a few days well.” He said he has since applied online but has also received no reply.
Harris said in the interim he was forced to enter the Science and Technology degree programme and has been told by the Jamaica admissions office that he has to maintain a 3.6 GPA average if he wants to reapply to the medical programme in his second year.
Harris said he was deeply troubled as the GATE funding for his new programme has also not yet been received by the university authorities.
He continues going to class but said if the funding is not received “within the next 3-5 weeks” he will be debarred from taking the first semester exam.
Last week, GATE director Theresa Davidson said students’ fees were paid on the ‘basis of merit.” She alluded to the fact that the opening of the San Fernando Teaching Hospital was now affording Trinidadian nationals the opportunity to stay at home instead of going to Jamaica to study medicine. She said the Government is currently paying US$28,000 annually for five years for 40 pupils at the Mona campus.
Prior to the opening of the San Fernando Teaching Hospital the Government was footing the bill for 50 students annually in Jamaica.
http://www.tobagotoday.co.tt/news/gate- ... d-students
UML wrote:desifemlove wrote:UML wrote:
loolol...de man only in office a day, and iz proof these were PNMs? ha...no honeymoon period.
In 2007, the next morning the URP Couva South office was locked and everyone fired immediately.
The video of this at the same venue this week proves it is common practise.
UML wrote:Anyone who think Jairam Seemungal not winning that seat living in a fool's paradise and in for a pleasant surprise
Habit7 wrote:this doesnt really belong to this thread but I have to draw UML's attention to it.UML wrote:Anyone who think Jairam Seemungal not winning that seat living in a fool's paradise and in for a pleasant surprise
Gate shut on 6 Tobago med students
Date:
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Six medical students, five of them Bishop’s High School graduates, have had their dreams of becoming doctors crushed as they have been told that the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses Programme (GATE) is no longer covering their tuition bill at the University of the West Indies’ Mona campus in Jamaica.
Arlene Perreira, sister of Luke Harris, one of the affected students, told Tobago Today the students discovered GATE was no longer footing their tuition bill only after arriving in Jamaica for the new academic years recently. She said the students had by then long collected their provisional acceptance letter from the university and travelled to the island to start the process for the new semester.
Initially, she said the students were not even told they were not being funded by the Trinidad and Tobago government.
“Only after they insisted that they be told the situation, the students heard from the Jamaican admissions office that GATE was only funding 40 students and they were not even sure if it covered first-year students,” Perreira told Tobago Today.
“The students were offered to either pay their own tuition or begin a degree in science and technology and reapply for the medical degree in their second year.”
Reached via telephone in Jamaica, Harris said the entire situation was “quite stressful” as he is not “sure about anything right now.”
He also said it was “a heavy burden to carry.”
“The situation is made worse as calls to the 800-GATE line indicate that the line is out of order.
“Whenever we call the GATE number we get a recording saying the number is out of service,” he told Tobago Today.
He also said his first attempt to apply to GATE online for tertiary tuition assistance failed because the “site was not working for a few days well.” He said he has since applied online but has also received no reply.
Harris said in the interim he was forced to enter the Science and Technology degree programme and has been told by the Jamaica admissions office that he has to maintain a 3.6 GPA average if he wants to reapply to the medical programme in his second year.
Harris said he was deeply troubled as the GATE funding for his new programme has also not yet been received by the university authorities.
He continues going to class but said if the funding is not received “within the next 3-5 weeks” he will be debarred from taking the first semester exam.
Last week, GATE director Theresa Davidson said students’ fees were paid on the ‘basis of merit.” She alluded to the fact that the opening of the San Fernando Teaching Hospital was now affording Trinidadian nationals the opportunity to stay at home instead of going to Jamaica to study medicine. She said the Government is currently paying US$28,000 annually for five years for 40 pupils at the Mona campus.
Prior to the opening of the San Fernando Teaching Hospital the Government was footing the bill for 50 students annually in Jamaica.
http://www.tobagotoday.co.tt/news/gate- ... d-students
UML wrote:Gate shut on 6 Tobago med students
Date:
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Six medical students, five of them Bishop’s High School graduates, have had their dreams of becoming doctors crushed as they have been told that the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses Programme (GATE) is no longer covering their tuition bill at the University of the West Indies’ Mona campus in Jamaica.
Arlene Perreira, sister of Luke Harris, one of the affected students, told Tobago Today the students discovered GATE was no longer footing their tuition bill only after arriving in Jamaica for the new academic years recently. She said the students had by then long collected their provisional acceptance letter from the university and travelled to the island to start the process for the new semester.
Initially, she said the students were not even told they were not being funded by the Trinidad and Tobago government.
“Only after they insisted that they be told the situation, the students heard from the Jamaican admissions office that GATE was only funding 40 students and they were not even sure if it covered first-year students,” Perreira told Tobago Today.
“The students were offered to either pay their own tuition or begin a degree in science and technology and reapply for the medical degree in their second year.”
Reached via telephone in Jamaica, Harris said the entire situation was “quite stressful” as he is not “sure about anything right now.”
He also said it was “a heavy burden to carry.”
“The situation is made worse as calls to the 800-GATE line indicate that the line is out of order.
“Whenever we call the GATE number we get a recording saying the number is out of service,” he told Tobago Today.
He also said his first attempt to apply to GATE online for tertiary tuition assistance failed because the “site was not working for a few days well.” He said he has since applied online but has also received no reply.
Harris said in the interim he was forced to enter the Science and Technology degree programme and has been told by the Jamaica admissions office that he has to maintain a 3.6 GPA average if he wants to reapply to the medical programme in his second year.
Harris said he was deeply troubled as the GATE funding for his new programme has also not yet been received by the university authorities.
He continues going to class but said if the funding is not received “within the next 3-5 weeks” he will be debarred from taking the first semester exam.
Last week, GATE director Theresa Davidson said students’ fees were paid on the ‘basis of merit.” She alluded to the fact that the opening of the San Fernando Teaching Hospital was now affording Trinidadian nationals the opportunity to stay at home instead of going to Jamaica to study medicine. She said the Government is currently paying US$28,000 annually for five years for 40 pupils at the Mona campus.
Prior to the opening of the San Fernando Teaching Hospital the Government was footing the bill for 50 students annually in Jamaica.
http://www.tobagotoday.co.tt/news/gate- ... d-students
UML wrote:Always a great role model
UML wrote:Always a great role model
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