Daily Archive: Friday, May 6, 2016

Ministers of Natural Resources, Public Infrastructure and Business, Raphael Trotman, David Patterson and Dominic Gaskin respectively (left to right), engaged in extensive discussions with high level ExxonMobil officials and executives over a two-day visit to its Houston headquarters, a release from the Ministry of Natural Resources said.

In Financial Paper Three lodged in the National Assembly on Wednesday, the government is seeking approval for supplementary provisions for the payment of $102m to the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) for matches hosted here last year.

The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s (GPHC) Burns Care Unit (BCU) has acquired advanced equipment, donated to the facility by Canadian-based Caribbean North Charities Foundation Guyana (Guyana Burn & Health Care Charity), GINA said today.

On May 2, a small fire at the Onverwagt Substation that was quickly extinguished caused damage to the distribution switchgear and control components.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – Comedian Arsenio Hall has filed a defamation lawsuit against the singer Sinead O’Connor, who accused him of supplying drugs to music legend Prince, whose death on April 21 has prompted speculation about an overdose.

Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman today made a payment to the National Insurance Scheme consequent upon a news item appearing in today’s edition of Stabroek News. 

(Trinidad Guardian) Generous Trinidadians have responded to an appeal by Guyanese national Kumar Shivpersaud to help send the body of his murdered friend and countryman Khemraj Persaud back home for burial.

Investments by the NIS in the troubled Berbice Bridge company and others which have left the Scheme in a dire condition were decided not by the board but by the Cabinet of the former PPP/C government.

Contributors who have been submitting monthly returns but have not been paying over deductions and their portion of contributions owe the National Insurance Scheme over $2.5 billion.

The National Insurance Scheme (NIS) office at Corriverton which was built in 2011 for $69.9m was later valued at $37.9m and the construction was rife with problems and saw direct intervention by the Office of the President.

The tables were turned on Wednesday when former Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee pilloried his successor over crime and told the National Assembly that the APNU+AFC government had fallen short of all the promises made and initiatives created to improve public safety and security.

Justice Roxane George on Wednesday granted an interim order preventing the Mayor and City Council from removing a stall which is located at the former Guyana Stores Limited (GSL) Bond on Water Street.

The family of Nafasi Edghill has many questions over what has been described as an accidental killing for which a friend, Seon Stoll was taken into custody and charged with manslaughter on Tuesday.

A Guyanese woman who was held at JFK Airport in New York in November 2014 with around 30 lbs of cocaine is currently serving a sentence of 27 months.

New GPC (NGPC) is facing increasing competition from other drug suppliers since the new APNU+AFC government shook up procurement arrangements.

On Wednesday, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) took an important step towards placing its resources at the disposal of small businesses and sister business support organisations, staging of a forum designed to determine how the chamber can work with them to determine their needs and how those can be satisfied.

The celebratory environment–occasioned by its coincidence with the fiftieth anniversary of Guyana’s attainment of independence–will not detract from the organizers’ focus on realizing the critical objectives of Guyana’s most important trade fair for local and international businesses, Event Coordinator Tameca Sukhdeo-Singh has told Stabroek Business.

The family members of an 82-year-old woman who was struck down by a canter are trying to come to grips with the loss of their loved one.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC- Organisers of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) are disputing statements from top government ministers in Guyana that Trinidad and Tobago  have been chosen to host the finals of the CPL.

Buxton United secured their third win in the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Stag Beer Elite League, edging 10-member Monedderlust FC by a 3-2 margin yesterday at the Leonora Sports Facility on the West Demerara.

Qualfon on Tuesday announced that it will move its contact centre operations, currently located at Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara (ECD), to the company’s newly built facility at Providence, East Bank Demerara.

It is the easiest thing in the world to take sides in the prevailing brouhaha between the Georgetown City Council and the vendors who ply their trade in the area of the Stabroek Market following what turned out to be the forcible removal of the vendors from areas where – in some cases – they had been trading for several years.

Business Cartoon

(Trinidad Guardian) Test cricket returns to T&T with the fourth and final Test match against India being staged at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain, from August 19-24.

The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) was yesterday scrambling to have works completed on a vacant lot for dozens of vendors removed from Stabroek Square even as two government ministers on Wednesday called for a “humane approach” to the situation.

By Valrie Grant Entrepreneur, Managing Director, GeoTechVision Last week I highlighted several major elements which are considered important to the generation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Dear Editor, Red Thread condemns the treatment meted out to the Stabroek  Market vendors by the Mayor and Town Clerk of the Georgetown City Council.

Top of the table matches will highlight the GFF Stag Beer Elite League today when leader Slingerz tackles second place Fruta Conquerors and third positioned Alpha United oppose fifth- place Guyana Defence Force (GDF).

The firm which audited the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) last year said that some of its buildings are in a dire state and its head office should be closed temporarily for repairs.

Gold Prices for the three-day period  ending Thursday May 5, 2016

Hundreds of persons turned up yesterday at Highbury, East Bank Berbice to celebrate the 178TH Anniversary of the arrival of indentured labourers from India.

Dear Editor, I note with great interest the Attorney General’s intention to table new legislation to repeal and replace the current Insurance Act of 1998.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Claudio Ranieri re-named himself The Thinkerman yesterday as he reflected on masterminding Leicester City’s improbable rise from relegation candidates to Premier League champions.

Davenand Dhandhari, 18, charged in connection with a murder, last week sat one of his first CAPE Examinations at the New Amsterdam Prison.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC- Jamaica’s sports Minister Olivia Grange says she is delighted that her countryman Wes Morgan played an integral role in “creating this moment in history” after Leicester City captured the prestigious English Premier League for the first time on Monday.

Dear Editor, Two days after my withdrawal on Wednesday April 20, as representative of the Guyana Bar Association from the Commission of Inquiry into the events at the Georgetown Prisons, Mr James Patterson, Chairman of the Commission issued a press statement.

CAMBRIDGE – Just 13 years after the successful completion of the Human Genome Project, the power of genomics applications to spur innovation is already becoming apparent.

(Jamaica Observer) – Both the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) and the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) have given notice of fraudulent emails in circulation which purport to give advice on funds being held which are available for collection.

(Reuters) – Challenger Amir Khan readily accepts that he is a huge underdog for his WBC middleweight title clash with Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in Las Vegas tomorrow but has promised to give his much bigger opponent “a boxing lesson”.

Dear Editor, It is with shock and horror I witnessed the conduct of an official of the Guyana Veterans Legion on May 1, 2016 at the Guyana Veterans Legion Hall on Carifesta Avenue in front of 149 attendees.

With the niche in the souvenir sector arising out of Guyana’s Fiftieth Independence Anniversary celebrations providing a potentially sustainable market for the local art and craft industry, local artist Irene Bacchus-Holder has told Stabroek Business that she believes the anticipated surfeit in jubilee souvenirs and the market that it can create in the Guyanese diaspora can be “a new beginning” for an industry which, up until now, is still to realize its potential.

Dear Editor,  Mr Jerome Khan asked the question, “Where was the good old Captain, when the Timehri Airport was being renamed…?” 

Local company packaging company Caribbean Container Inc (CCI) declared a profit after tax of $144.1 million at the end of 2015, a figure, it says, that represents a 227% increase on its after-tax profit at the end of 2014.

Dear Editor, It is not my orientation to give credence to the constant harangue of the Guyana Times and its surrogates within the Ramroop Media Group directed towards Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and other well known select members of the Coalition Government’s cabinet.

PARIS, (Reuters) – A big question mark hangs over Vincenzo Nibali’s form as the 2014 Tour de France champion targets a second Giro d’Italia title when the three-week race starts today.

(Trinidad Guardian) – Colonial Life Insurance Company Ltd posted profits of $5.2 billion at the end of December 2014, according to the company’s latest financial statements.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil’s Supreme Court removed the speaker of the lower house of Congress yesterday on charges of obstructing a corruption investigation, days before an impeachment process that he engineered was expected to oust President Dilma Rousseff.

(Jamaica Observer) Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) is to retrofit an area of its Piarco International Airport by July, to improve accommodation for Jamaicans refused entry into the two-island republic.

Dear Editor, I write to share some information in relation to two letters by T Pemberton.

KOLKATA, India, CMC- Global trotting T20 Super star Andre Russell says his ultimate goal is to create a rich legacy in cricket’s shortest format by setting the bar as high as he possibly can.

Stock market updates

CONKLIN/LAC LA BICHE, Alberta, (Reuters) – A catastrophic wildfire that has forced all 88,000 residents to flee Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada exploded tenfold in size yesterday, cutting off evacuees in camps north of the city and putting communities to the south in extreme danger.

Dear Editor, Quite often close attention and sharp rebuke are showered on erring public service institutions. 

In dance: Nadira Shah  entertaining the crowd yesterday. The occasion was Pushpanjali 16 put on by the Indian Commemoration Trust at the Indian Monument Gardens on Church and Camp streets to celebrate the arrival of Indians.

MADRID,  (Reuters) – Exactly four months after succeeding Rafael Benitez and inheriting a Real Madrid side on the brink of institutional crisis, Zinedine Zidane completed the team’s revival by guiding them past Manchester City to the Champions League final.

By John Seeram May is International Internal Audit Awareness Month, and 2016 marks 75 years of existence of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) as a global voice for internal auditing.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Leicester City have shattered the glass ceiling in English football and given fresh hope to all those clubs that usually make up the numbers in the Premier League, Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew said yesterday.

Last Saturday, more than 300 Guyanese gathered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to celebrate Guyana’s Golden Jubilee.

Dear Editor, I welcome President David Granger’s views on the future of the state media in Guyana,  especially when he states that the state media should not be in competition with the private media and as such, the Guyana Chronicle should revert to private ownership.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The Cayman Islands is to introduce genetically engineered mosquitoes to reduce the insect population in the fight against vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika virus.

Politikles