Five months after a dagger was wrenched into the heart of our fleeting aspirations for transparency and accountability in Governments buying and selling, our Leaders have returned to dance on the Office of the Procurement Regulator’s (OPR) grave. Unbeknownst to the public, PM Rowley and his Cabinet have clandestinely brought to Parliament an evil far worse than the amendments to
In celebrating the 51st Earth Day, FFOS reflect on environmental management in TT. Earth is our home but for decades our voiceless and vulnerable have been at the mercy of destructive (often) State sponsored projects. Unlike our regional counterparts, we have progressively modernized environmental legislation, funded an Environmental Management Authority (EMA) tasked with the protection of our environment, and initiated the Green
Dear Editor/Newsroom, On 12th April 2021, before a Joint Select Committee, Mr. Ronald Milford, Solid Waste Management Company Limited (SWMCOL) Chairman stated that 95% (700,000 tons) of our country’s waste is dumped annually into landfills. Whilst Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) acknowledge the Chairman’s concerns, SWMCOL has failed in its 40-year existence to develop an adequate garbage sorting
Today Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) have written to Her Excellency, President Paula Mae Weekes (ORTT), appealing to her to not proclaim the Public Procurement and Disposal of Property (Amendment) Bill (2021) until our Government meets with the public to address several concerns raised by numerous independent third parties regarding the purpose/benefit of these amendments. For months the
Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) thank the Minister of Works and Transport for his response to our social media video “Our country is being sold secretly”, dated 12th March 2021 . FFOS appreciate Minister Sinanan’s clarifications but remind him that FFOS never opposed “infrastructural development” but have always advocated for transparency in the sale of State assets and the
Despite persistent warnings by our Auditor General and several independent international agencies, the extractive industry hemorrhage of the public purse continues with Cabinet’s blessings. In two single years, Trinidad and Tobago lost $17.5Billion TTD in Royalties 2010 and 2018 in “price transfers” according to the reputable Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Subsidiary companies were caught selling