Tag: news

Letter to the Editor – The State-owned and controlled entities

Sunday, 31st August 2025

The Editor,

The April 2025 election of the UNC govt has triggered convulsions within State-controlled entities, with the replacement of Boards and Management being the main issues, most recently in the case of First Citizens’ Bank (FCB) in which the State is the majority shareholder.

The Finance Ministry is entirely within its legal rights to change the Boards of State-controlled entities, subject of course to compliance with the Central Bank’s ‘Fit & Proper’ rules and the requirements for an Extraordinary General Meeting. 

That said, there are a few additional perspectives to consider, flowing from the PM’s outright, repeated declarations that the State is the majority shareholder in both FCB and Republic Bank Ltd – 

  • Republic Bank’s Board – We are witness to the sudden replacement of FCB’s CEO and its entire Board, so are we now therefore to expect that the Republic Financial Holdings’ CEO and Board is to be similarly, summarily replaced? If not, why not? This question was also posed by my erstwhile colleague and Business Guardian Editor, Anthony Wilson, on 28th August 2025 in ‘Is Republic Bank next?‘
  • The Integrity Commission – Will all Officers and Directors of both those companies now be required to file declarations to the Integrity Commission?
  • Changing/Replacing the Board – I agree with Mariano Browne’s recent comments that it is inadvisable and extremely rare for the entire board of a financial institution to be changed all at once, since that means complete loss of institutional memory.

Finally, I was concerned to note that the new appointee as incoming FCB Chairman is Mr Shankar Bidaisee, who was also recently appointed Chairman of UDECOTT. This is not in any way an attack on Mr Bidaisee’s competence, but the era of the ‘super-Chairman’ or ‘Czar’ should be placed firmly in the history books. Former PM, the late Patrick Manning, found such favour with Calder Hart that he was appointed to Chair the Boards of five State-controlled  entities. Yes, five. We all should reflect on how that particular ‘concentration of power’ ended-up1. But that was in the ‘bad-old-days’, and we ought to have learned from those bitter experiences. There are enough high-quality, willing candidates to serve in those positions, even given the heavy demands of public office. That concentration of power is never a good thing, so it needs to be avoided.

Afra Raymond
afraraymond.net

  1. The impact of that benighted period was deep and adverse, climaxing in the Uff Enquiry which effectively unmasked Calder Hart such that he departed just before publication of that Report, never to return – two decisive extracts from Hart’s cross-examination are here for readers who want to see the pitiful depths to which racism and colonialism took us in the first decade of the new millennium, under a PNM administration. ↩︎

PROPERTY MATTERS – the role of the Valuation Roll

The implementation of the controversial Property Tax is now underway in Trinidad and Tobago, marked by a series of official announcements and the issuance of revised Notices of Valuation to an estimated 400,000 residential taxpayers. While these revisions are necessary, there is a critical flaw in the system that must be addressed: the restricted access to the Valuation Roll database. This column explores the implications of this restricted access, argues for the necessity of transparency, and identifies who stands to gain from maintaining the status quo.

The new Property Tax system in T&T aims to deliver equitable taxes through a crowd-sourcing approach, which promises transparency and low operational costs. Property owners were asked to submit detailed returns – about 60,000 of which were sent – which were then analyzed by the Valuation Division of the Finance Ministry. Selected properties were inspected and measured, leading to provisional tax assessments. Taxpayers have the right to object to these assessments, which would be refined through this iterative process of public feedback, ensuring fairness and accuracy.

Continue reading “PROPERTY MATTERS – the role of the Valuation Roll” →

A worthy NGO?

‘…We are not Serious…
Very few Conscious…
So I cannot agree with mih own Chorus!…’

from the first verse of ‘Dis Place nice’ by Brother Valentino

‘…Your silence will not protect you…’

Caribbean Philosopher Audre Lorde, on the false beliefs and toxic consequences earned from calculated or cowardly silences

“Last call to all corporates. Support this worthy NGO if you can,” was the rallying note from an erstwhile Colleague who had served on the Board of the T&T Transparency Institute (TTTI). This was an appeal to boost ticket sales for the TTTI’s fundraising dinner carded for 22 May 2024, but it ultimately provoked me into making these pointed observations, so here goes.

For a some years now, it has become increasingly clear that TTTI had drifted from its purpose with less and less work, of lower and lower quality, emerging from that NGO of which I am an Ordinary Member. One can scarcely believe that this was once a vibrant, outspoken and well-informed NGO with dedicated leaders such as Victor Hart, Richard Joseph, Deryck Murray and Annette des Iles, not that we can ever forget the recently departed Reginald Dumas and Boyd Reid.

I am making serious alIegations, so let me show the extent to which the TTTI has strayed from its purpose. Apart from its bewildering silence and lack of support during the recent campaign to have the Public Procurement & Disposal of Public Property Act proclaimed, one can scarcely recall the last time any TTTI Representative was on TV, Radio or in the printed Press.

TTTI’s webpage offers a June 2021 item as the latest in its ‘Press & Media Releases’ tab (almost three years ago), with its latest ‘News’ item being the January 2024 ‘Launch of the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index’, to which I will return.

TTTI’s IG account seems to have been captured by fete-promoters, with scandalous content, which I notified TTTI about since early December 2023, but the contents are still there. [N.B. The account, with 2 posts and 10 followers to date, is online.]

TTTI’s FB page is moribund with not one single local issue highlighted in the whole of 2023 (!);

On Twitter, TTTI is also moribund (only 146 followers), with its most recent post being an anodyne International Women’s Day flyer dated 8th March 2023. The most recent local issue or event is its Town Hall meeting on 27th October 2020 against Gender-Based Violence in T&T. Clearly, both of those are important issues, but what is the nexus with TTTI’s mission?

The newly-elected TTTI Chair, Ms Donna Jack-Hill, presented the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index on 30th January 2024 and some of her comments on the need for an independent and robust Judiciary were widely misunderstood to be pointed at T&T’s Judicial Officers. A strong backlash emerged with Press Releases from the Law Association and the Judiciary, together with several newspaper articles/editorials.

As unfortunate as it was, the misreporting of those TTTI statements and the public backlash presented a good opportunity to clear the air and for the new Chair to have reset standards. It is my view that this required a timely and solid response from TTTI, since the Press Reports on the 2023 CPI, were deeply critical of TTTI’s credibility. I am not aware that any public comment or clarification was made, so perhaps this Gala Dinner will be yet another chance to correct the record and find a new voice, albeit too long in coming. We will see.

In 100 years’ time, historians will struggle to understand how in a land like ours, an organisation like ours (yes, I am a true member of TTTI) could have said so little at a time like this.

Careerists who are concerned to bolster their CV and careful to avoid offending anyone with more power or money than themselves are a clear and present danger to our Republic, especially when they maintain an intentional silence in the face of epic wrongdoing.

Sad to say, but TTTI’s apparent reluctance to clarify or raise its voice is redolent of the evasions and strategic silences of our ruling class. Silence is the Enemy of Progress.

I welcome a response to these issues from TTTI.

Afra Raymond
afraraymond.net
This is my critique of the output of the TTTI, published on Sunday 19th May 2024 in the T&T Express, T&T Guardian and T&T Newsday, it also appeared on Wired868 – https://wired868.com/2024/05/21/dear-editor-is-tt-transparency-institute-really-a-worthy-ngo/.