De Minister of Sport doing everything but Sports !!!!

[Football supporter]

Stupid question, but why are people being paid before they do the work? Surely, you would pay some agreed set up costs and then pay as the work is carried out?

[Flex]

PM: No action against Anil after receiving video report...
By Ria Taitt Political Editor

I NEVER USED GANJA

Sport Minister Anil Roberts has escaped prime ministerial action.

In a statement issued last night, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said Roberts, in a letter to her, “categorically denied using illicit drugs” during his tenure as Minister.  And  the Prime Minister Kamla has decided she would take no action against him “at this time”.

The Prime Minister’s decision came exactly three weeks after a video showing a man resembling Roberts rolling a marijuana cigarette surfaced and generated intense public discussion. The Prime Minister herself acknowledged that “there has been a clamour in some quarters” for her to have taken “immediate action”.

However, the Prime Minister has been persuaded by Robert’s letter to her in which he “attested his innocence”. Robert’s letter stated: “I confirm that I have not used any drugs inclusive of marijuana, during my tenure as Minister of your Government. It is with great sadness that I have watched a relentless media campaign designed to defame, hurt and disrespect not only me, but my wife, children and unborn child, as well as my constituents, my Government and you, my beloved Prime Minister”. 

The Prime Minister said: “I am not judge or jury. I can only weigh the statements made by any member of my Government against the evidence or lack thereof presented to me. I hold fast and true to the inviolable principle of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.” She added that this was the basis of the country’s judicial system and informed her own approach in arriving at any conclusion.

The Prime Minister noted that with respect to the video, “Minister Roberts refutes the notion that it represents any evidence of misconduct or criminal activity or that any verification of such can be made”. She said Roberts “affirmed” that “the production of the video is an extreme form of mischief which places one in an uneviable place to ‘defend’ oneself by making statements and pronouncements that in turn will be used in tandem with the video of dubious origin and delayed production to condemn the speaker”.

The Prime Minister said she had demonstrated in the past on many occasions that she did not hesitate to act in addressing any matter, but that she was also “measured” in her decisions which are arrived at “through careful thought, always allowing deep process to take place”.

“I have allowed one of our Government’s coalition parties to address the matter involving Minister Roberts, who is a member of that party as is their right to do. The Congress of the People suspended Roberts for his failure to cooperate with the party, in providing an explanation about the video. Roberts had refused to answer questions when he appeared before the party’s disciplinary committee, telling them that the matter was in the hands of his attorneys.

The Prime Minister said Roberts also described the reports (of corruption and gang-related criminal activity) in  the LifeSport programme as “unsubstantiated”. He  “submits that he respectfully awaits the outcome of the investigation”, the Prime Minister said. This investigation which is being conducted by the Ministry of Finance, is expected to be completed in three weeks time.

In an immediate response, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley said he was not surprised that the Prime Minsiter was making this statement “and I daresay in collusion with the Minister”. “For him (Roberts) to make statements like that and for her to accept it and repeat it, one can only think that they are acting in concert. Secondly I want to remind the Prime Minister that from the very first moment of public information with respect to (former minister) Mr (Collin) Partap, Mr Partap had pled his innocence with respect to what he had alleged to have done- which was refusing to take a breathalsyer test. The Prime Minister fired him before daybreak. And all of what she has said there (with respect to Roberts) about how she proceeds, was not the procedure she followed when she took action against Collin Partap” (and fired him as a Minister).

Rowley said now  he also wanted to advise the Prime Minister that all the money that her Government has spent installing cameras around Trinidad and Tobago had been wasted. “They must now take down all those cameras. Because if the Prime Minister is asking us not to believe our eyes and our ears when we get information presented to us in this manner, then we should cease to look to the cameras around the country for any assistance with respect to identifying any person who may appear on the camera.”

Rowley said he wanted the Prime Minister to know that she was fooling no one on this matter. “She is unable to act, she refuses to act and she has put the country in a very invidious position. The (Sport) Minister is a laughing stock and this statement would confirm that they are a mutual protection society, that they are mutual protectors of wrongdoing” the Opposition Leader stated. “All her lofty speeches, contradictory as they are, impress no one. This is a Prime Minister who is failing to act in a situation that calls for Prime Ministerial intervention,” he added.

The following is the full statement delivered yesterday by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar:

There has been a clamour in some quarters for me to have taken immediate action in relation to allegations made against Minister of Sport, Anil Roberts.

I have demonstrated in the past on many occasions that I do not hesitate to act in addressing any matter.

But I am also measured in the decision I arrive at through careful thought, always allowing deep process to take place.

I have the authority to make many decisions every hour as Prime Minister, but I do so always with consideration of what is right and fair, conscious always that with great authority, comes great responsibility.

I have allowed one our Government’s coalition parties to address the matter involving Minister Roberts, who is a member of that party as is their right to so do.

I have also given regard to the need for the said Minister to be given an opportunity to compile a report and make a statement on all matters pertaining to allegations made against him.

Having allowed due process to take place, and in receipt of a full report from Minister Roberts, I am now in the best position to make public, my position regarding these allegations.

I am not judge or jury. I can only weigh the statements made by any member of my Government against the evidence or lack thereof presented to me.

I hold fast and true to the inviolable principle of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

It is the basis upon which our judicial system is founded and it informs my own approach in arriving at any conclusion in matters of this kind.
Honourable Minister of Sport, Anil Roberts has penned a letter delivered by hand, dated June 10th 2014 and addressed to me as Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, a copy of which will be subsequently made public via distribution to all media.

In the letter, Minister Roberts categorically denies the use of illicit drugs. Minister Roberts’ letter attested his innocence, quote:

“I confirm that I have not used any drugs inclusive of marijuana, during my tenure as Minister of your Government. It is with great sadness that I have watched a relentless media campaign designed to defame, hurt and disrespect not only me, but my wife, children and unborn child, as well as my constituents, my Government and you, my beloved Prime Minister.”

Regarding the video, Minister Roberts refutes the notion that it represents any evidence of misconduct or criminal activity or that any verification of such can be made. Minster Roberts goes on to affirm the following:

“The production of the video is an extreme form of mischief which places one in an unenviable place to ‘defend’ oneself by making statements and pronouncements that in turn will be used in tandem with the video of dubious origin and delayed production to condemn the speaker.”

As regards the allegations of the Lifesport programme, Minister Roberts describes the reports as “unsubstantiated” and submits that he respectfully awaits the outcome of the investigation.

Minister Robert’ statement concludes as follows:

“Honourable Prime Minister, as your Minister of Sport, as your member of Parliament for D’Abadie/O’Meara, your supporter and patriot who has served my beloved country as a former national swimmer, a former national footballer and a national Olympic medal-winning coach, I assure you that I have never taken, used or experimented with illicit or illegal drugs nor have I ever been involved in any form or fashion with prostitutes as has been implied by Dr. Keith Rowley. I certainly have not treated lightly with the trust and confidence in which you have reposed in me and I remain at your service.”

After considering the strong denials made by the Honourable Minister, and having regard to the fact that there exists no evidence to corroborate any of the allegations made against Minister Roberts, I find that there is no matter arising which requires my consideration at this time.

The investigation initiated by the Honourable Minister of Finance, Larry Howai on the allegations within the Lifesport programme will continue aggressively until a determination is made. I wish to take the opportunity to re-affirm my position with regard to the responsibility which must be shouldered by every member of my Government or indeed by anyone who holds a position in public office that integrity and humility must be the hallmarks of your work and character at all times.

[Flex]

‘I did not use ganja, prostitutes’
By Julien Neaves (Newsday)
Friday, June 13 2014

PRIME Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar will be taking no action at this time in relation to allegations against Sports Minister Anil Roberts noting his “strong denials” of any misconduct in a letter she received from him, and also a lack of any corroborating evidence to the allegations.

In a media statement yesterday, Persad-Bissessar noted there has been a “clamour in some quarters” for her to have taken immediate action in relation to the allegations made against Roberts.

She noted she had given Roberts an opportunity to compile a report and make a statement on all matters pertaining to allegations made against him.

“Having allowed due process to take place, and in receipt of a full report from Minister Roberts, I am now in the best position to make public, my position regarding these allegations,” she said.

“After considering the strong denials made by the Honourable Minister, and having regard to the fact that there exists no evidence to corroborate any of the allegations made against Minister Roberts, I find that there is no matter arising which requires my consideration at this time,” Persad-Bissessar added.

She noted that she holds “fast and true to the inviolable principle of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. It is the basis upon which our judicial system is founded and it informs my own approach in arriving at any conclusion in matters of this kind.”

The first allegation against Roberts surrounds a viral video of a man resembling him handling what appears to be a joint of marijuana. In her statement, Persad-Bissessar reported receiving a letter from Roberts delivered by hand and dated June 10, 2014 in which he categorically denies the use of illicit drugs.

She read from the letter: “I confirm that I (Anil Roberts) have not used any drugs inclusive of marijuana, during my tenure as Minister of your Government. It is with great sadness that I have watched a relentless media campaign designed to defame, hurt and disrespect not only me, but my wife, children and unborn child, as well as my constituents, my government and you, my beloved Prime Minister.”

She noted that regarding the video Roberts “refutes the notion that it represents any evidence of misconduct or criminal activity or that any verification of such can be made”.

Roberts stated: “The production of the video is an extreme form of mischief which places one in an unenviable place to ‘defend’ oneself by making statements and pronouncements that in turn will be used in tandem with the video of dubious origin and delayed production to condemn the speaker.”

On the second issue, allegations of financial impropriety and links to criminal activities in the Life Sport programme, Roberts described the reports as “unsubstantiated” and said that he respectfully awaits the outcome of the investigation.

Roberts’ statement concluded with: “Honourable Prime Minister, as your Minister of Sport, as your member of Parliament for D’Abadie/O’Meara, your supporter and patriot who has served my beloved country as a former national swimmer, a former national footballer and a national Olympic medal-winning coach, I assure you that I have never taken, used or experimented with illicit or illegal drugs nor have I ever been involved in any form or fashion with prostitutes as has been implied by (Opposition Leader) Dr Keith Rowley. I certainly have not treated lightly with the trust and confidence in which you have reposed in me and I remain at your service.”

Persad-Bissessar noted that the investigation initiated by the Finance Minister Larry Howai on the allegations within the Life Sport programme “will continue aggressively until a determination is made”.

“I wish to take the opportunity to re-affirm my position with regard to the responsibility which must be shouldered by every member of my Government or indeed by anyone who holds a position in public office that integrity and humility must be the hallmarks of your work and character at all times,” she added.

Persad-Bissessar noted that she has the authority to make many decisions every hour as Prime Minister, “but I do so always with consideration of what is right and fair, conscious always that with great authority, comes great responsibility”. She pointed out that she has allowed one of the Government’s coalition parties — Roberts’ party the Congress of the People (COP) — to address the matter. COP has suspended Roberts for non-cooperation in their queries about the video.

Persad-Bissessar noted that she is “not judge or jury” and “can only weigh the statements made by any member of my government against the evidence or lack thereof presented to me”.

Persad-Bissessar added: “I have demonstrated in the past on many occasions that I do not hesitate to act in addressing any matter. But I am also measured in the decision I arrive at through careful thought, always allowing deep process to take place.”

[spideybuff]

    

We is the biggest jackasses in the world yes.

She have "no evidence" and this just going to blow over until election.

While we have youths in the ghetto getting shoot without trial for smelling like marijuana but "no evidence" cause it already gone up in flame.

[royal]

She read from the letter: “I confirm that I (Anil Roberts) have not used any drugs inclusive of marijuana, during my tenure as Minister of your Government. It is with great sadness that I have watched a relentless media campaign designed to defame, hurt and disrespect not only me, but my wife, children and unborn child, as well as my constituents, my government and you, my beloved Prime Minister.”

he never denied the video or it wasn't him.. just not during the time he was minister...what ah joke !!! and our PM condone such things

[elan]

Wasn't it this same guvment that use video evidence to try and send grannykilla to jail?

[weary1969]

Student puts Hamel-Smith in hot seat: Why is Anil still in Govt?
Published: Friday, June 13, 2014Yvonne Baboolal

Senate President Timothy Hamel-Smith was put in the hot seat by a student during a function yesterday, after she asked him why Sport Minister Anil Roberts had not been fired from the Cabinet. The question was posed to Hamel-Smith, a senior member of the Congress of the People (COP), by 17-year-old Latesha Taylor at the Chaguanas North Secondary School, where he had gone to do a Parliament outreach programme. Hamel-Smith had just finished lecturing to students of Chaguanas North and South Secondary Schools on understanding the Standing Orders of Parliament, and students were invited to ask questions. Taylor went up to the microphone in the middle of the auditorium and asked: “I would like to know why Anil Roberts wasn’t fired by the Government?”

 

There have been calls from the Opposition for Roberts resignation and the national executive of his party, the COP, after the leak of a video showing a man resembling a government minister rolling a substance resembling marijuana in a cigarette in the company of women in a hotel room. Roberts has neither confirmed nor denied he is the man in the video and has constantly told the media since it was aired that his lawyers were now handling the situation. His lack of co-operation with a COP team probing the issue has also led to his suspension from the party.

Historian Prof Brinsley Samaroo, who was seated at the head table with Hamel-Smith yesterday, answered the question. He said Roberts had not been fired because Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had to decide how long before he became an MP the video was made and whether he was in it.

 

Samaroo added: “These are important considerations for the Prime Minister before she makes her decision. “They are now doing inquiries whether it was a cigarette the man in the video was smoking and if he was smoking weed, whether it was something illegal during that time. “She has to be very careful about the decision she makes. That explains why Roberts has not been fired.” Samaroo told Taylor many people may have ambitions to enter Parliament and it was important to start living an exemplary life from now. “People go back into your past— ten, 15 years ago—and make up all kinds of things you are alleged to have done.” He recalled that when former US president George Bush was a presidential candidate, someone said he had smoked marijuana with him 15 years before and it became big news. “You have to watch your behaviour from long before,” Samaroo advised the students. Samaroo said it was yet to be determined whether the video was made long before Roberts went to Parliament. “The Opposition is saying it does not matter if it was made before, during or after, that he was seen pulling a ‘joint’,” he added. The schools involved in yesterday’s event are attended by children from surrounding areas, including Enterprise and Edinburgh 500.

[AB.Trini]

Any kinda sensible response to government's  decisions regarding MPs and their actions is a simple waste of TIME!!!

[Flex]

COP: Anil still on suspension
By Sasha Harrinanan (Newsday).

Congress of the People (COP) political leader Prakash Ramadhar has made it clear that Anil Roberts remains “suspended from all party activities”, even though the Prime Minister on Thursday revealed that Roberts, in a letter to her, strongly denied recent allegations of drug use made against him.

“Mr Roberts’ initial and continuing suspension is on the basis of his failure to co-operate with the party, and to provide clarity as to his presence, or lack thereof, in a video within the public domain,” Ramadhar stated yesterday.

Three weeks ago, a video was made public of a man resembling Roberts handling what appears to be a joint of marijuana in the presence of women believed to be prostitutes.

Roberts, who holds the posts of Sport Minister and Member of Parliament for D’Abadie/O’Meara, wrote to Prime Minister (PM) Kamla Persad-Bissessar this past Tuesday, assuring her that he has “never taken, used or experimented with illicit or illegal drugs, nor have I ever been involved in any form, or fashion with prostitutes...”

Having received Roberts’ statement, the PM on Thursday informed the nation that, “there is no matter arising which requires my consideration at this time.”

Yesterday, Ramadhar noted that while the party respects Roberts’ “legal right to silence, it cannot ignore its greater duty to its membership, and to the national community, to ensure that representatives of the COP adhere to the highest standards of behaviour.”

Hence the decision that Roberts will remain on suspension from all COP activities, until he co-operates fully with the party, and until he provides the clarity which the party requires to make informed decisions.

“On the separate issue of whether Mr Roberts is guilty of wrongdoing,” Ramadhar added, “the COP emphasises that the concept of ‘natural justice’ which guarantees the right of individuals to ‘due process’ and which presumes a person to be ‘innocent until proven guilty’ has been and continues to be central to its philosophy.”

He said it was against the background of this philosophy that the party must respect the decision of the PM to keep Roberts in the Cabinet.”

Ramadhar didn’t mince words though, in letting the public know he found it “disappointing that while Mr Roberts moved with alacrity to provide the PM with a written report on the matter, he has refused to do likewise with the party to which he belongs.”

COP chairman, Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, later told reporters during the Lower House tea-break yesterday that the party not only stands by Roberts’ suspension but maintains that he should resign as a Cabinet Minister. “We are of the view that Mr Roberts ought to step down from his ministerial portfolio as Minister of Sport,” she said.

Seepersad-Bachan said the COP is a “bit disappointed” by the PM’s remarks that Roberts had no case to answer, adding she has called a national executive meeting for today to further discuss the issue.

[Flex]

$$ still missing from Sport Ministry
By —Denyse Renne (Express).

Close to $3.5 million remains unaccounted for in Ministry of Sport.

Sources told the Express Cabinet had approved $4,994,000 for the fiscal year October 2012-2013 to the T&T Boxing Board of Control (TTBBC).

The monies, the Express understands, were to be given to the board by the ministry to liquidate debts. The debts included paying off the salaries of over 24 coaches and other expenses.

The Express also understands Deputy Director of Physical Education and Sport Ruth Marchan and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sport Ashwin Creed had met with several coaches, the TTBBC, special adviser to the boxing board Buxo Potts and staff, informing them they will be paid their outstanding wages.

Several efforts to contact Marchan yesterday afternoon were unsuccessful and messages left were not returned.

To date, more than 30 coaches are yet to be paid.

In a letter dated April 23, 2014, designated officer (Freedom of Information Act) for the Ministry of Sport Judith Joseph, in response to concerns raised by Potts, noted the sum in question “falls under the Non-Profit Institutions Vote and was allocated in block as part of a lump sum which included the TTBBC”.

Joseph noted records produced showed a total expenditure as at September 2013 of $1,572,196.83 being spent.

Checks by the Express showed $3,421,803.17, being unaccounted for although the funds were released to the ministry.

According to documents received by the Express, Potts, in a March 24, 2014, letter, wrote under the Freedom of Information Act requesting a breakdown of the monies received and spent by the Sport Ministry regarding the TTBBC.

In his letter, Potts raised various concerns regarding the conduct of a senior ministry official and the lack of proper accounting mechanisms in place at the ministry.

Joseph, in her response, said: “All applications for releases must be submitted on behalf of the TTBC by its authorised officials only. In this context, it is to be noted from the onset that there was no board in operation for the period November 2010-June 2013. Further, not because money is allocated to an entity/agency that the entire sum must be drawn down, an in any event it must follow proper procedures and processes.”

She added the appropriation accounts were submitted to the Comptroller of Accounts and the Auditor General to be audited for fiscal year 2012-2013 “and no irregularities/issues were raised or detected on the part of the Ministry of Sport and the Permanent Secretary with respect to monies expended under the TTBC”.

But, on April 29, Potts wrote Auditor General Sharman Ottley, asking that the official be made to account in detail for “what was done with the balance of $3,421,803.17”.

Potts wrote that the official was asked to account for the entire budget and “to my great dissatisfaction he skirted and hedges his response. In my humble view he gave a partial or incorrect response while name dropping and using the name of your good office and also the office of the comptroller of accounts saying you all were satisfied with the financial performance of the Ministry of Sport”.

Copies of the letter were also sent to President Anthony Carmona, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley, Head Permanent Secretary Reynold Cooper, Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, Integrity Commission Registrar Martin Farrell and Comptroller of Accounts Roland Shepherd.

Several attempts by the Express to contact the official were unsuccessful.

The Express also contacted Potts yesterday, seeking a response from him on the letters written and claims highlighted, but he refused to comment. “I have no comment at this time,” Potts said.

Efforts to contact Sport Minister Anil Roberts were also unsuccessful.

On April 29, 2013, Auditor General Sharman Ottley submitted a report to Speaker of the House Wade Mark.
The contents of the report showed that in seven ministries, there were increases in expenditure by more than 50 per cent from 2011 to 2012.

In the Ministry of Sport, expenditure moved from $28.786 million in 2011 to $395.884 million in 2012—an increase of $367.098 million or 1,275 per cent.

Ottley noted the examination of records and documents showed that in many instances there was non-compliance with financial instructions, financial regulations and other financial directives, while reports on appropriation accounts were not received from 13 accounting officers by the Auditor’s General Office up to January 31, 2013.

[Flex]

Murdered following death threats to LifeSport director Ruth Marchan
By Alexander Bruzual (Express).

BULLETS FOR BODYGUARD

Four days after it was disclosed in an article in the Sunday Express that he was the personal security guard of a LifeSport director, 42-year-old Curtis Gibson was shot dead at his Malabar home yesterday.

Gibson, who was also known as “Tallman”, was the bodyguard of LifeSport’s  Deputy Director of Physical Education and Sport at the Ministry of Sport, Ruth Marchan.

Marchan had hired Gibson as her bodyguard after she went public with a threat on her life and that of two senior officials at the Ministry of Sport following the suspension of the LifeSport programme to facilitate an audit by the Ministry of Finance.

At 8 a.m. yesterday, Marchan contacted Express’ investigative journalist Asha Javeed and stated: “Remember Tallman who was in the interview (with the Sunday Express)? The Imam’s son? Well they gunned him down this morning. This getting serious.”

Marchan said Gibson had links to the Carapo base of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen who were beneficiaries of the LifeSport programme.

She is now more fearful for her life.

“They come for him early this morning. Burst down his door. This is breaking news,” she said.

The Express understands that she has contacted several Government officials to help protect her.

Police sources maintained yesterday that the information they received was that Gibson was employed at the Public Transport Service Commission (PTSC), Port of Spain. However, they did not denounce the possibility that he may have been secretly employed as a security officer, and they were in the process of looking at all leads in their investigations.

According to police reports, at about 1.15 a.m. yesterday, Gibson was asleep with his pregnant wife at their home along Pomegranate Avenue in Malabar, when they were both awakened by a crashing noise. Police said when Gibson’s wife looked to the door of the bedroom, she observed a man armed with a firearm standing in the archway. Without warning the assailant raised his weapon and pointed it at Gibson and pulled the trigger, hitting the 42-year-old man about his body several times.

As quickly as he came, the assailant then fled the scene on foot, leaving Gibson’s wife uninjured, but next to the bloodied body of her husband.

The police and emergency health services were notified and Gibson was pronounced dead on the scene.

A party of officers from the Northern Division and the Homicide Bureau of Investigations visited the scene, and Gibson’s body was ordered removed by a District Medical Officer.

In an article published in the Sunday Express of June 22 titled “Loans for Criminals”, Gibson was mentioned by his nickname and had sat through the latter half of an interview Javeed had conducted with Marchan.

In the story, Marchan had identified “Tallman” as her security guard, and noted he was the son of an Imam, who is a member of the Jamaat-al- Muslimeen.

Marchan had also  given the Sunday Express a series of text messages, dated February, March and April 2014, which she said was evidence there was a conspiracy to leak information from the Ministry. In these messages, “Tallman” was also mentioned.

One text read: “The Muslims killing the programme. Time has passed for their usefulness, since after the march last year. Need a solution.”

Another read: “Sending docs for u later. Depending on you and your friends. More to come.”

Another said: “Need help with situation with Ruth and Tallman URGENTLY!!!”
 
During the TV6 news last night, Gibson’s wife was quoted as saying that her deceased partner had received two threatening phone calls last week.

She said she could only scream in terror yesterday morning as Gibson’s killer made good on those threats and shot him several times in his stomach and side.

Gibson’s murder has pushed the murder toll to 208 compared with 180 at June 26 last year.
 
About LifeSport
 
LifeSport was a brainchild of Sport Minister Anil Roberts.

It is one of the Government’s most expensive social programmes which was designed to target criminals.

The programme, which was started in 2012, had a budget of $6,647,000.

LifeSport pays $1,500 a month to “criminal elements” to get them interested in sports. A daily meal allowance of $75 is catered for but a contract is usually given to a catering company to provide meals for the participants.

According to Ministry of Sport officials, the programme is supposed to exist in 33 centres and have 60 people. A stipend is paid to the participants of the programme and an allowance paid to a coordinator of the programme.

The funding and recipients of LifeSport were identified in an investigative series by the Express newspapers. Following the stories, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar directed Finance Minister Larry Howai to initiate an audit into the programme and transferred it out of Sport to the Ministry of National Security. National Security Minister Gary Griffith said LifeSport will now be directed by the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force.

For 2014, the Government has already spent just over $267 million on the LifeSport programme.

According to the Draft Estimates of Recurrent Expenditure for the Financial Year 2014, an estimated $113,502,273 was transferred to the LifeSport under the heading Pathway Programme.

The loan for the LifeSport programme was taken by the Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Sportt).

Under the heading “Transfers to State Enterprises”, $154,133,000 was transferred to the Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Sportt) for “Repayment of TT$77.2 million loan re: Pathway Programme”.

That would take the total sum transferred to LifeSport in 2014 to $267 million.

[Flex]

PS Creed not around to provide info for audit
By Asha Javeed (Express).

LifeSport Hold-Up

Even as the Central Audit Unit of the Ministry of Finance is investigating the controversial LifeSport programme in the Ministry of Sport, its permanent secretary, Ashwin Creed, remains out of the country and unable to provide answers required by the Unit on the programme’s expenses.

As PS, Creed is the ministry’s accounting officer who would have final say on how money for the programme was eventually spent.
LifeSport’s expenses since 2012 have amounted to about $400 million.

Creed has been in and out of the ministry since April.

LifeSport was not audited by the Auditor General for its 2013 report but several discrepancies were noted in the ministry’s payments.

On April 14, Creed contacted head of the Public Service Reynold Cooper requesting “emergency leave”, faxed him a letter with the request and left Trinidad the same day.

The Sunday Express understands that it is because of death threats he received linked to the LifeSport programme.

Cooper has confirmed these events.

The Sunday Express understands that Creed returned to Trinidad for a brief visit and then departed again.

“Mr Creed went on his business. Approval would have been granted to Mr Creed for two weeks of leave on May 13. He left the country on May 13, and it was only on May 26 or 27 you began to hear the Prime Minister (Kamla Persad-Bissessar) ordered a probe of the LifeSport Programme,” his attorney Peter Taylor said.

Even after the Prime Minister directed a probe be conducted, as the ministry’s accounting officer, Creed was not present to assist the officers in the audit.

Two permanent secretaries yesterday said if an audit was being conducted in the ministry, ideally the PS should be there.  And given the controversy that the LifeSport programme has generated, it was even incumbent that Creed be present to account.

By June 3, Creed was still away.

Taylor had said then: “Mr Creed called Mr Cooper on June 3 and indicated to him—‘listen, I need more leave, I will be communicating with you in due course’. He called back on June 7 and a fax was sent to his office at the Ministry of Sport indicating that he sought leave from the Minister of Sport (Anil Roberts).”

Taylor explained that Creed cannot be disciplined for taking his leave and extending it because he required “personal family business, which requires an extensive period of time”.

Creed’s leave ends tomorrow.

The Sunday Express was unable to contact Cooper to find out when exactly Creed was supposed to report to work.

According to the 98th Salaries Review Commission, a PS is entitled to 30 calendar days of vacation. But the Sunday Express understands that a PS usually accumulates a lot of time off during the year.

When the Sunday Express tried to reach Creed through Taylor on when he was expected back into the country, Taylor replied: “I am unable to say.”

The Sunday Express also asked Taylor if it could address questions to Creed through him and Taylor replied, “I would advise him”.

Yesterday, Ruth Marchan, the deputy director of Physical Education and Sport at the Ministry of Sport, told the Sunday Express that she was being advised on her media statements by Creed.
 
A messy affair

Marchan told the Sunday Express that bringing the case to the media was her best defence to protect her life after she received a death threat.

She had blamed the threats on boxing promoter Buxo Potts and a ministry official.

Potts denied the threats in an interview with the Sunday Express last week.

The Sunday Express understands that before allegations were made by Marchan about Potts, they had enjoyed a cordial friendship.

Marchan and her husband Edward Marchan have been recipients of cheques from the Unified Promoters Boxing Association—a company co-owned by Potts, which has had sponsorship from the Sport Ministry.

Marchan’s husband was at one point employed as a head coach at Yan’s Sporting Academy, which is also owned by Potts.
Marchan was also linked in a relationship with a senior Ministry of Sport official.  Asked about this and other personal allegations, Marchan yesterday responded: “Prove it.”

In an interview on Friday, Potts said the problem with Marchan started in 2011. He accused Marchan of being disingenuous with the corruption she chose to highlight in the press.

He said: “The young men who the LifeSport programme was designed to assist, they are the victims. The structure of the programme is one of the greatest.  If you look at the structure of the programme, it can make a difference to the young men’s lives. It’s a good programme. The real criminals in the programme is not the young people.”

Marchan did not want to comment on Potts’ statement.

Creed could not be reached for comment.
 
The Jamaat bodyguard

On June 26, Marchan’s bodyguard Curtis “Tallman” Gibson was murdered in his bed at his home in Malabar.

She said while Sport Minister Anil Roberts was right that Gibson was not employed at the ministry, he was involved in the LifeSport programme.

Marchan explained that Gibson was brought on board because of his relationship with Imam Hassan Ali, the head of the Carapo-based Jamaat.

She said the Imam asked for Gibson, whom he considered a son, to be his liaison on the ground. She said he was paid by the Imam and not the ministry.

Police records list Gibson as a repeat offender.

He was jailed in 1999 for drug possession. He had appealed this sentence and was jailed for two years with hard labour. There are two outstanding warrants in his name—one for failing to attend court and another for failure to pay a fine.

There was no firearm licence issued under his name.

During an interview with the Sunday Express on June 11 with Marchan, Gibson was present and displayed a gun.

Marchan admitted that she had a good rapport with “the people on the ground” from the Rastacity gang to the Carapo-based Jamaat al Muslimeen but feared repercussions from inside the ministry.  A statement from the Sport Ministry on Friday said Marchan had no authority to speak about Life Sport.

“The management of the LifeSport Programme wishes to inform that Ms Ruth Marchan has no authority to speak on behalf of the LifeSport Programme as it is not formally under her purview at the Ministry of Sport,”  it said.

About LifeSport

LifeSport was a brainchild of Sport Minister Anil Roberts.

It is one of the Government’s most expensive social programmes which was designed to target criminals.

The programme, which was started in 2012, had a budget of $6,647,000.

LifeSport pays $1,500 a month to “criminal elements” to get them interested in sports. A daily meal allowance of $75 is catered for but a contract is usually given to a catering company to provide meals for the participants.

According to Ministry of Sport officials, the programme is supposed to exist in 33 centres and have 60 people at each centre. A stipend is paid to the participants of the programme and an allowance of $30,000 is paid to a coordinator of the programme.

The funding and recipients of LifeSport were identified in an investigative series by the Express newspapers. Following the stories, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar directed Finance Minister Larry Howai to initiate an audit into the programme and transferred it out of Sport to the Ministry of National Security. National Security Minister Gary Griffith said LifeSport will now be directed by the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force.

For 2014, the Government has already spent just over $267 million on the LifeSport programme.

According to the Draft Estimates of Recurrent Expenditure for the Financial Year 2014, an estimated $113,502,273 was transferred to the LifeSport under the heading Pathway Programme.

The loan for the LifeSport programme was taken by the Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Sportt).

Under the heading “Transfers to State Enterprises”, $154,133,000 was transferred to the Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Sportt) for “Repayment of TT$77.2 million loan re: Pathway Programme”.

That would take the total sum transferred to LifeSport in 2014 to $267 million.

[Flex]

Life Sport coach talks of quitting.
By STEPHON NICHOLAS (Newsday).

With all the turmoil surrounding the Life Sport programme, one coach yesterday told Sunday Newsday he was considering quitting the programme. Coaches are hired to work at 40 centres for the programme throughout the country.

The programme, conceptualised by Minister of Sport Anil Roberts, has been fraught with controversy for the past six weeks since allegations of corruption and other criminal activities surfaced.

Minister of National Security Gary Griffith was quoted in a report that there were ghosts in the Life Sport with former murder accused and Life Sport Coordinator for Carapo, Rajaee Ali, reaping substantial financial benefits from this scheme.

The programme, which cost taxpayers just $6.6 million in 2012, has expanded significantly in two years, with costs put at an astronomical $113 million in 2014.

The programme has since been stripped from the Ministry of Sport and handed over the Ministry of National Security and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has also ordered an audit.

Since then, though, Ruth Marchan, Deputy Director of Physical Education and Sport, has claimed that there is a plot to kill her after she refused to condone corruption in the Life Sport programme. So afraid was Marchan that she hired a personal bodyguard - Curtis “Tall Man” Gibson. Gibson was brutally gunned down at his Malabar home early Friday morning while sleeping next to his wife.

Yesterday, a Life Sport coach, speaking on condition of strict anonymity, says his view about the programme was beginning to change for the worst.

“Honestly, the programme is a good one. Initially it was a good idea (but) I don’t know what went wrong. I know for a fact it helps plenty young people in my area. A lot of young people lives have been saved but up top I don’t know what’s going on,” the coach said.

The murder of Marchan’s bodyguard seems to have shaken up the coach too as he is considering leaving the programme despite receiving an approximate $6,000 monthly salary.

“You see where people getting killed and thing, I really kind of sceptical of continuing. You pick up the papers and reading how people getting murdered now,” the coach said.

Asked whether he has seen any illicit activities taking place at his centre, the coach denied that any corruption was there but pointed fingers at the East-West corridor.

“We at the ground don’t know much about what going on on top. We centre does run good. The problem is mostly in the East-West corridor. That is the hot spot area,” he said.

Meanwhile, efforts to contact Marchan, who said she was ready to flee the country, proved futile yesterday as calls to her cellphone went unanswered.

Marchan had previously said she did not report the alleged threats against her to the police and it is unknown whether she has approached the police for protective custody now that her private security guard was dead.

[AB.Trini]

Would be pleasing to have the minister responsible talking the same talk.

[Flex]

$200,000 a month to cut grass
LifeSport revealed:
By Asha Javeed (Express).

LifeSport paid companies $200,000 a month to cut grass in the recreation grounds where the programme was held.

Friends of Ministry of Sport officials, soldiers and a journalist were beneficiaries of those LifeSport contracts.
The Ministry of Sport submitted documents to the Ministry of Finance requesting the $200,000 a month “for (3 sports/fields) x 33 venues for 24 months”.

The funding, with 33 centres, would work out to a cost of $6.6 million a month.

It would have cost taxpayers $79.2 million in 2013.

Documents obtained from the Ministry of Sport show that nine companies were contracted to maintain 26 recreation grounds.

Of the nine companies, two companies with a common incorporator—James Dedier—maintain eight recreation grounds.

Those two companies are S.O.S West Indies Limited and Reno Energy Company Limited.

Reno Energy Company Limited, based in Edinburgh 500 in Chaguanas, has the contracts to maintain Carapo Recreation Ground, Morvant Recreation Ground, Point Fortin Recreation Ground and Samaroo Recreation Ground.

S.O.S West Indies Limited, which is based at the same address, has the contract to maintain Mt Dor Recreation Ground, La Horquetta Recreation Ground, Maraval Recreation Ground and Moruga Recreation Ground.

Contacted yesterday on the contracts, Jolene Legere, director at Reno Energy, said: “You have said who you are. I do not know who you are so I can’t speak to you.”

Roamfort Enterprises, based in Balmain, Couva, is owned by a soldier, Andy Berahazar, with another soldier, Anthony Superville, as a director.

 Roamfort was contracted to maintain four grounds—Maloney Recreation Ground, Enterprise Recreation Ground, Carenage Recreation Ground and La Romaine Recreation Ground.

Walter Alibey, a sports reporter at Newsday newspaper, through his company Agro Aggressive Organisation and Maintenance Services Limited, also received a contract from the LifeSport program me.

Alibey was the reporter on the stories about the death threat on the life of  Ruth Marchan, deputy director of Physical Education and Sport at the Ministry of Sport, and the corruption she exposed about how $34 million was paid from LifeSport funds for Math and English lessons to a well-known educator, but no work was done.

Contacted yesterday, Alibey said he started the company since 2011 and has worked for different organizations.

“They called me for the contract and I went for it,” he said.

Questioned on whether it was not a conflict of interest then for his reporting on Marchan’s death threat, he replied: “I didn’t know all this was going to happen. I didn’t foresee all this was happening.”

He said he had a friendship with Marchan for more than 20 years.

The Sunday Express was unable to find one of the nine companies which had a contract for four of the recreation grounds.

The matter is being reviewed by the Central Audit Committee of the Ministry of Finance.

The Sunday Express understands that despite the exorbitant sum paid to companies by LifeSport to maintain the grounds, they were actually being maintained by the regional corporations of the respective areas.

National Security Minister Gary Griffith yesterday said the contracts were the key to unravelling how millions of taxpayers dollars were spent.

“Giving one person tens of thousands of dollars in a brown paper bag with claims of handing it over to invisible  participants because they have no bank account has to be  a sick joke. If that is not a sign of financial mismanagement, questionable activity and incompetence, then I don’t know what is,” said Griffith.

“Jump high, jump low, no desperate PR spin with advisors to ministers openly making adverse statements about me, or paying people to assemble in front of Parliament, or senior officials of the Programme getting a handful of people together to state that there are no ghosts when it is supposed to be over 1,800, but then claim that their life is at risk because of the same Programme that they claimed was so pure, would deter me from cleaning up the Programme.

 “Read my lips—there would be no room for  ghosts, financial mismanagement, or  persons of interest in LifeSport,” he added. 

“I would ensure that no gang leader has access to State funding. I also do not believe in the practice of paying people not to commit crime. If you sleep with the Devil, there is a price to pay, and I have no intention for our citizens to pay that price. This is not a witchhunt. But I am not going to have any criminal acquire State resources and funding to fuel crime.

 “Next stop is URP (Unemployment Relief Programme). If they don’t change their ways and want to continue killing youths to fight for contracts, they would lose it. They can’t have their cake and eat it.”


PARLIAMENT PROTEST: Members of the LifeSport programme on June 27 outside Parliament at Tower D, International Waterfront Centre, Port of Spain, during their demonstration in support of the programme. —Photo: ANISTO ALVES

[Flex]

Memo for $77 million
T&T Express.

In a memo dated June 12, 2013, the permanent secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Finance wrote to Ministry of Sport PS Ashwin Creed about his request for $77,233,050 to pay off invoices for the mobilisation fee, catering/meals and coordinating services.

The PS in the Ministry of Finance observed that only $971,181 would be paid from its account at First Citizens because there were irregularities with regard to the invoices.

It was noted that:

“1. Differences with respect to the format and layout of invoices tendered by the same contractor which are dated one day apart;

2. Material differences with respect to the quoted amounts and the information on the amended invoices; and

3. Invoices were not certified by the Permanent Secretary.

“Given the above observations, it obviously appears that new invoices were generated for the LifeSport Programme February expenses, when our intent was that you would certify the originals which were returned to you,” the memo stated.

“In addition, with respect to the letters of engagement between each coordinator and the Ministry of Sport, we have observed that a Mr Hugh Grant executed the contracts for the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sport for and on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The Ministry of Finance and the Economy wishes to remind you that the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sport is the Ministry’s Accounting Officer and is the appropriate officer for executing such documents,” it said.

“Furthermore, it should be noted that whilst we are unable to approve the payment to coordinators until the contracts are executed by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sport, we have observed that there are inconsistencies in the certification of the coordinators’ invoices.

“The Ministry of Finance and the Economy is very concerned about the inconsistencies in invoices submitted for payment, most notably in respect of the fact that new invoices are being generated in lieu of our request for the original invoices to be appropriately certified,” it said. Creed is out of the country until July 31.

[Flex]

Creed denies wife got Life Sport contract.
T&T Newsday Reports.

ASHWIN CREED, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sport, yesterday denied that his wife or any member of his family had received contracts in the controversial Life Sport programme.

His denial was contained in a letter read into the record of Hansard on the instruction of Senate President Timothy Hamel-Smith.

The letter was written by a lawyer representing Creed, and dealt with allegations that Creed’s family had benefitted from contracts in the programme.

PNM Senator Faris Al-Rawi had stated in the Senate that he had been “advised” that Creed’s wife had received a $6.75 million contract.

“Mr Vice-President, I am putting this on the record and I want the Members of this Senate to listen,” Al-Rawi said on July 1 in the chamber during debate of a budget supplementation bill. “I am advised that the catering contract amounting to $6.75 million that the beneficiary of that contract, I am advised, is the wife of the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Sport.” He said $75 was being spent for a lunch.

The Senate President, under practices which are invoked whenever a member of the public would like to have their side of the story recorded, said he had received a request for correspondence to be read into Hansard and had approved it.

At the start of the Senate sitting, Hamel-Smith asked a clerk to read the letter, which had been addressed to him. The letter was penned on Creed’s behalf by attorney Ravi Rajcoomar, of the Port-of-Spain-based Invictus Chambers.

“Permit me to advise on an issue that has arisen in Parliament and in which matter I am instructed by Ashwin Creed, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sport,” Rajcoomar said. The attorney noted the press had reported on Al-Rawi’s contribution, and had, “set out an argument by the honourable Senator Faris Al-Rawi in his contribution to the Senate that my client’s wife is the recipient of a contract from Life Sport programme.”

Rajcoomar stated, “I am instructed that this argument is entirely false. My client’s wife and, in fact, no member of my client’s family are the recipients of any contracts of any form or type under the Life Sport programme. Therefore, I ask that this letter, and my client’s denial, be read into Hansard.”

Minister of Finance, Larry Howai, did not immediately respond to queries yesterday over the status of a ministry audit of the programme. The audit was due to be completed last week but its completion was reportedly postponed by one week in light of further unspecified developments.

[Sam]

So Anal Roberts still back on the job?

Nothing came out of all the bullshit then.

T&T PM have to be de worst we ever hard in T&T, she woss than Chambers.

[Flex]

Roberts: If Life Sport shows wrongdoing by my ministry I will resign forthwith
By Shaliza Hassanali (Guardian).

Sport Minister Anil Roberts says he will resign from the People’s Partnership Government forthwith if the audit into the controversial Life Sport programme shows that his ministry has been funding terrorists, criminal gangs, a militia and a sprawling palace. On Friday, Roberts finally broke his silence on the programme, which Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley has sought to link to the murder of prominent attorney Dana Seetahal.
 
In May, the programme came under scrutiny after it was reported that a Carapo-based Jamaat-Al-Muslimeen was controlling the mammoth share of the Ministry of Sport’s $113 million spent on the Life Sport programme, which the Ministry of Finance had found to be riddled with irregularities. The co-ordinator of the programme is Rajaee Ali (otherwise known as R Ali), son of the north-west leader of the Jamaat, Imam Hassan Ali.
 
It was reported that R Ali was detained by police for gang-related activities following the murder of Seetahal in May. Ten weeks after the issue raised its ugly head, Roberts, in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Guardian on Friday at his Port-of-Spain office, said while some people may interpret his silence as indicating fear or guilt, he did not want to speak out until an audit into the programme, requested by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, was done.
 
In June, Persad-Bissessar had said the results of the audit would determine the future of the programme and whether any action would be taken against Roberts.
 
End of political career

Roberts said: “If it is proven that a programme I conceptualised to help poor black people is funding terrorists, criminal gangs, and an armed militia of 250 men in a palace in Carapo...a huge compound from which they can train, operate and terrorise the people of Trinidad and Tobago, I will resign forthwith.”
 
He said if the audit showed “that the programme was giving money to a terrorist organisation to the tune of $1.5 to $3 million monthly,  had 1,400 ghost names with aliases such as Michal Jackson, Madonna, Beyonce and Kanye West, spent $8 million on a sports day for bandits, robbers and crooks, as soon as that audit comes out, the Prime Minister will not have to call me. I will write my resignation immediately. If that happened under my watch, I do not deserve to sit in this chair and be the Minister of Sport in Trinidad and Tobago.
 
That will be the end of my political career.” Last month, Diego Martin North East MP Colm Imbert said in the House of Representatives that an armed militia of about 250 men was being cultivated and funded through the corrupt administration of the Life Sport programme.
 
However, Roberts said, if the audit gave his ministry the all clear “many people may have a lot of apologising to do...some other people may have to resign too. Let the chips fall where they may because some serious decisions across the board will have to be taken.” He also warned that he stayed quiet because of his discipline, but when the contents of the audit is revealed “Anil now start to talk.”
 
Despite Cabinet’s approval for Roberts to attend a meeting at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow today, he opted to stay put because “I heard the audit is soon to come out.” The 2013 auditor general’s report, Roberts said, showed that his ministry had operated above board. “You would always have people who would try a skull. The job of the auditors is to pick up that and deal with it. If someone is found to be corrupt the police will investigate and lock up whoever did it.”
 
Roberts said that as for the daily management issues at his ministry, involving procurements, issuing of contracts and signing of cheques, “I have no control over that. This is managed by responsible employees. If it shows otherwise they will be dealt with.” Roberts believes the PNM was trying to tarnish his name and ministry in order to reclaim the D’Abadie/O’Meara seat, which the PP Government won in 2010.
 
“All the PNM sees is politics. They are so narcissistic. They want to get into power. The PNM wants to rewrite the Constitution and decide who are criminals.”
 
Country’s reputation at stake

Roberts said the allegations levied against the programme and ministry by Rowley, Imbert and PNM Senator Faris Al-Rawi were  not only grave and serious, but had far-reaching implications for T&T, as well as international implications. “It is something that has impacted on the country’s reputation domestically and outside.”
 
Asked about issues raised by National Security Minister Gary Griffith, who stated that the programme was funding ghost participants and approximately $90,000 in cash was put into paper bags and given to one person to distribute to 60 Life Sport participants, Roberts said, “Well he would have to talk for himself. I cannot speak for him. May God bless him.” Roberts said he met R Ali, who is co-ordinator of the Carapo centre, but did not know him or his father personally.
 
“I have met all 40 co-ordinators of the programme as minister.” He did not deny that “most of the participants” in the programme had criminal records. “The minister does not hand-pick anyone. Many of them would have been dead had it not been for Life Sport.” He said the programme was created to positively reshape the lives of “at risk men” who were going down the wrong path.
 
Daily, Roberts said, people would tell him “to leave those young black boys to kill one another, if they want to be bad. But I came here to help those most in need and offer my assistance.”
 
Roberts said no amount of guns, jail, bullets and batons could solve the country’s crime problem since the issue needed a different approach and one where those participants could feel appreciated, accepted and trusted. Questioned about the ministry’s deputy director of Physical Education and Sport Ruth Marchan who claimed her life was threatened, Roberts said, “anyone who is being threatened is a serious thing...they should go to the police. Let the police handle it. Other than that, Hollywood makes lots of movies.”
 
Life Sport stained for life

With all said and done, Roberts said, Life Sport was now stained for life—a stain that would be hard to remove or cleanse. “If Life Sport is stained we will come up with something else. But those who stained it, would they be men or women enough to say they were wrong and apologise? I don’t think so.” The PNM, Roberts said, has historically “been a curse on black people in Trinidad and Tobago” with their policies.
 
“The PNM hates black people. I was born a PNM. Their policies have ensured that black young men remain the highest risk [population] in society.” Of the 2,097 participants in the programme, Roberts said, “at least 98.8 per cent are Africans, with the other 1.2 per cent being dougla and Indians.” He said, “That is frightening for Rowley because they depend on black people staying poor and impoverished and beholden to the great czar of the PNM.”
 
He said the PP Government would not keep people in starvation and begging for handouts.
 
Pulled in by PM

Roberts said media reports of R Ali collecting about $1.5 million a month in profit and raking in about $18 million in the last year was what had prompted the PM to call for an audit. “As soon as this allegation was made, wherever they came from, I was called in by the Prime Minister.” Roberts said he explained his side of the story to Persad-Bissessar. “I told her I don’t know anything about that.”
 
Roberts said after the PM had listened to him, “her exact words to me were ‘these are grave allegations and it must be investigated’.” He said he agreed wholeheartedly with the PM, who informed him that she would shift the programme to the National Security Ministry “where it was intended to go anyway because of its anti-crime initiative. I was in full agreement.”
 
Shandell—a tower of strength

“Unadulterated mayhem.” That’s how Roberts described those last ten weeks of his life after the Life Sport programme was put under the microscope and attacked from all sides. In the last 70 days, Roberts said, he was under “absolute stress” due to the daily onslaught at the hands of the PNM and the media. “I thought about my young, beautiful, pregnant wife and the pressures and tension she had to be going through. She is now 23 weeks pregnant. For the last ten weeks she had to be going through stress, which she didn’t ask for.”
 
Last December, Roberts married Shandell, 22. “Yes, she knows she married a politician, but for a young mother to be going through those critical weeks, from 13 to 23 weeks of her pregnancy with all that unnecessary stress and worry, I must say she is a tower of strength. She handled it brilliantly.” Luckily, Roberts said, both mother and baby were in good health. Roberts said even his deceased mother was unfairly targeted.
 
He said social media was the most dangerous invention known to man, as cowards hid behind computers to assassinate his character and spew their unsubstantiated garbage.

Howai to get report this week

Contacted on Friday, Cheryl Lala, strategic communications adviser to the Finance Minister, said the audit into the Life Sport was in its final stages of preparation. “It is being reviewed by the CAU before being presented to the Minister of Finance.”  She did not say, however, when it will be presented to the minister. The Sunday Guardian understands that Howai is expected to receive the report early this week.

[Flex]

PM to lay LifeSport audit in Parliament today
By Asha Javeed (Express).

A CASE FOR DPP

The audit into the LifeSport programme has unearthed enough evidence to warrant a probe by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

The Express understands seve­ral senior officials from the Ministry of Sport have been identified in the report for misuse of public funds, misbehaviour in public office and con-spiracy to defraud the Government and people of Trinidad and Tobago.

The audit was completed without an interview with Ruth Marchan, the deputy director of Physical Education and Sport at the Ministry of Sport, even though one was requested by the audit committee.

Marchan, who had claimed there was a threat on her life, is under police protection after her bodyguard, Curtis “Tallman” Gibson, was murdered on June 26.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar will table the report by the Central Audit Committee into the LifeSport Programme in Parliament today, following which it will be forwarded to the DPP.

Persad-Bissessar said the decision to lay the report in Parliament was in keeping with transparency and accountability to the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

A statement issued yesterday by the Office of the Prime Minister stated the Prime Minister has noted the continued public attention and commentary regarding the LifeSport Programme.

“It should be recalled that within days of reports of possible irregularities in the programme published in the media, the Prime Minister took steps to move the programme from the Ministry of Sport to the Ministry of National Security, and instructed the Ministry of Finance to conduct a full audit into the programme. This audit has been completed and the Prime Minister has received the report,” it said.

The Express understands the report was forwarded to her by Finance Minister Larry Howai on Tuesday.

Sport Minister Anil Roberts has been reported by the Guardian as saying he would resign if it is pro­ven the programme which he conceptualised “to help poor black people is funding terrorists, criminal gangs and an armed militia of 250 men in a palace in Carapo...”.

LifeSport pays $1,500 a month to “criminal elements” to get them interested in sports. A daily meal allowance of $75 is catered for, but a contract is usually given to a catering company to provide meals for the participants.

The funding and recipients ofLifeSport were identified in an inves­tigative series by the Express into the funding to the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen. Following the stories, Persad-Bissessar directed Howai to initiate an audit into the programme and transferred it out of the Sport Ministry to the Ministry of National Security.

The programme has been riddled with financial irregularities since its inception.

LifeSport, which was funded through Government loans, has cost taxpayers some $400 milli­on. For 2014, the Government allocated just over $267 million. A further $33 million was approved in the Supplementation of the Appropriation for Fiscal Year 2014.

The Sunday Express has repor­ted on the interlocking directorships of several companies which received multiple LifeSport contracts, how the programme paid close to $200,000 a month to cut grass in LifeSport centres, and all contractors of the programme were hand-picked friends of Ministry of Sport officials, soldiers and a Newsday journalist, Walter Alibey.

National Security Minister Gary Griffith has said LifeSport will now be directed by the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force.

Pastor contradicts Anil

Last week, the Sunday Express reported the LifeSport programme has not granted scholarships to 25 members of the programme, which was contrary to statements made by Sport Minister Anil Roberts in Parliament on June 27.

Pastor Andrew Seaton, president of the Christian Victory Academy in New York, USA, has said 25 individ­uals from the controversial programme have not been granted visas or scholarships or are even currently enrolled at the academy.

And further, the pupils were not even part of the LifeSport programme but are all enrolled in sec­on­dary schools in Trinidad and Tobago.

[Flex]

PM ends programme; audit uncovers fraud, criminal supervisors, multi-million-dollar payments for no work
By Ria Taitt Political Editor (Express).

LIFESPORT BURIED

LifeSport, the brainchild and baby of Sport Minister Anil Roberts, has been laid to rest.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday announced the “immediate” termination of the controversial programme, following the tabling of the “Report of the Central Audit Committee on the Comprehensive Audit of the Payment System

of the LifeSport Programme” in the House of Representatives, at Tower D, International Waterfront Centre, Port of Spain, yesterday.

What the Prime Minister did not address was whether Minister Roberts can still find a place in her Cabinet,in the face of the damning findings.

As she disclosed some of the findings, she expressed her own “shock”, “deep, personal disappointment and dismay that a programme that was intended to save lives, to build lives, was used by a group of people for fraud and personal gain”.

The same sense of shame was mirrored on the faces of those on the Government benches. The Sport Min­is­ter, on the contrary, wore an expression of feigned bravado. His colleague, National Security Minister Gary Griffith, who had so often spoken critically about the LifeSport programme, had an air of vindication. For the People’s National Movement (PNM) MPs, their faces reflected it was a case of deju vu.

The report will be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the acting Commissioner of Police (CoP), the Integrity Commission and the head of the Public Service.

Noting the Audit Committee raised questions regarding possible complicity by officers of the minis­­try, given the widespread nature of the breaches, the Prime Minister said: “What is most shocking and disappointing is the fact that given the usually stringent nature of the bureau­cratic processes in obtaining approvals for projects, implementing programmes and monitoring progress, no action was taken to halt or prevent what the Audit Committee found.”

The Prime Minister bemoaned the fact that a group of people derailed the good intentions of the pro­gramme, giving their support to criminality, in some cases, rather than to the country’s young people. “For those who really sought to improve their lives and positively benefit from this programme, I am sorry that this had to happen,” Persad-Bissessar stated.

Because of the actions of a few, this programme will have to be halted,” she said. “However, do not des­pair .... But through other working programmes, we will reach out to our vulnerable. We will look to ways to assist vulnerable persons through other programmes, and new ones if necessary,” she said.

“We will reach you (the youth), we will help you and we will provide the opportunities you need to build your lives,” she added.

The Prime Minister assured the population as Government moved forward implementing social programmes, it would not tolerate wrong-doing, corruption and the abuse of programmes, “meant to save our people, for selfish, personal gains”.

The Prime Minister said she had instructed the Attorney General to turn the report over to the DPP and CoP “to investigate, detain and prosecute those guilty to the fullest extent of the law”.

She added that given the fact the Central Audit Committee raised the possibility of complicity of ministry officials, the report would also be referred to the Integrity Commission [which at the moment is non-functional] and the head of the Public Service “for further investigation, consideration and action”.

“Any person and any group who seeks to subvert the law and the public benefit would pay the full price of the law!” the Prime Minister declared.

The Prime Minister recalled the LifeSport programme was “conceptualised and formulated as part of a comprehensive programme to try to roll back the tide against criminals and criminality in our country. It was specifically focused on saving the lives of young men (between the ages of 16 and 25) who needed to be protected from the criminals who routinely preyed on them, and (the programme was meant instead) to help shape positive futures for these young people”.

The Prime Minister said the one important message coming out of the audit report was the urgent need for procurement laws to become fully operationalised. The procurement bill is currently before the House of Representatives. She said this issue drives home the point of how important procurement laws are to each and every person, family and community in the country.

The Prime Minister stressed while her Government would continue to champion the new procurement regime, the country can rest assured she had stood firm on the principle that progress must be underlined by integrity and benefit for the population.

LifeSport was launched in June 2012 and started in August 2012.

The Prime Minister said  the report revealed a number of discrepancies which included:

1. There were widespread breaches of proper procurement practices

2. The approval given by Cabinet was not strictly adhered to

3. Persons at the co-ordinating level may have been involved in criminal activity

4. There were several instances of fraudulent activity by suppliers to the programme

5. There may have been widespread theft of equipment from the programme

6. There may have been breaches of the Proceeds of Crime Act

7. Exorbitant and questionable payments were made in several instances

8. There was poor control and monitoring of the Programme by the Ministry of Sport.

Read the full report here: http://tinyurl.com/LifeSportAudit.

[Mose]

So he resign yet?

[Sando prince]

So he resign yet?

This is a big accusation saying why he hasn't resigned. I hope for the country sake it's not true.

Rowley said there were persons in Persad-Bissessar’s Cabinet who were “untouchable” because they are holding secrets for the Prime Minister

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Rowley-Sport-Minister-should-be-fired-for-this-scandal-268681882.html

[Flex]

Educator paid by LifeSport for no work...
By by Asha Javeed (Express).

$34m Man

He was paid $34 million from LifeSport but did no work.

But Adolphus Daniell, the owner of Daniell’s Educational Institute, has no intention of returning the money he was paid from the program me.

“The thing about it is, it is a non-issue because the only way under a contract anything is recoverable is if the other party is in default. There was never a single letter of complaint that I was in default of this contract. Not even a phone call,” he said.

Daniell, through his company EBeam Interact Ltd, was solely selec­­­ted to provide mathematics, English and technology lessons to the participants of LifeSport in 2012.

LifeSport was started in August 2012.

Daniell’s contact to provide les­sons for the programme was from Decem­ber 6, 2012, with a projected com­pletion date of September 30, 2014.

“Central Audit was informed that EBeam was sole selected mainly because of the company’s president/CEO Mr Adolphus Daniell’s track record as an educator, with respect to individuals who have struggled aca­demically,” the audit into the Life­Sport programme revealed.

The audit was tabled in Parliament by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and has been forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the acting Commissioner of Police, the Integrity Commission and the head of the Public Service.

The audit uncovered the pro­gramme was riddled with financial irregularities, had co-ordinators with criminal backgrounds, massive fraud, millions misspent, ghost centres, ghost participants, improper procurement and theft.

Daniell’s $34 million payment was the single biggest payment of the programme for no work.

EBeam was paid two tranches of $17 million. The first tranche rep­resented 50 per cent of the fee on September 2, 2013. The second pay­ment was done on February 11, 2014

“Ms Dawn Mohan, current cor­porate secretary of SporTT, however stated that since the numeracy and literacy component (N&LC) had not started by EBeam, for which it was contracted, legal advice on whether to pay EBeam the second payment as per the terms of the contract was sought. Two pieces of legal advice were received, one from Ms Lisa Solomon, the then head of Legal of SporTT, and the other from JD Sellier & Company. The opinion from JD Selli­er suggested that measures, including arbitration, be explored to avoid having to make the payments,” the audit noted.

But Daniell yesterday explained it was he who found the auditors (the Central Audit Committee) and pre­sented himself to be interviewed for the audit.

Daniell, who said he had worked at LifeSport for free for several months, said he went to the Central Audit Committee because he felt a major player in the LifeSport corrup­tion scandal was steering the story in a different way.

“Had I not gone there and really put a brake on the story, the story would have been completely different because I was being set up, sadly, to take the fall,” he told the Sunday Express in a telephone interview.
Asked to elaborate, he responded: “Anyone with a modicum of common sense would know that the crook always points in the other direction,” he said.

He said the conflicting stories put out on his contract about money being divided up, his being on the run and being kept safe by a criminal underworld forced him to go to the Central Audit Committee to share his documents.

“When you look at the story, it wasn’t that a contract was forged in the middle of the night, OK?”
He said officials of the SporTT company would have “considered all the angles of the legal advice”.

Questioned on why he did not fulfil his part of the contract, Daniell explained the ministry did not pro­vide the necessary infrastructure, which was part of its contract for him to execute his services.

“I lay out a particular type of approach. It does not make sense to do a chalk and talk, a whiteboard scenario. I mapped out all the things.

But it is necessary that these are the things which need to be done and I sent the document, first and foremost, on what are the conditions which must exist and if those conditions don’t exist, I don’t want to be part of any­thing at the time,” he said.

When the Sunday Express pointed out he still accepted payment, he ex­plained he was not the party in default in the contract.

He said at no time did the SporTT company send a letter of complaint ques­tioning why the work was not implemented.

Instead, he has a bundle of docu­ments which he sent to them reques­ting they fix the centres to begin the classes.

“I was the individual who saved the LifeSport programme from being closed down in 2013. It had nothing to do with my contract,” he said, explaining he was the one who got the ministry’s team to get the commu­nity centers.

He said he would choose the appro­priate time to release more information on his LifeSport contract.

“I want nothing materially. There is nothing they can do for me that I want. I can walk into the major uni­versities and be welcomed. For the people of this country, and a country that is in decay, you cannot allow people to tarnish perception of an indi­vidual who has served, continues to serve and who people look up to. One has a responsibility to address that and that is the only reason I am addressing it,” he said.

But he warned: “Anytime I come out, it’s timing. If I wait until two months before the election, it’s timing.
I have a lot of time. It will shake this place like an earthquake, OK?”

Central Audit was informed SporTT is currently awaiting legal advice from Senior State Counsel Russell Martineau on a way forward or what actions,if any, can be taken against EBeam.

“It is obvious that SporTT was a party to this contract, mainly because the contract was above the authorised limit of the permanent secretary, MoS (Ministry of Sport). It is evident that the ‘mind and management’ of this contract has always been and continues to be the Ministry of Sport...” the audit stated.

[Flex]

Price condemns ‘sloppy’ Life Sport audit
By SHALIZA HASSANALI (Guardian).

Life Sport programme director Cornelius Price has condemned the manner in which the auditors undertook their investigations into the controversial programme. Price yesterday said they failed to do their job thoroughly. The audit was done by the Ministry of Finance’s Central Audit Unit (CAU). In the 53-page audit, Price’s name came up several times, mainly for the criteria he used in selecting companies and the exorbitant prices paid to suppliers.

The report stated that Price was unable to provide adequate answers to the issues raised. Yesterday, a fuming Price said he did nothing wrong and was not to blame for the Life Sport fiasco. He said the auditors did not carry out the audit properly, which put Life Sport in a bad light. “The auditors, in my view, never checked certain things. I find the audit did not pay much attention to checking files.

You compiled files for them and they never checked it.” He said the auditors did not look at certain files, which he found strange. “Some of the procurement processes were outlined in the files.” Price said Life Sport was asked by the auditors for certain documents, which were supplied to them but “I don’t think they read it.”

Computers accounted for

In one instance, Price said, the auditors refused to see certain files. Price said last Friday, a package was sent to the CAU for their perusal, but he later found out that it was too late since the report was being finalised. “They say they did not get certain documents. Well, all right.” Price said he had written statements from co-ordinators who stated that the auditors queried the location of certain “boys” at certain centres, and upon receiving the information, never checked.

Price said he was interviewed by the auditors twice. Price said the auditors highlighted in the report that 200 laptop computers which cost Life Sport $998,500 were not physically located at the centres visited. However, the auditors stated that enquiries from Theodore Charles, assistant programme director, revealed that only 70 laptops were accounted for. Price said as far as he knows “all the laptops are accounted for. I don’t know what the auditors looked for. They did not check nothing. That was a pattern. They start off badly.”

‘I never encouraged anything’

He said normally the auditors would visit the ministry and talk to the permanent secretary and they would compile files and hand over documents. “In this instance, the auditors went straight to the Sport Company for information.” Price also took issue with the report, which recommended that the relevant unit of the Ministry of National Security conduct an investigation on the programme’s 43 coordinators.

“You cannot make a blanket statement. You are saying that all of them are criminals. That is madness.” He felt that the auditors could have observed all the centres and co-ordinators over a period of time, than draw their own conclusions. Tomorrow, Price said, he would hold a press conference at the Ministry of Sport to clear the air on matters that fell under his portfolio. In March, Price was appointed the programme’s director. “I wasn’t involved in certain things directly.

I could only deal with matters relating to me. When I came in I tried to put things in place. As a manager you have to make decisions on the spot. I never encouraged anything. Let the auditors go and deal with their foolishness that I encouraged things. That is foolishness.” He said any invoices that came to him would have been verified. “There are one or two things that may have slipped through. When I came into the system I saw an arrangement...that is something I was accustomed seeing.

So when I became director there was no reason to stop those payments because I saw them coming in all the time. However, there were several other payments that were stopped about two or three months ago for different areas because I became suspicious. When I checked there was nothing. I was being harassed about it.”

Missing files Price said the bills had to do with the rental of tents at Bagatelle, Barataria, Carapo, Sangre Grande and Valencia. He admitted that files had gone missing from Life Sport. “There are a lot of files that go missing sometimes. You cannot find it.” Price said the only bills he did not sign for were those for janitorial services, “until recently” when his signature was required. Those bills were previously signed off by the project unit for matters in that area.

Asked if he was scared that the PM had sent the report to the Director of Public Prosecutions and Commissioner of Police, Price said, “There is nothing to be scared about. I have not done anything wrong.” Is the audit an indictment of him? Price said, “I don’t know about any indictment of me. If you look at the report you would see things as far back as 2013.

What happened before (my time) is not my business.” The burying of Life Sport, Price said, was not the end of the world. “It finish, it finish. I wasn’t born in Life Sport. It was a good programme but it had issues.” Price said even though the programme had been scrapped, he would not be out of a job since he had other things to fall back on.

[elan]

These articles are teribbly written.

[Football supporter]

Without casting any doubts upon the honesty of these gentlemen, if was going to write a book such as "Harry Potter and the Life Sport Ghosts" my villains would be called something like:

Professor Cornelius Price and Professor Adolphus Daniel

Almost as good as Optimus Prime or Castor & Pollux Troy!!

[Flex]

$34m for no work in LifeSport, Howai: Sport Minister brought Daniell to Ministry of Finance
By Asha Javeed (Express).

IT WAS ANIL

Finance Minister Larry Howai says it was Sports Minister Anil Roberts who brought Adolphus Daniell, the educator who was paid $34 million from the LifeSport programme for no work, to his ministry.

“Mr Daniell was brought by Minister Roberts and officers of the Ministry of Sport to meet with the Ministry of Finance to demonstrate how the programme would work. After the demonstration, nothing further was heard about this initiative as far as I am aware,” said Howai in an e-mail response to questions from the Express.

The minister was responding to questions on why Daniell was solely selected for the project and whether Daniell’s $34 million contract was sent to Cabinet for approval, given the quantum of it.

“This particular contract was approved by the Sport Company (SporTT), not by the ministry. State enterprises can and do enter into contracts without Cabinet’s approval. As far as I can recall, Cabinet would not have been aware of this contract at the time that it was approved. The Ministry of Sport proceeded with it through the Sport Company rather than through the Ministry of Sport itself,” Howai explained.

The audit commissioned by Prime Minis­ter Kamla Persad-Bissessar into LifeSport had revealed that Daniell’s company, EBeam Interact, was paid $34 million, but no work was ever executed.

The audit noted: “It is obvious that SporTT was a party to this contract mainly because the contract was above the autho­rised limit of the permanent secretary, Minis­try of Sport. It is evident that the ‘mind and management’ of this contract has always been and continues to be the Ministry of Sport. The contract was drafted by MOS (Ministry of Sport) Legal, and all the conditions necessary to satisfy the readiness of the centres for the start of the Numeracy and Learning Component (N&LC) were always the responsibility of the Ministry of Sport.”

In an interview with the Sunday Express, Daniell had said he would not return the $34 million he earned from the programme because he did not default in his part of the contractual arrangement. Rather, it was the Sport Company that defaulted on its end of the arrangement because it did not provide the necessary infrastructure, which was part of its contract for him to execute his services.

Daniell said there was never a complaint by the Sport Company that the work he was contracted to do was never implemented.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Daniell pointed out the audit had echoed his sentiments that the centres were not in a state of readiness.

Daniell quoted from the audit, which stated: “Central Audit noted that most of the centres visited were not in a state of readiness to accommodate the N&LC. To name a few, Covigne Road, Four Roads, Cocorite, Bagatelle, River Estate, St Paul Street, Morvant, Barataria, Carapo, Pinto Road, Malabar Train Line 1 and 2, etc.

“Furthermore, a number of participants have indicated their interest in pursuing vocational training instead of learning mathematics and English. These factors, together with the significant reduction in attendance, may have further reduced the number of participants interested in the N&LC of the programme.”

EBeam was paid two tranches of $17 million. The first tranche represented 50 per cent of the fee, on September 2, 2013. The second payment was done on February 11, 2014.

Daniell claimed it was because of him the programme was not shut down in 2013 and he had worked for the LifeSport programme for free. Daniell had said Howai could attest to this because of his meeting with him.

When the question was put to Howai, he said his only interaction with Daniell was in the meeting that Roberts had requested.

Asked to respond to the statement the audit was “sloppy”, made by LifeSport programme director Cornelius Price in a Sunday Guardian article yesterday, Howai responded: “I am not aware of the context in which the allegation that the audit was sloppy is being made, but all of the supporting documentation is available to support the various statements that were made in the audit.

“I expect that a lot of allegations will be made by various persons associated with the programme in a direct or indirect attempt to try to prove their innocence or even to drag as many persons through the mud with them as possible, but the Ministry of Finance and the Economy stands by the results of the audit and the professionalism of the senior officers of the Ministry and its overall position in this matter,” he stated.

Last Friday, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar laid the audit in Parliament and said she had forwarded a copy of it to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Commissioner of Police, Integrity Commission and head of the Public Service.

The audit revealed the programme has been riddled with financial irregularities; had co-ordinators with criminal backgrounds; massive fraud; millions misspent; ghost centres; ghost participants; improper procurement; and theft were some of the findings.

While millions were lost in padded invoices to contractors, Daniell’s $34 million payment was the single biggest payment of the programme for no work.

SporTT is currently awaiting legal advice from senior State counsel Russel Martineau on a way forward or what actions, if any, can be taken against EBeam.

The Express tried unsuccessfully yesterday to reach Roberts for comment by telephone calls and texts to his cellular phone.

‘Daniell Institute of Learning not associated with Aldolphus Daniell’

Zakiya Daniel, managing director of the Daniell Institute of Learning, has denied Adolphus Daniell is in any way associated with the institute.

She was responding to a Sunday Express article.

Adolphus Daniell was named in the audit of the LifeSport programme as having received $34 million, but had done no work associated with the programme.

In a letter to the Express yesterday, Zakiya Daniel said Adolphus Daniell is her father.

Following is the letter from Zakiya Daniel:

I refer to the article printed in today’s Express on Page 3, “Daniell gets $34m for LifeSport lessons”, in which a picture of the Daniell Institute of Learning building is featured captioned, “PLACE OF LEARNING: Daniell’s Educational Institute in St James yesterday. The school also has locations in Port of Spain and San Fernando.”

The Daniell Institute of Learning is in no way associated with the Mr Aldolphus Daniell, the subject of the article. Although I am Mr Daniell’s daughter, he is neither a director, co-owner, shareholder nor does he have any interest or involvement whatsoever in the company, Daniell Institute of Learning.

I am the owner of the Daniell Institute of Learning Limited. I did not receive so much as a telephone call to confirm whether my business bears any association to Adolphus Daniell. Furthermore, this article may negatively impact my business as members of the public may erroneously form the view as a result of your article and photograph, that my business is connected with Adolphus Daniell and/or the controversial LifeSport programme.

Yours sincerely,
Zakiya Daniel
Managing Director

[Peong]

Ok the reporters should have confirmed current links but isn't he the founder?

[Tenorsaw]

Trinidad is a joke...that's all I have to say.  That oil and gas money will run out one day.