In the glob­al and lo­cal en­er­gy sec­tor, there are many cor­rup­tions risks of which cit­i­zens, com­pa­nies and Gov­ern­ment should be aware and vig­i­lant. These risks ap­pear at dif­fer­ent phas­es. They can emerge at the stage of li­cence and con­tract award to the com­pa­ny, the reg­is­tra­tion stage where ben­e­fi­cial own­er­ship in­for­ma­tion of com­pa­nies, the Gov­ern­ment part­ners with, is dis­closed. The risks and ac­tors are var­ied. These in­clude but are not lim­it­ed to bribery, col­lu­sion, po­lit­i­cal cap­ture, con­flict of in­ter­est, use of shell com­pa­nies and mon­ey laun­der­ing and ter­ror­ist fi­nanc­ing. Mit­i­gat­ing all these risks can prove chal­leng­ing. How­ev­er, by de­moc­ra­tis­ing da­ta and dis­clos­ing crit­i­cal in­for­ma­tion coun­tries can lessen these risks. The avail­abil­i­ty, ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty and abil­i­ty to use of da­ta for cit­i­zens and an­ti-cor­rup­tion agen­cies is key. The Ex­trac­tive In­dus­tries Trans­paren­cy Ini­tia­tive (EITI) dis­clos­es da­ta aimed at mit­i­gat­ing cor­rup­tion.

This is the sixth edi­tion of a sev­en-part se­ries fea­tur­ing sec­ondary school stu­dents pro­vid­ing their thoughts on En­vi­ron­men­tal, So­cial, and Gov­er­nance (ESG) is­sues as part of the HAR­CON Na­tion­al Youth Sus­tain­abil­i­ty and ESG Pi­lot Project

Timed to co­in­cide with the start of the long va­ca­tion for pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary school chil­dren at the end of next week, WiLoan, the small loans di­vi­sion of the re­gion­al dig­i­tal pay­ments plat­form, Wi­Pay, has em­barked on a dri­ve to de­liv­er lend­ing so­lu­tions to em­ploy­ees.

More than one month has elapsed since the June 4 an­nounce­ment by NCB Fi­nan­cial Group (NCBFG) that it in­tend­ed to raise US$300 mil­lion bond, but there has been near si­lence on the state of the in­ter­na­tion­al cap­i­tal mar­kets of­fer.

Pro­fes­sor of Eco­nom­ics, Roger Ho­sein be­lieves that the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Gov­ern­ment’s first Mid-Year Bud­get Re­view is an at­tempt to sta­bilise the econ­o­my.

While Caribbean Air­lines (CAL) has rein­tro­duced late-night flights be­tween T&T, ef­fec­tive Ju­ly 1, To­ba­go hote­liers ar­gue that the prob­lem is not just about flight num­bers—it’s about re­li­a­bil­i­ty, book­ing sys­tems, co­or­di­na­tion and greater con­nec­tiv­i­ty.

Preda­tor Oil & Gas Hold­ings’ planned ac­qui­si­tions of Chal­lenger En­er­gy Group’s (CEG) op­er­a­tions in T&T has hit a de­lay.

It is im­por­tant to in­vest in start­up busi­ness­es to help them com­pete in a tech-dri­ven econ­o­my.

Methanex Cor­po­ra­tion, the Cana­di­an methanol com­pa­ny that op­er­ates on the Point Lisas In­dus­tri­al Es­tate, has com­plet­ed the US$1.2bil­lion ac­qui­si­tion of OCI Glob­al’s in­ter­na­tion­al methanol busi­ness.

The Cus­toms and Ex­cise Di­vi­sion has fi­nal­ly re­port­ed to stake­hold­ers that the Cus­toms Bor­der Con­trol Sys­tem (CBCS) or ASY­CU­DA, is op­er­a­tional, but some users may still be ex­pe­ri­enc­ing chal­lenges with the clear­ance of their goods.

The Steel Work­ers’ Union (SWUTT) is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to in­ter­vene in the drawn-out liq­ui­da­tion of the Arcelor­Mit­tal steel plant at Point Lisas, as the process is stalling pay­ment of mil­lions in sev­er­ance to for­mer em­ploy­ees.

Gar­ry Olsen, an ex­pe­ri­enced prop­er­ty de­vel­op­er from up­state New York, first vis­it­ed To­ba­go as part of an in­ter­na­tion­al ho­tel con­sul­tan­cy 40 years ago. In sub­se­quent vis­its to the is­land, he spot­ted some flat land on the wind­ward side of the is­land in the com­mu­ni­ty of Rox­bor­ough and thought to him­self that it would make a great de­vel­op­ment.