Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo has as­sured nurs­es, teach­ers and oth­er pub­lic sec­tor work­ers still await­ing the con­clu­sion of salary ne­go­ti­a­tions that fi­nan­cial re­lief is on the way. How­ev­er, the nec­es­sary mon­e­tary al­lo­ca­tion for them will be made in the 2026/2027 Bud­get pack­age once on­go­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions and cal­cu­la­tions are com­plet­ed.

Teach­ers and nurs­es had mixed re­ac­tions af­ter Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo in­di­cat­ed that fi­nan­cial re­lief for pub­lic sec­tor work­ers, who are still await­ing the con­clu­sion of salary ne­go­ti­a­tions and back­pay, will be pro­vid­ed through al­lo­ca­tions in the 2026/2027 bud­get.

For­mer fi­nance min­is­ter Colm Im­bert has ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of dis­hon­est­ly tak­ing cred­it for Trinidad and To­ba­go’s im­proved Moody’s out­look from a neg­a­tive to sta­ble sta­tus, ar­gu­ing that the in­ter­na­tion­al rat­ings agency’s de­ci­sion was dri­ven by high­er oil and gas prices linked to con­flict in the Mid­dle East, rather than Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of the econ­o­my.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day an­nounced that she in­tends to file a re­port to the po­lice for a crim­i­nal probe to be launched in­to Op­po­si­tion MP Kei­th Scot­land for al­leged­ly con­spir­ing to de­fraud a State en­ti­ty.

The Op­po­si­tion has for­mal­ly writ­ten to House Speak­er Jagdeo Singh seek­ing clar­i­fi­ca­tion on al­le­ga­tions of bias in­volv­ing par­lia­men­tary staff and con­cerns over the con­duct of Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness Bar­ry Padarath.

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath is re­ject­ing sug­ges­tions that he at­tempt­ed to in­tim­i­date par­lia­men­tary staff dur­ing last Fri­day’s chaot­ic Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee meet­ing, in­sist­ing in­stead that his ac­tions were aimed at iden­ti­fy­ing in­di­vid­u­als linked to what he be­lieves is a pat­tern of bias against Gov­ern­ment MPs with­in Par­lia­ment.

As de­bate on the Mid-Year Bud­get Re­view to adopt the re­port of the Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee con­tin­ued in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yes­ter­day, the pub­lic gallery was filled with vis­i­tors, Gov­ern­ment sup­port­ers and school­child­ren.

Fi­nance Sec­re­tary Petal-Ann Roberts says the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) is sat­is­fied with its al­lo­ca­tion in the Mid-Year Bud­get Re­view.

Econ­o­mist and for­mer min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance, Mar­i­ano Browne, has cau­tioned against any move to al­low the whole­sale ex­change of old $100 ban­knotes, say­ing such a de­ci­sion would raise se­ri­ous ques­tions about un­ex­plained wealth and cor­rup­tion.

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie says the Gov­ern­ment will not back down from its crack­down on il­le­gal PH dri­vers, de­spite calls from the Op­po­si­tion for le­nien­cy.

Dis­charged from hos­pi­tal on­ly yes­ter­day, the moth­er of 12-year-old Mer­cedez Layne will be close­ly mon­i­tored to­day as she bids a fi­nal farewell to her child, rel­a­tives said.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is call­ing for greater care and pro­tec­tion for the na­tion’s el­der­ly, say­ing se­nior cit­i­zens de­serve to spend their lat­er years in dig­ni­ty and peace, not fear.