An­a­lysts are ques­tion­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s an­nounce­ment that spe­cial op­er­a­tions un­der the new law will be lim­it­ed to ar­eas con­trolled by the Gov­ern­ment, with crim­i­nol­o­gist Dau­rius Figueira warn­ing the ap­proach could fu­el po­lit­i­cal back­lash and in­ten­si­fy crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty else­where.

Care­nage res­i­dents are di­vid­ed on a re­cent de­ci­sion by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to with­draw spe­cial op­er­a­tions ac­tiv­i­ties from con­stituen­cies held by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), with some say­ing the de­ci­sion would not af­fect them, while oth­ers are urg­ing her to re­con­sid­er.

Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee says the Gov­ern­ment’s pro­posed changes to the coun­try’s pro­cure­ment laws are not an at­tack on the Of­fice of Pro­cure­ment Reg­u­la­tion (OPR) or ret­ri­bu­tion for its in­ter­ven­tion in a con­tro­ver­sial $3.4 bil­lion HDC pro­cure­ment ex­er­cise, but are in­tend­ed to al­low the State to de­liv­er goods and ser­vices to cit­i­zens faster.

Joint Con­sul­ta­tive Coun­cil for the Con­struc­tion In­dus­try (JCC) pres­i­dent Fazir Khan is warn­ing that Gov­ern­ment’s pro­posed amend­ments to the pub­lic pro­cure­ment law could weak­en safe­guards in­tend­ed to pro­tect tax­pay­ers’ mon­ey, even as he ac­knowl­edges that the cur­rent sys­tem needs re­form.

The Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) has un­veiled a new 100-unit res­i­den­tial de­vel­op­ment in Cau­ra, with the cor­po­ra­tion say­ing the homes are com­plet­ed and await­ing de­liv­ery to prospec­tive home­own­ers.

Gov­ern­ment is propos­ing sig­nif­i­cant changes to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s pub­lic pro­cure­ment regime, ex­pand­ing the cat­e­gories of State spend­ing that can take place out­side the nor­mal pro­cure­ment rules while ex­press­ly lim­it­ing what the Of­fice of Pro­cure­ment Reg­u­la­tion (OPR) can do fol­low­ing an in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice is be­ing set up to con­tin­u­ous­ly fail the pop­u­la­tion be­cause of chron­ic un­der-re­sourc­ing, de­te­ri­o­rat­ing in­fra­struc­ture and a lack of con­sul­ta­tion with prison of­fi­cers, ac­cord­ing to Prison Of­fi­cers As­so­ci­a­tion (POA) pres­i­dent Ger­ard Gor­don.

Four men, in­clud­ing a Venezue­lan na­tion­al, have been de­nied bail af­ter ap­pear­ing in court charged with traf­fick­ing over $200 mil­lion in co­caine. 

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath has threat­ened to sue Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers' Union (CWU) sec­re­tary gen­er­al Joanne Ogeer for defama­tion over re­cent com­ments she made in re­la­tion to mat­ters at ma­jor­i­ty state-owned com­pa­ny Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TSTT).

The ex­plo­sion at RRM Plaza on High Street, which sent shards of glass fly­ing and in­jured one per­son, re­mained un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion yes­ter­day as fire pre­ven­tion of­fi­cers re­turned to the scene to de­ter­mine what caused the blast.

A po­lice con­sta­ble has been charged with al­leged­ly trans­port­ing a pur­port­ed gang mem­ber af­ter he was dis­charged from hos­pi­tal last week.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has trav­elled to New York to at­tend high-lev­el meet­ings and events be­ing held along­side the 81st Ses­sion of the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly.