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Rowley: Air Jamaica bleeding T&T ‘like a chop neck’

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley said yesterday Air Jamaica was bleeding Trinidad and Tobago “like a chop neck”. “Right now nobody knows what the Minister of Finance is doing by bankrolling CAL. All he is doing is giving them permission to go and borrow money short term. As of now we don’t know how much money they have borrowed and they writing off $200 million and the CAL board is having a generally good time as you see in the behaviour of (vice chairman) Mohan Jaikaran,” Rowley said. He said the airline was now “absolutely bankrupt”.

DON’T BLAME ME

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Former controversial Caribbean Airlines (CAL) chairman George Nicholas says he’s not to blame for the company’s present financial state.
The six-year-old airline, of which Nicholas was the chairman for 16 months, has been in the red for the past three years and has suffered millions in losses and write-offs during the same period.
Nicholas’s response was in a statement of case he filed in the High Court against publisher Maxie Cuffie, for a column Cuffie wrote in the Trinidad Guardian on April 21, 2013 titled “CAL Heads for Another Crash”.

Chairman defends board, blames ex-workers

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - CAL chairman Rabindra Moonan yesterday defended his board’s decisions in the midst of financial challenges. The six-year-old state company has found itself managing a billion-dollar debt and having to write off millions in losses owing to mismanagement of the company’s cargo revenues and credit card fraud. In a telephone interview with the Express yesterday, Moonan said the board had “settled down” and was trying to take the organisation forward.

CARICOM HEADS VEX OVER CAL

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Shareholder governments of the regional airline LIAT say the T&T Government’s subsidy to State-owned Caribbean Airlines (CAL) is a violation of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs CARICOM.
Dr Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, speaking at the end of a shareholders’ meeting of LIAT in Barbados, said the subsidy to CAL also violated the Common Air Services Agreement among CARICOM member countries and had resulted in substantial losses to LIAT.

Government to disclose financial position of Caribbean Airlines

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Finance Minister Larry Howai is expected to detail the financial position of the state-owned Caribbean Airlines (CAL) on Tuesday amid media reports that the airline has had to write off millions of dollars in losses owing to mismanagement and credit card fraud. Howai is due to inform the Senate on the airline’s finances over the period January to December 2012.

Linking the sightless with the blind

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua - The aviation industry in the English-speaking Caribbean has always been one that meddling West Indian politicians find irresistible. Our leaders seem to stumble over each other in their eagerness to be identified with what is generally regarded as a glamourous business. It matters not that our politicians are clueless about the business of running a profitable airline. This is particularly unfortunate when one considers that even professional airline managers find the industry a difficult one.

No-confidence motion debate on Monday

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Debate on the motion of no-confidence against Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and the People’s Partnership Government is set for next Monday. Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley who filed the motion, was not prepared to comment on the view that the motion was frivolous. “I will make my case on Monday,” he said, adding that a no-confidence motion was not about defeat or victory but about what is said in the debate.

Canadian minister visiting Caribbean countries

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, CMC – Canada’s Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Diane Ablonezy arrives here on Tuesday as part of a visit to seven Caribbean countries. Ablonezy will hold talks with Prime Minister Dr. Denzil L. Douglas during her two day visit. Ablonzey, who is now winding up a visit to the Bahamas, will also visit Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. “Canada shares a special, historic relationship with the countries of the Caribbean.

Regional foreign ministers urged to adopt new paradigm to global environment

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC –Caribbean Community (CARICOM) foreign ministers Tuesday began two days of discussions here amidst calls for the region to adopt a new paradigm in dealing with a changing global environment. “It is therefore critical that our diplomatic encounters must be able to advance and expand our own political and economic space and we must do so starting right here in the Caribbean,” said the incoming Chairman of the CARICOM Council for Foreign and Community Affairs (COFCOR), Winston Dookeran.

Revenue dip . . . But Govt spending to jump to $3.87 billion

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - The challenges confronting the just re-elected Freundel Stuart administration are already showing up in the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure laid in Parliament yesterday. Government is projecting that total revenue coming into state coffers for the 2013-2014 financial year will fall to $2.59 billion from the $2.62 billion approved for 2012 -2013.

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