NEWS
Attorney wants independent audit into TTPS’s $800M overtime bill
Attorney Keron Ramkhalwhan is calling for an independent audit into the management of overtime within the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), following revelations that nearly $800 million was paid to police officers in just two years and eight months. Ramkhalwhan, who filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) application on behalf of citizen Vishal Persad to get the information, says the growing expenditure raises serious questions about staffing, accountability and the management of police resources. “Overtime is meant to be the exception, not the rule,” Ramkhalwhan said yesterday. “Yet, figures disclosed under a Freedom of Information request show close to $800 million in overtime payments in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, and under the present Commissioner, Allister Guevarro, the bill appears to be climbing, not falling.” Read more here
TTPS overtime tops $793m in 32 months
The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) has paid $793.89 million in overtime to officers between January 2024 and August 2026. Overtime payments in the first eight months of this year have already exceeded the total amounts recorded in all of 2024 and 2025. The figures were contained in a response to a Freedom of Information application submitted on August 20 by attorney Keron Ramkhalwhan on behalf of Vishal Persad. Read more here
POLITICS
Panday, NCRHA clash over conditions at Mt Hope A&E
Patriotic Front leader Mickela Panday has called for urgent action over conditions at the Accident and Emergency Department of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) in Mt Hope, describing the situation as a healthcare system “in deep crisis.” In a social media post on Wednesday, Panday said she spent six hours at the facility while following up on a homeless man who had been admitted from the Chaguanas Health Facility on Friday. She said she was shocked by the conditions, describing the department as resembling a “war zone.” Elderly patients, including some who were unable to walk, were lying on dilapidated beds or sitting in chairs, many without pillows, blankets or sheets, she said. Panday said doctors, nurses and patient care assistants were working “tirelessly under impossible conditions,” adding that she did not blame the staff. Read more here
Padarath: Knock a glass with me
Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath has responded to a call by Opposition Chief Whip Marvin Gonzales to resign with a challenge of his own: “knock a glass” of brown tap water with him. The Public Utilities Minister’s response followed a social media video by Gonzales yesterday, lambasting him for discoloured water affecting some communities and calling on him to “step down”. Gonzales also criticised Padarath for stating that the “brown” water being received by some communities in Diego Martin, Port of Spain and Central and South Trinidad was safe for domestic use. Read more here
BUSINESS
A pre-budget commentary
On Monday, the Minister of Finance will present the 2027 National Budget. There will be the usual focus on the measures announced, the taxes adjusted, the incentives offered, the programmes funded and the projects promised. In our enthusiasm to get to these matters, we often forget to analyze the economy that the minister is actually budgeting for. That question is important because any budget is ultimately a financial plan built on an economic reality. The stronger the economy, the greater the room for revenue growth, investment, employment and fiscal flexibility. A weak economy narrows those choices and so the context is as important as the content. The starting point for FY2027 can be framed around five areas: growth, jobs, private sector activity, the external accounts and the fiscal position. We will address each in turn but the most fashionable place to start is with growth. Read more here
REGIONAL
Guyana’s rise rests on decades of reform and institution-building, not oil alone
Guyana’s economic transformation was built on decades of reform and institution-building that began long before oil, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its 2026 Article IV report, concluded by the Executive Board this week.The Fund again recognised Guyana as the only one of the 37 countries in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative to reach high-income status, a point it first made in its 2025 review. This year’s report highlighted that Guyana’s public debt, around 29 per cent of GDP at the end of 2025, is now among the lowest in the Western Hemisphere. A joint IMF and World Bank analysis rates the risk of both external and overall debt distress as low. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Firing squad execution to be livestreamed, Pentagon says
The public will be able to watch the execution of a former US Army major by firing squad, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said. A Defense Department official told the BBC the execution of Nidal Hasan, who shot dead 13 unarmed US soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, would be livestreamed. It is believed it would be the first public execution in the US in almost a century. The decision to livestream it is "unprecedented in the modern era" and "on uncertain legal terrain," said John Mills, a lawyer who works with inmates sentenced to death. Read more here
9th October 2026