Sunday across the region. The kind of Sunday where three countries produce three completely different species of chaos and we pretend this is normal. Pour your rum punch. Here is what is happening.

JAMAICA — The Pension Scandal Gets Worse

Retired police officers cannot pay their light bills

The Sunday Gleaner’s lead story this morning is devastating. Retired Jamaican police officers — some who served three decades — are unable to pay basic household bills because their pensions have never been properly processed. Retiree “Marlon Campbell” (pseudonym) told the paper he has been getting an interim monthly pension of just over J$100,000 for nearly a decade, still waiting for his final pension letter.

The Jamaica Police Federation, via chairman Sergeant Arleen McBean, has written to Deputy PM Horace Chang requesting urgent meetings. The Ministry of National Security says a specialised “Pension Hub” was formalised in 2025, with 331 files at various stages as of February 2026. The Ministry is targeting completion of the current backlog by “late July 2026.” Retirees have heard this song before.

UHWI tax-exemption misuse: “Not my bill”

Scientific and Medical Supplies Managing Director Howard Lau has rejected the Auditor General’s findings that his company benefited from misuse of the University Hospital of the West Indies’ tax-exemption status for imports. He has signalled he has no intention of repaying a cent. The audit conclusions are dismissed “outright.” The specialised waste bins in question belong to the hospital, not his company, per Lau. The Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis disagrees. The Public Accounts Committee is circling.

The consultant who couldn’t complete the turnaround plan

The Canadian consulting firm Williams Pragmatic Services (WPS) — contracted to draft an operation and turnaround plan for UHWI for millions of dollars — is now saying the hospital did not turn over hundreds of documents critical to the work. CEO Hodine Williams is dismissing questions about consultant competence. UHWI lawyers are presumably dismissing invoices. The taxpayer presumably pays either way.

Holness honoured in New York

PM Andrew Holness received the Legacy Award at the American Foundation for the University of the West Indies gala in New York on Friday. The award notwithstanding, the local headlines he returns to read: pension scandal, UHWI tax misuse, consultancy blame-trading. Timing is everything in politics.

Reggae Girlz tonight

Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz play Guyana’s Golden Jaguars tonight at 7:00 pm at the National Stadium. The match is the climax of their Concacaf Women’s World Cup Qualifier campaign. Hubert Busby has the squad “buzzing.” Vybz Kartel has publicly endorsed the team. The energy is building. Golden Jaguars, respectfully, may wish to buckle up.

TRINIDAD — The Cumuto Cemetery Discovery

56 bodies found illegally dumped

Brace yourselves. On Saturday, two workers from a popular funeral home were found at the Cumuto Cemetery attempting to illegally dispose of 56 human remains in a shallow grave. Fifty-six. The T&T Police Service has launched an urgent investigation. This is the kind of story that sounds like dark satire but is not. A funeral home — the business whose entire premise is dignified handling of human remains — was caught disposing of bodies in a manner that, in any reasonable society, would be the opening scene of a horror film rather than the front page of a Saturday paper.

How does this happen? What corners were being cut? What happened to the families’ payments? What happened to the paperwork? The investigation will, one hopes, produce answers. Meanwhile, Trinidadian grief has been compounded by Trinidadian disbelief.

The Fair Trading Commission is still not functioning

Economist Dr. Ronald Ramkissoon, former chairman of the Fair Trading Commission, is warning that continued delays in restoring the Commission are undermining the country’s business environment at a critical juncture. Without a functioning Commission, investor confidence erodes and the framework for fair competition weakens. This is the kind of institutional failure that does not make daily headlines but quietly hollows out a country’s economy over years.

The 6:1 nurse-to-patient ratio takes effect April 28

President of the T&T National Nursing Association, Idi Stuart, confirms that a new policy establishing a six-to-one patient-to-nurse ratio will take effect April 28. This is progress of a sort. Whether the nursing workforce is actually large enough to staff this ratio across all hospitals is the question. The math of healthcare staffing in the Caribbean remains unforgiving.

Shooting at Edinburgh 500

A 32-year-old woman is dead and two men injured following a shooting at a home on Victoria Drive West, Edinburgh 500, on Saturday evening. TTPS investigations ongoing. The Caribbean’s crime numbers remain what they remain.

Domestic departure lounge at Piarco closes April 24

The domestic departure lounge at Piarco International Airport will be permanently closed from April 24. Trinidad-Tobago inter-island travel is being restructured. Practical consequences for Tobago-bound passengers will unfold in the days ahead.

BARBADOS — Fitch Warns, Fiscal Picture Holds

Fitch: tourism pressures from US-Iran war

Fitch Ratings has warned that Barbados faces tourism pressures and energy price risks from the US-Iran conflict, though the baseline scenario assumes minimal fiscal impact if global oil averages US$70/barrel in 2026. The Government has mitigated by absorbing 50% of electricity price increases, locking in imported fuel prices at US$92/barrel, and capping fuel taxes for three months. Debt-to-GDP is projected to fall to 91.3% in 2026 from 95% in 2025. Foreign reserves are at US$1.6 billion (five months of external payments coverage).

The fiscal balance is projected to move to neutral in 2026/27 and a small surplus (0.1%) in 2027/28. By the standards of the region, Barbados remains the more disciplined fiscal story. By the standards of what a country with Barbados’ debt burden should be, there is more work to do.

Student TV initiative launches

The Ministry of Education Transformation is launching Student TV, which will be rolled out during 2026 elections for the National Student Council. Getting student voices onto the world stage is the stated goal. Implementation will tell the story.

Cohobblopot returns

Culture Minister Shane Archer has officially announced the return of Cohobblopot — Barbados’s pre-Crop Over cultural extravaganza that was a staple of the festival calendar before being paused. Its return is culturally significant and will be welcomed by a generation who grew up with it and a younger generation who has only heard about it.

Mental health crisis among children

The Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) reports that children and teenagers account for 40 percent of calls to the national mental health line. This is a pandemic-era legacy that has not reversed. Schools, parents, and policymakers need to be treating this with the urgency it deserves. Barbados has good bones for responding — strong education system, engaged civil society — but the scale of the problem is outrunning the response.

Man remanded in Bank Hall fire death case

A man has been remanded in connection with the Bank Hall fire death investigation. Details are emerging. The community continues to grieve.

REGIONAL

IMF: Middle East war will have uneven Caribbean impact

The International Monetary Fund has warned that the US-Iran conflict will register mixed economic impacts across Caricom. Tourism-dependent economies (Barbados, Antigua, St. Lucia) face demand risk. Energy-exporting economies (T&T, Guyana) face price upside with accompanying volatility. Import-dependent economies (most of the rest) face inflation risk. The one certainty is that no Caribbean economy is insulated from what happens in the Strait of Hormuz.

Holness calls for regional leaders meeting on Caricom Secretary General

PM Andrew Holness has called for a meeting of regional leaders to address concerns surrounding the reappointment of Caricom Secretary-General Dr. Carla Barnett. Discussions are reportedly already taking place behind the scenes. This is the kind of intra-Caricom political manoeuvre that rarely makes headlines but shapes how the region actually functions.

SPORTS

Reggae Girlz vs. Golden Jaguars — 7:00 pm tonight, Kingston

The climax of the Concacaf Women’s World Cup Qualifier for both nations. Jamaica at home, needing the result to keep their campaign alive. Guyana’s Golden Jaguars arriving with pride and the awareness that home crowds are unforgiving. Whatever the scoreline, Caribbean women’s football has raised its profile enormously this qualifying cycle.

T&T Senior Women’s out of 2026 cycle

Trinidad and Tobago’s senior women’s football team will not be going to the 2026 Concacaf cycle after a 2-0 loss to El Salvador on Friday. Former national player and coach Kenneth Butcher has seen enough and is publicly calling for accountability. The T&T football conversation will be loud this week.

Reggae Boyz FIFA World Cup bid ends

Jamaica lost 1-0 to the Democratic Republic of Congo in their intercontinental play-off final. DR Congo qualifies for their first World Cup in 52 years. The Reggae Boyz go home to regroup. Michael “Zun” Clarke, former national footballer, said the result was not surprising. It still hurts.

Enjoy your Sunday. Eat well. Call someone. Light a candle for the Cumuto families.

— The Caribbean Daily Brief