Caption: Port of Spain MP Keith Scotland. AZP News/Azlan Mohammed
By Prior Beharry
IN an attempt to deal with the escalating crime rates and issues within the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has expanded the Cabinet to 24 members, with the appointment of a new junior minister in the Ministry of National Security in Port of Spain MP Keith Scotland, SC.
During a post-Cabinet media briefing at Whitehall on Thursday, Dr Rowley announced the appointment of the recently minted senior counsel Scotland as the Minister in the Ministry of National Security.
Dr Rowley cited mounting pressures from criminal elements and expressed concerns about the current Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds being spread thin across various responsibilities.
The murder toll for the year has crossed 350.
He said Hinds may be “distracted” by his large portfolio and cited a list of his duties including protecting T&T’s airspace and territorial waters, the cadet force, citizenship, the defence force, defence force reserves, drug enforcement interdiction, drug trafficking and money laundering, forensic services, DNA services, global security issues, immigration, intelligence, internal security, management of illegal immigrants and deportees, disaster management and much more.
Dr Rowley said, “There are five areas that I expect that Minister Scotland would focus on, not the least of which is the police, and of course offender management, management of illegal immigrants, drug trafficking and money laundering, along with drug enforcement.”
Scotland could no longer be the chairman of the Parliament Committee on National Security and the long-time criminal attorney will also have to give up his law practice to take up his cabinet appointment.
He will be sworn-in at President’s House on Friday morning.
In response to questions about the timing of the decision and the delay in recognising the need for additional resources in the National Security Ministry, Dr Rowley said that the National Security Council had previously sufficed, but recent developments necessitated a more concentrated effort in the realm of security and law enforcement.
There have already been three national security ministers under Dr Rowley in his second term as prime minister, namely Brig Gen Edmund Dillon, Energy Minister Stuart Young and now Hinds.
