By Prior Beharry
THE motion to approve the notifications of the five people to be appointed to the Police Service Commission (PolSC) takes place from 1.30 pm on Wednesday in the Lower House.
The notifications were sent to Parliament by President Paula-Mae Weekes after consultation with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bisssessar. The nominees are retired Justice of Appeal Judith Jones, financial consultant Maxine Attong, wealth management expert Maxine King, attorney Rajiv Persad and security expert Ian Ramdhanie.
The motion has been laid by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and is up for affirmative resolution meaning it has to be debated and passed by a simple majority in the House of Representatives. The ruling Peoples National Movement (PNM) has that majority.
Dr Rowley will pilot the debate on the motion.
The sitting comes weeks after the collapse of the PolSC with the resignations of four of its members.
This was in the wake of the contract of former police commissioner (CoP) Gary Griffith ending on August 17, and controversy over the appointment of a new police commissioner.
The resignations from the PolSC included Courtney McNish on September 21, followed by Susan Craig-James on September 25, Roger Kawalsingh on September 27, and chairman Bliss Seepersad on September 30.
Deputy CoP McDonald Jacob acted as CoP after Griffith went on voluntarily leave.
Jacob’s acting appointment ended on October 15 when Griffith was expected to return, but a court ruling in a matter brought by activist Ravi Balgobin Maharaj deemed the acting appointments of both Jacob and Griffith to be illegal.
Therefore the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) has no commissioner, but Jacob, in his substantive post of DCP, has been appointed the accounting officer of the TTPS by Finance Minister Colm Imbert.
Coincidentally, the case where Griffith was challenging his suspension as acting police commissioner comes up for a virtual hearing on Wednesday at 2pm in the High Court. This matter is expected to be short-lived as Justice Nadia Kangaloo had ruled in the Balgobin Maharaj case that the acting appointments of the two top posts in the TTPS were null and void.
