By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE new process to select a commissioner of police is not new and may just be a means of removing present Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith.
Political leader of the United National Congress (UNC) Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Monday night stated that the proposed process by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi was nothing new.
She said that Al-Rawi stated the process would be more simplified but “nothing is further from the truth.”
The new process removes the need for international advertisements for the post but that was already in place since 2015, she said.
Persad-Bissessar said, “If he is aware of that, then he is intentionally trying to mislead the population. Is this an attempt to distract the population from some other sinister motive? The Government is moving to change the law to put in place their hand-picked commissioner of police.”
She said half of the Cabinet was not in favour of Griffith retaining the post but he seemed to be the population’s preferred choice and Government was blatantly politically interfering.
Persad-Bissessar explained that there will be a removal of an independent selection firm which provided independent human resource expertise to evaluate the officers best qualified for the position. Last year, KPMG was used.
The firm would provide a ranked list of candidates to the Police Service Commission (PSC). The PSC will generate an order of merit list- with the highest ranked candidate on top of the list and then the other candidates based on their ranks.
Persad-Bissessar asked if the PSC had the human resource expertise to properly evaluate the candidates for the post of police commissioner and deputy commissioner of police.
“Would there be a natural bias for any particular candidate a bias for or against as the PSC has a constitutional duty to evaluate the sitting CoP annually and interact with that person?” she also asked.
With reference to the order of merit list, she said one name will be sent at a time to the President. Then the President will send the name to the House of Representatives for approval and a debate will commence. Then if that House does not agree, the other candidate in order of merit, be brought to the House for debate.
She said, “What the 2021 order does, instead of sending one name to the President, the PSC will now send the entire list to the President.”
In the Constitution, where the President is not given a specific discretion to act, she will act on the advice of the Cabinet, Persad-Bissessar said which in this case, will be able to act in the Cabinet’s favour.
“Who will choose which name will come to the House?” she asked if the President will receive a list with several names.
“What this government is trying to do is to force the commission to nominate all persons on the merit list and prevent the Commission from nominating the person who the commission thinks is best suited for appointment,” she said.
