By Sue-Ann Wayow
THREE of the five people being nominated to the Police Service Commission (PolSC) may have a conflict of interest says Opposition Senator Wade Mark.
Mark on Sunday at a press conference called on President Paula-Mae Weekes to immediately withdraw the nominations of Ian Ramdhanie, Maxine Attong and Maxine King.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is expected to pilot the debate to approve the five new commissioners of the Police Service Commission (PolSC) in Parliament.
The two other nominees for the PolSC are attorney Rajiv Persad and retired appellate judge Judith Jones.
The previous commission collapsed on September 25 after all four members resigned with former chairman Bliss Seepersad being the last person to tender a resignation.
Mark said questions arose not about the individuals themselves but of their affiliations and ties with certain companies.
He said, “Some of these persons that have been nominated may have or may possess or maybe very distinguished sons and daughters of the soil. We have no personal grievances with anyone who have been nominated.”
However, he said the President needed “to clear the air” on the three named nominees, stating that they may have been selected via a flawed process.
“I would have imagined that proper due diligence would have been done by the Office of the President,” he said.
Mark detailed information concerning the three nominees starting with Ramdhanie.
He said Ramdhanie works for the Caribbean Institute of Security and Public Safety (CISPS).
A check with the Register General’s Department in August showed that CISPS is owned by Amalgamated Security Services Ltd which has been providing transport of prisoners to and from courts for over a decade, Mark said.
He said the Opposition had no problems with the security company but because of its affiliation with prisoners, there was a conflict.
“But because the company is in conflict with this particular responsibility through this employee (Ramdhanie) that has now been nominated by her Excellency to sit on a Police Service Commission to select, recruit, recommend a police commissioner and a deputy police commissioner/s… that constitutes a potential conflict of interest.”
Accountant Attong was the second nominee he spoke about saying she was the president of the Human Resources Management Association of Trinidad and Tobago (HRMATT) up until 2018 into 2019.
He called on Attong to “bare your bosoms” and say if she was still president of the association.
Mark said, “We would also like her to clear the air on whether she has been using that office to solicit contracts not only for HRMATT but for her own firm that is engaged in the provision of professional managerial leadership services.”
He also asked if Attong’s firm had contracts with the Government asking specifically about an alleged involvement with the Ministry of Labour and former labour minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus in 2018.
And King was the third nominee Mark focused on whom he also described as a distinguished individual.
According to Mark, King works for a wealth management company named Firstline Securities Ltd and a perusal of the company’s registry found a mortgage dated November 2, 2017 in the name of Inez Investment Ltd (IIL) as a borrower.
Mark said IILwas owned by a prominent Tobago family closely associated with Dr Rowley and he also called on Dr Rowley to either confirm or deny that statement.
He emphasised that the Opposition will continue to protect the public’s interest hence the reason why those matters were being raised before the debate on Wednesday.
