Brent Zephyrine

In the face of adamance from the chair­man of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion Nizam Mo­hammed about re­sign­ing, de­spite over­whelm­ing calls for him to do so, ques­tions con­tin­ue to sur­round the role of Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards and the au­thor­i­ty vest­ed in him to re­voke Mo­hammed's ap­point­ment. The ex­ist­ing law as amend­ed by the Con­sti­tu­tion (Amend­ment) Act 2006 gives the Pres­i­dent the pow­er (af­ter con­sult­ing with both the Prime Min­is­ter and the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion) to "ter­mi­nate the ap­point­ment" of any mem­ber of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PSC) if he "fails to per­form his du­ties in a re­spon­si­ble or time­ly man­ner" or "mis­be­haves in of­fice" amongst a host of oth­er ci­ta­tions which range from a crim­i­nal con­vic­tion to a phys­i­cal or men­tal in­ca­pac­i­ty, as well as an in­com­pe­tence in his abil­i­ty to ex­er­cise his du­ties ef­fec­tive­ly.

Ac­cord­ing to the pro­vi­sions, the mem­ber­ship of the com­mis­sion "shall con­sist of a chair­man and four oth­er mem­bers" who are "qual­i­fied and ex­pe­ri­enced in the dis­ci­plines of law, fi­nance, so­ci­ol­o­gy or man­age­ment."

These com­mis­sion­ers are Jacque­line Cheesman, Mar­tin George, Ad­di­son Khan and Ken­neth Park­er, all of whom were present ex­act­ly one week ago when their chair­man (Mo­hammed), at a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee (JSC) sit­ting in Par­lia­ment, cit­ed an im­bal­ance in the eth­nic com­po­si­tion of high-rank­ing of­fi­cers with­in the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice. This JSC meet­ing, held to eval­u­ate the ef­fec­tive­ness and ef­fi­cien­cy of the PSC, sparked a na­tion­wide con­tro­ver­sy in light of Mo­hammed's dis­clo­sure, with con­dem­na­tion com­ing from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bissses­sar and Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley, who both met with Pres­i­dent Richards on the is­sue in sep­a­rate meet­ings held on Tues­day.

A state­ment from the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter on Mon­day said Mo­hammed "must be held ac­count­able" for his com­ments which were de­scribed as "reck­less and sense­less" and as serv­ing "no use­ful pur­pose oth­er than to un­der­mine the trust that is re­posed in him as the chair­man of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion." Row­ley, too, said that Mo­hammed had "act­ed ir­re­spon­si­bly" and has since called for "the Pres­i­dent to in­ter­vene and re­move him from of­fice un­der Sec­tion 122a of the Con­sti­tu­tion." If these sen­ti­ments mar­ry the opin­ion of Pres­i­dent Richards, in that the chair­man, by his state­ments, con­duct­ed him­self ei­ther ir­re­spon­si­bly, mis­chie­vous­ly or in­com­pe­tent­ly whilst in of­fice, then the re­vo­ca­tion of the ap­point­ment can be ex­pect­ed to fol­low. Un­der the Con­sti­tu­tion, the com­mis­sion -apart from ap­point­ing per­sons to hold or act in the of­fice of Com­mis­sion­er and Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice- is charged with the cru­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of mak­ing ap­point­ments on pro­mo­tions and hear­ing and de­ter­min­ing ap­peals on dis­ci­pli­nary pro­ceed­ings brought against a po­lice of­fi­cer with­in the ser­vice.

Sec­tion 122A of the Con­sti­tu­tion (Amend­ment) Act 2006 states:

(1) The Pres­i­dent shall, af­ter con­sul­ta­tion with the Prime Min­is­ter and the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion, ter­mi­nate the ap­point­ment of a mem­ber of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion, if the mem­ber:

(a) fails to at­tend four con­sec­u­tive meet­ings with­out rea­son­able cause;

(b) is con­vict­ed of a crim­i­nal of­fence in any court;

(c) be­comes in­firm in mind or body;

(d) fails to per­form his du­ties in a re­spon­si­ble or time­ly man­ner;

(e) fails to ab­sent him­self from meet­ings of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion where there is a con­flict of in­ter­est;

(f) demon­strates a lack of com­pe­tence to per­form his du­ties; or

(g) mis­be­haves in of­fice.