Fol­low­ing is the full state­ment de­liv­ered by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, an­nounc­ing the res­ig­na­tion of At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan af­ter a po­lice probe be­gan in­to al­le­ga­tions of wit­ness-tam­per­ing made by the Di­rec­tor of the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty David West.

When this gov­ern­ment as­sumed of­fice I pledged that there would be no com­pro­mise on in­tegri­ty in pub­lic of­fice or per­for­mance.

I took an oath un­der the Con­sti­tu­tion ofthe Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go that

"I will bear true faith and al­le­giance to Trinidad and To­ba­go and will up­hold the Con­sti­tu­tion and the law,

That I will con­sci­en­tious­ly, im­par­tial­ly and to the best of my abil­i­ty dis­charge my du­ties as Prime Min­is­ter,

And do right to all man­ner of peo­ple with­out fear or favour, af­fec­tion or ill-will."

I have strived in every way to do so.

Over the past four years, as I en­sured that the pub­lic in­ter­est was para­mount, some­times changes in gov­ern­ment were re­quired to pro­tect the pub­lic in­ter­est.

I have been crit­i­cized for re­mov­ing too many of­fice hold­ers over the past four years as I was seek­ing to en­sure the pub­lic in­ter­est was se­cured.

While it may have not served nar­row po­lit­i­cal in­ter­ests, I took the de­ci­sions nec­es­sary to serve the broad­er na­tion­al in­ter­est, above and be­yond every­thing else.

I did so while en­sur­ing all mat­ters were fair­ly and rea­son­ably con­sid­ered and all par­ties were giv­en an op­por­tu­ni­ty to be heard and eval­u­at­ed.

De­spite the fact that we are to­day on the cusp of a gen­er­al elec­tion, I want to make it clear my con­sid­er­a­tions to­day will be no less dri­ven by any oth­er than that of what is best for the na­tion.

For me, my po­si­tion as Prime Min­is­ter has al­ways been a self­less task and one which I felt hum­bled to have been grant­ed through the will of the peo­ple and the grace of God.

There have been al­le­ga­tions be­ing made by the cur­rent Di­rec­to­rof the PCA, re­gard­ing the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al.

The Di­rec­tor of the PCA has signed a state­ment in which he claims that the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al had asked the Di­rec­tor of the PCA to with­draw his wit­ness state­ment in a defama­tion mat­ter against the Op­po­si­tion Leader.

The At­tor­ney Gen­er­al has ve­he­ment­ly de­nied the al­le­ga­tion.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice has con­firmed that an in­ves­ti­ga­tion is be­ing con­duct­ed in­to the mat­ter.

More re­cent­ly, the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty has be­come em­broiled in the mat­ter.

It is al­leged that the Min­is­ter, up­on the ad­vice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, tele­phoned the Di­rec­tor of the PCA to query whether he had with­drawn a state­ment.

That al­leged in­ci­dent al­so forms part of the po­lice en­quiry.

The Min­is­ter has con­firmed that he did in fact make such a call.

Up­on plac­ing that call the Min­is­ter did not con­sult with me nor make it known the de­tails of his con­ver­sa­tion with the Di­rec­tor of the PCA.

The Min­is­ter al­so did not re­port to me­on the al­leged re­quest of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al ei­ther be­fore or af­ter his call to Pres­i­dent of the PCA.

The ques­tion is whether the Min­is­ter was not un­der an oblig­a­tion to in­form me, as the Prime Min­is­ter, that he made such a call.

The sit­u­a­tion to­day would have been very dif­fer­ent had such a re­quest not been made and this mat­ter been brought to my ear­li­er at­ten­tion.

I have re­quest­ed and re­ceived state­ments from Ho­n­ourable At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and the Ho­n­ourable Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty.

I have pe­rused both those state­ments as well as the re­port­ed state­ments of the Di­rec­tor of the PCA,and from my pe­rusal of same I have dis­cerned that the ma­te­r­i­al facts con­tained there­in are in con­flict with each oth­er.

I can­not be judge and ju­ry to de­ter­mine the ve­rac­i­ty of any or all.

While I am not in a po­si­tion to de­ter­mine nei­ther guilt nor in­no­cence in this mat­ter it is of grave enough con­se­quence to war­rant se­ri­ous con­sid­er­a­tion and im­me­di­ate ac­tion.

I can­not and will not sit idly by while the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and that of the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­rityand the head of the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty are be­ing com­pro­mised and brought in­to dis­re­pute by such al­le­ga­tions that have war­rant­ed a po­lice en­quiry.

Those of­fice hold­ers pre­side over the ad­min­is­tra­tion of jus­tice, law and or­der and so can­not re­main in those po­si­tions while these in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to al­le­ga­tions are made.

I cast no as­per­sions on the ca­pac­i­ty or per­for­mance of those that hold these po­si­tions but can­not have these of­fices be so em­broiled in con­flict and con­tro­ver­sy erod­ing pub­lic con­fi­dence in the in­sti­tu­tions which they lead.

With­out prej­u­dice to the out­come nor de­nial of any par­ty to due process and a fair and just de­ter­mi­na­tion in the mat­ter, I have asked for and re­ceived the res­ig­na­tion of both the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty.

What is al­so of equal­ly grave con­cern to me, as it must be to the na­tion, is the com­pro­mised po­si­tion of the Di­rec­tor of the PCA, aris­ing out of this sit­u­a­tion.

The ques­tion must arise as to why he did not make it known to me or to His Ex­cel­len­cy Pres­i­dent An­tho­ny Car­mona when the po­si­tion of head­ing the PCA was of­fered to him in No­vem­ber.

Fur­ther, why did he wait un­til now to make pub­lic this mat­ter?

If the Op­po­si­tion Leader al­so knew of the is­sue at the time when he was con­sult­ed about the ap­point­ment by my­self �we had dis­cus­sions- and the Pres­i­dent it would al­so have been oblig­a­tory up­on him to have in­formed His Ex­cel­len­cy.

Fail­ure by the Op­po­si­tion Leader to do so at the time does cre­ate doubt to any in­de­pen­dent ob­serv­er as to why no men­tion was made at the time of ap­point­ment and why was there such a de­lay be­tween No­vem­ber and when the ap­point­ment and now in mak­ing known the mat­ter.

Giv­en the po­lit­i­cal sen­si­tiv­i­ty and na­ture of the al­leged in­ci­dents it would have been not just pru­dent but manda­to­ry that both my­self and His Ex­cel­len­cy, the Pres­i­dent be in­formed.

With­hold­ing such in­for­ma­tion has se­ri­ous­ly com­pro­mised the ap­point­ment of the Di­rec­tor of the PCA.

It is my view there­fore, that the Di­rec­tor of the PCA should im­me­di­ate­ly re­sign and/ or his ap­point­ment be re­voked.

The PCA is an in­de­pen­dent in­sti­tu­tion and pub­lic con­fi­dence must re­main strong if that body is to car­ry out its du­ties with­out fear or favour and be per­ceived by all to so do. Jus­tice must on­ly be done seen to be done.

It would be im­pos­si­ble, giv­en the present is­sue that the cur­rent head can con­tin­ue to hold this po­si­tion with­out the very in­sti­tu­tion he leads al­so be­ing called in­to ques­tion.

The head of the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty has the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to in­ves­ti­gate com­plaints against po­lice of­fi­cers.

He would find him­self do­ing so now while he him­self has filed a mat­ter for in­ves­ti­ga­tion to the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice.

The threat of con­flict of in­ter­est or per­cep­tion there­of clear­ly emerges and com­pro­mis­es the role of the head of the PCA.

Fur­ther, ques­tions al­so arise on the role of the Op­po­si­tion Leader in the mat­ter.

Did the Op­po­si­tion Leader not have a moral if not le­gal oblig­a­tion to in­form me as Prime Min­is­ter and His Ex­cel­len­cy the Pres­i­dentabout the per­son­al in­volve­ment of a wit­ness in a defam­a­to­ry state­ment in­volv­ing him­self, the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion

One has to be mind­ful that pub­lic of­fice is not used for pri­vate gain.

Had there been a dis­clo­sure by the Op­po­si­tion Leader of the per­son­al in­ter­est in a le­gal mat­ter in­volv­ing him­self and the Di­rec­tor of the PCA at the point of his nom­i­na­tion to be head of the PCA, the con­flict of in­ter­est would have been de­clared.

Again the ques­tion aris­es and I want to say there are more ques­tions than an­swers as to whether there was any de­lib­er­ate at­tempt to hood­wink His Ex­cel­len­cy and the Prime Min­is­ter in mak­ing the ap­point­ment by such nondis­clo­sure.

I urge that an in­de­pen­dent probe be con­duct­ed in­to these cir­cum­stances in­volv­ing the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, the head of the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty and the Op­po­si­tion Leader.

And so let the chips fall where they may.

I rec­og­nize that this can­not be an easy time for all in­di­vid­u­als af­fect­ed but know their du­ty to coun­try first would bring to bear the bur­den of the ac­tion nec­es­sary to be tak­en.

I would ad­vise His Ex­cel­len­cy the Pres­i­dent as fol­lows

To re­voke the ap­point­ments of the fol­low­ing - my­self as Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment;

Sen­a­tor Tim­o­thy Hamel Smith, Sen­a­tor Em­bau Mo­hi­ni, and Sen­a­tor Em­manuel George, the Min­is­ter of Sport, the Ho­n­ourable Ru­pert Grif­fith, Min­is­ter Sta­cy Roop­nar­ine. Min­is­ter Roop­nar­ine has been trans­ferred to the Min­istry of Gen­der, Youth and Child De­vel­op­ment.

I wish to pub­licly thank these Hon­or­able gen­tle­men for their sup­port and con­tri­bu­tion in build­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In light of this I wish to ad­vise that in ac­cor­dance with the Con­sti­tu­tion of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go, I have to­day ad­vised His Ex­cel­len­cy the Pres­i­dent to ap­point the fol­low­ing:

The Ho­n­ourable Prakash Ra­mad­har cur­rent­ly the Min­is­ter of Le­gal Af­fairs to al­so serve as the Min­is­ter of Jus­tice.

2.Ms. Chris­tine Ho­sein, as Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment

Ms. Newal­lo-Ho­sein is cur­rent­ly the Ad­vi­sor to the Prime Min­is­ter at the Min­istry of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment.

She was pre­vi­ous­ly the Ad­vi­sor to Lands and Ma­rine Re­sources from Au­gust 2013 to Au­gust 2014.

She al­so held the po­si­tion of Ad­vi­sor to the Min­is­ter of Tourism and Ad­vi­sor to the Min­is­ter of Trade & In­dus­try from June 2012 to Jan­u­ary 2013 and Au­gust 2010 to June 2012 re­spec­tive­ly.

Ms Newal­lo-Ho­sein is cer­tifi­cat­ed in ba­sic Ger­man, Span­ish and French and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion stud­ies.

She al­so served as a Di­rec­tor of YESTT, a co­or­di­na­tor for the Caribbean Cen­tre for Hu­man Rights- Vic­tim Sup­port Unit.

In 2004, she was the re­cip­i­ent of a Men­tor Award re: the Prime Min­is­ter's Award for in­no­va­tion and In­ven­tion.

We wel­come her on board

3.Mr Brent San­cho as Min­is­ter of Sport

Mr. San­cho is a pro­lif­ic sports­man hav­ing rep­re­sent­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go in the field of foot­ball for sev­er­al years.

Heis a for­mer Na­tion­al foot­ball play­er for Trinidad and To­ba­go and has toured var­i­ous coun­tries across the world and rep­re­sent­ed many clubs at the lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al lev­els.

Brent San­cho is the hold­er of an As­so­ciate De­gree in Eng­lish from Es­sex Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege inthe USA, and a Bach­e­lor of Arts de­gree in Psy­chol­o­gy from St. John's Uni­ver­si­ty in the USA.

4. Mr. Kwasi Mutema as Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty

Mr. Kwasi Mutema, Deputy Po­lit­i­cal leader of the Na­tion­al Joint Ac­tion Com­mit­tee holds a mas­ter's de­gree in Busi­ness Ad­min­is­tra­tion from the Heri­ot Watt Uni­ver­si­ty, Scot­land.

He is a for­mer lec­tur­er at the But­ler In­sti­tute of Life­long Learn­ing and a co­or­di­na­tor of the Save-One Schol­ar­ship Pro­gramme as­sist­ing stu­dents in un­der­de­vel­oped ar­eas to de­vel­op them­selves aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly.

Mr. Mutema re­sides in Barataria and is cur­rent­ly the deputy chair­man of the Board of Gov­er­nors of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

5.Brigadier Gen­er­al (re­tired) Carl­ton Al­fred Al­fon­so as Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty.

Brigadier Gen­er­al Al­fon­so has served this coun­try as Aide de Camp to the Pres­i­dent, His Ex­cel­len­cy Noor Has­sanali.

He is a for­mer Com­mand­ing Of­fi­cer of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Reg­i­ment, and was the first en­list­ed man to as­cend to the po­si­tion of Chief of the De­fence Staffwhere he served from 1994 to 1999.

Since re­tire­ment Brigadier Gen­er­al Al­fon­so has served as Se­cu­ri­ty Ad­vis­er and Chief Se­cu­ri­ty Of­fi­cer at Petrotrin 2000-2005, as Chair­man of PLIPDE­CO 2010 � 2011, Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor at Prime Min­is­ter's Res­i­dence and Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre and cur­rent­ly as the Di­rec­tor Gen­er­al of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Train­ing Acad­e­my.

Brigadier Gen­er­al Al­fon­so in 2012 was award­ed the Medal of Mer­it Gold for Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vice.

6. Mr. Garvin Nicholas, as At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Mr. Garvin Nicholas, an at­tor­ney at law since 2002 is a for­mer tem­po­rary sen­a­tor, lo­cal gov­ern­ment coun­cil­lor, press sec­re­tary to the Prime Min­is­ter and High Com­mis­sion­er to the Court of St. James' and Am­bas­sador Ex­tra­or­di­nary and Plenipo­ten­tiary to Den­mark, Fin­land, Ger­many, Nor­way and Swe­den.

I will con­tin­ue to lead this na­tion with the same re­solve to main­tain the in­vi­o­lable prin­ci­ples of good gov­er­nance.

You can rest as­sured that I have both the courage and per­son­al for­ti­tude to do what is right when­ev­er it is nec­es­sary to so do re­gard­less of the con­se­quences.

It is what you ex­pect­ed when you elect­ed me to of­fice and I will nev­er shirk this re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to you and the of­fice I am sworn to up­hold.

Gone are the days when a gov­ern­ment may feel it does not need to give ac­count for its ac­tions or would un­der­mine pub­lic con­fi­dence be­stowed on their of­fi­cials.

Some would have us re­turn to these old ways but that will not stand as long as I am your Prime Min­is­ter.

The changes be­ing wrought to­day in en­sur­ing ac­count­abil­i­ty are of greater im­por­tance now than ever be­fore.

The old stan­dards have changed and giv­en way to new de­mands and ex­pec­ta­tions.

The shift in con­science and con­scious­ness is not with­out its shock waves as the pub­lic sees de­ci­sions be­ing tak­en that are un­usu­al­ly bold and stri­dent in up­hold­ing the ideals for which they vot­ed so over­whelm­ing­ly.

May God con­tin­ue to guide my de­lib­er­a­tions on the na­tion's be­half and may God bless us all.