For­mer Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA) di­rec­tor re­tired Ma­jor Roger Best has tak­en Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds to court for fail­ing to grant his re­quest for in­for­ma­tion un­der the Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act (FOIA) re­lat­ing to his dis­missal.

The first hear­ing of Best’s law­suit came up yes­ter­day be­fore Jus­tice Joan Charles but was ad­journed at the re­quest of the Min­is­ter’s at­tor­neys. His le­gal team of at­tor­neys Rishi Dass SC and Raphael Ad­jo­da in­di­cat­ed they were on­ly briefed by the Min­is­ter on Wednes­day night and need­ed a short ad­journ­ment to pre­pare their case.

Best, who is be­ing rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­neys Ar­den Williams and Mari­ah Ram­rat­tan, is seek­ing sev­er­al re­liefs from the court, in­clud­ing a de­c­la­ra­tion that the min­is­ter’s de­ci­sion to refuse him or re­spond to his re­quest for the in­for­ma­tion un­der the FOIA, is il­le­gal, null, void and of no ef­fect. He al­so wants the court to or­der the min­is­ter to pro­vide him with the re­quest­ed in­for­ma­tion.

Best made an of­fi­cial re­quest un­der the FOIA in Ju­ly but re­ceived no re­sponse or any in­di­ca­tion or re­quest for an ex­ten­sion of time as re­quired un­der the Act. Be­cause the min­is­ter failed to state whether he had ap­proved or de­nied his re­quest, Best sub­mit­ted that he was ef­fec­tive­ly de­nied the in­for­ma­tion.

The mat­ter was ad­journed to Oc­to­ber 15.

Best was ini­tial­ly sent on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave on March 2, then fired on May 18. He was among 28 em­ploy­ees, in­clud­ing con­fessed spy for the SSA Pas­tor Ian Brown, dis­missed by the State.

On Ju­ly 3 in Par­lia­ment, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley read in­to Hansard a state­ment on an au­dit of the SSA done by di­rec­tor Brigadier An­tho­ny Phillips-Spencer. The au­dit re­vealed that the agency un­der Best had amassed mil­i­tary-grade weapons and am­mu­ni­tion and op­er­at­ed a high­ly trained and mil­i­tarised “tac­ti­cal re­sponse unit.”

Row­ley said there were dis­turb­ing prac­tices of nepo­tism and op­por­tunism lead­ing to a con­cen­tra­tion of mem­bers of one church be­ing hired by the SSA, in­stances of dis­hon­esty and deep de­cep­tion. He said the 28 SSA em­ploy­ees were ter­mi­nat­ed, ei­ther for vi­o­la­tions of the SSA Act and Reg­u­la­tions or anom­alous re­cruit­ment of faulty pro­mo­tion process­es and prac­tices. — Sascha Wil­son