Camille Clarke

Three or­gan­i­sa­tions which will have to deal with the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty are wel­com­ing the new min­is­ter. The Pris­ons Of­fi­cers As­so­ci­a­tion is hop­ing that new­ly-ap­point­ed Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter John Sandy will pay at­ten­tion to their needs. Pres­i­dent of the as­so­ci­a­tion, Ra­jku­mar Ram­roop, said yes­ter­day: "We make one re­quest to stay on the ground and hear the voice and cries of pris­ons of­fi­cers as we ad­vo­cate for our mem­bers." Ram­roop said he hoped the for­mer Brigadier's ex­pe­ri­ence would as­sist him.

"We are in high spir­its with the new ap­point­ment," he said. "We know that his ex­pe­ri­ence in the field of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty will serve him well to car­ry out his port­fo­lio. We an­tic­i­pate a good work­ing re­la­tion­ship. "We al­so recog­nise the need to work close­ly, to ad­dress the needs of the Pris­ons Ser­vice. "We want to of­fer con­grat­u­la­tions to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship. We are de­light­ed to be part of this mo­ment of hav­ing the first fe­male Prime Min­is­ter. We of­fer best wish­es to her and her gov­ern­ment to car­ry out the man­date." Ram­roop said there were two chal­leng­ing ar­eas for pris­ons of­fi­cers with re­gards to deal­ing with the Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons.

"We have not­ed the words of the Prime Min­is­ter that there is no room for ar­ro­gance and to lead by ex­am­ple," he said. "Crit­i­cal ar­eas for de­vel­op­ment have re­lied on medioc­ra­cy and our sup­port of her state­ment in ac­cept­ing no medioc­ra­cy is what we would like to see in the de­vel­op­ment of our coun­try." He said prison of­fi­cers would con­tin­ue to work as hard as they had done in the past. Pres­i­dent of the Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion Em­rol Bruce said he hoped the new min­is­ter will ex­pe­dite the cur­rent ne­go­ti­a­tions. "We hope he (Sandy) seeks to ex­pe­dite our cause with the ne­go­ti­a­tions so po­lice of­fi­cers can re­ceive their just wages," he said. "We are grate­ful if he re­views the sit­u­a­tion with re­spect to per­son­al safe­ty of po­lice of­fi­cers and en­hance his crime-fight­ing ma­chin­ery."

"We are pleased with Brigadier Sandy and he should do well in the min­istry con­sid­er­ing his ex­pe­ri­ence and train­ing. We at the as­so­ci­a­tion wish him all the best in his tenure." Pres­i­dent of the Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion Charles Ram­sa­roop said that sev­er­al fire sta­tions were in need of re­pair and equip­ment. "The Fire Ser­vice needs a prop­er re­struc­tur­ing of fire sta­tions and equip­ment," he said. "We have 24 fire sta­tions but 18 need re­pairs. We need new per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment (PPA)." He said fire­fight­ers had the same PPA for the past 13 years. "Some (fire­fight­ers) have equip­ment for 13 years and it is re­spon­si­ble for our safe­ty," he said. Ram­sa­roop said with­in the past few years, there had been an act­ing Fire Chief ap­point­ed.

"Every year there is an act­ing chief...This is not good when you are not sure to be ap­point­ed," he said. Re­fer­ring to Sandy's fu­ture per­for­mance, he said: "He per­formed well lead­ing the army in 1990. I wouldn't give an opin­ion with the ma­jor of crime prob­lems. I don't know if it is his area of ex­per­tise." He said the crime sit­u­a­tion was a heavy one and a tar­get was nec­es­sary. "There must be short, medi­um and long term plans...We need to re­build a fam­i­ly struc­ture in this coun­try," he added.