The Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee on Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty may, in fact, dis­cuss the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA) shake-up which saw the re­moval of di­rec­tor Ma­jor Roger Best.

Chair­man of the JSC, Port-of-Spain South MP Kei­th Scot­land, yes­ter­day in­di­cat­ed that a vir­tu­al meet­ing is ex­pect­ed to be held to­day to dis­cuss cor­re­spon­dence cir­cu­lat­ed from Mem­ber, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal and Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al.

On Sun­day, the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter re­vealed that Ma­jor Best was sent on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave and new “lead­er­ship and man­age­ment in­stalled.”

Best was re­placed by An­tho­ny Phillips-Spencer, who was re­called as Am­bas­sador in Wash­ing­ton to act as SSA di­rec­tor.

All Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley would re­veal on the mat­ter, how­ev­er, was that Cab­i­net re­ceived in­for­ma­tion from the TTPS which it act­ed on.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and mem­bers of the Op­po­si­tion have been call­ing for an­swers on what tran­spired.

Mooni­lal and Lutch­me­di­al sub­se­quent­ly wrote to the chair­man of the com­mit­tee, Scot­land, on March 5, ask­ing that it meet and that Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds and for­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Stu­art Young “ap­pear and an­swer ques­tions on this mat­ter”.

The UNC MPs felt the two would be best suit­ed, since they both presided over the tenure of for­mer SSA head Best.

Scot­land replied to Mooni­lal’s re­quest in a let­ter yes­ter­day say­ing, “Kind­ly note that the de­ter­mi­na­tion of wit­ness­es to ap­pear be­fore the com­mit­tee is a mat­ter to be con­sid­ered by the com­mit­tee. There­fore I have di­rect­ed the Sec­re­tari­at to cir­cu­late your cor­re­spon­dence to all Mem­bers and I pro­pose to have your re­quest dis­cussed at the next meet­ing of the com­mit­tee as a mat­ter of ur­gency.”

In a re­sponse to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia, Mooni­lal said he hoped for a pos­i­tive re­sponse.

“As it is a mat­ter of pub­lic record, both the Op­po­si­tion and in­de­pen­dent mem­bers on this JSC have in­di­cat­ed the ur­gency of ex­am­i­na­tion of of­fi­cials of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and the SSA on the re­cent se­ri­ous de­vel­op­ment. I am hope­ful that our re­quest will be car­ried,” he said.

When asked for fur­ther com­ment, he said, “I am op­ti­mistic that the JSC will see the ur­gency to ex­am­ine the SSA and of­fi­cials of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty on this con­tin­u­ing cri­sis in­volv­ing the lead spy­ing agency of the State. The Op­po­si­tion and the in­de­pen­dent mem­bers have seen the need for an im­me­di­ate and di­rect in­ter­face with law en­force­ment over the sor­did af­fairs.”

How­ev­er, Scot­land would on­ly say that the com­mit­tee would treat with the mat­ter re­spon­si­bly.

“The com­mit­tee is do­ing its work with­out de­lay,” he said.

Hinds did not re­spond to calls for a com­ment but Young, who is now the Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries, said he will await the out­come of this morn­ing’s meet­ing.