Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo was appalled and very concerned about a newspaper story in the Daily Express which claimed he was expected in T&T yesterday to discuss the relocation of an aluminium smelter plant from La Brea in T&T to Guyana.
This is according to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who spoke with reporters about the issue, during a news briefing at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, yesterday. "The headline is totally false, totally, totally false," she stressed. "In fact, President Jagdeo, through his representative here, was very concerned when he saw that headline, because there was no such agenda. "He was very appalled because he has only just recently received an award that has to do with the environment and it has placed him in a very difficult position in his own country–on something that has been totally false in a Trinidad newspaper."
Persad-Bissessar also said that after several meeting with police officers and businessmen yesterday, to discuss the appointment of a new police commissioner, no decision had been reached by the Government. She said the People's Partnership Government would meet in caucus at Rienzi Complex tonight to discuss the matter. The Prime Minister said she was willing to meet with Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley to discuss the issue. On Rowley's call for a possible review of the selection process for a commissioner of police, Persad-Bissessar said she was yet to be convinced of such a need, but "no law is fixed in stone...so things can be changed, but there must be a consensus of views when changing the law.
"This law came about by strong constitutional majority, with a lot of consultation (and after many years)–should there be a review that is not something that is going to happen overnight," she said. "It is something that will take a longer period of time to have proper consultations if it is that we are to make further constitutional changes. "We have to consider what would be best for the police at this time and more importantly what would be best for the people of T&T at this time." She said the Government had no policy position on the Special Anti Crime Unit of T&T, but a report submitted by National Security Minister Brigadier John Sandy would to be considered shortly.