Act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er James Philbert says the auc­tions of prop­er­ties owned by the Ja­maat al Mus­limeen will con­tin­ue.

The auc­tions come af­ter a rul­ing by Jus­tice Ra­jen­dra Nar­ine on Sep­tem­ber 11, 2009. Nar­ine ruled that the prop­er­ties should be auc­tioned so that the state would re­cov­er $32 mil­lion in debt which re­sult­ed from the de­struc­tion of Po­lice Head­quar­ters on St Vin­cent Street, Port-of-Spain, dur­ing the coup at­tempt on Ju­ly 27, 1990.

Dur­ing last week's post-Cab­i­net news con­fer­ence, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar sig­nalled the Gov­ern­ment's in­ten­tion to auc­tion the 11 prop­er­ties. The prop­er­ties are sched­uled to be auc­tioned at City Hall, Port-of-Spain, on Au­gust 17. Speak­ing to re­porters yes­ter­day af­ter the an­nu­al wreath-lay­ing cer­e­mo­ny at the Eter­nal Flame Mon­u­ment in front of the Red House, Port-of-Spain, Philbert said: "The auc­tion­er is go­ing to do his bid­ding and prospec­tive buy­ers are ex­pect­ed to make of­fers."

Asked how he felt about a com­mis­sion of en­quiry in­to the coup at­tempt, Philbert said he sup­port­ed the in­quiry. He added: "A lot of peo­ple are say­ing they want to know what hap­pened. I think the na­tion is ask­ing for that. "Last year I was asked about it and as an in­ves­ti­ga­tor my mind is al­ways about find­ing out about things."