Prominent attorney Senior Counsel Martin Daly, is calling on President Paula-Mae Weekes to “do the right thing” by saying what happened at President’s House on August 12 when an unnamed public official allegedly met with her and then Chairman of the Public Service Commission.
In a statement issued yesterday, close to a week after the collapse of the Commission, Senior Counsel Daly said, “It is not surprising that this Government, which has lost its way in a fog of authoritarianism, believes that it can dismiss the collapse of the Police Service Commission (the PolSC) as a trivial event for which it is not obliged to account. However, what does the President of the Republic intend to do?”
Last week President Weekes announced the resignation of Roger Kawalsingh as a member of the Commission and days later, its chairman Bliss Seepersad.
The week also saw the withdrawal of Vincel Edwards as a nominee to be a member of the Commission.
The week prior, the two other PSC members Courtenay Mc Nish and Dr Susan Craig-James also called it quits.
The members alleged a disagreement over the handling of the selection process for the post of Commissioner of Police and an alleged meeting between then Chairman Seepersad and an unidentified public official.
According to Daly, a member of the Police Service Commission at the material time has alleged that, on August 12, the Chair of the Commission went to the venue of the “highest constitutional office” in the nation where the Chair was met by an unnamed public official and as a result did not carry out the performance of her duty to deliver an agreed list of candidates for appointment to the office of Commissioner of Police to the President.
He said, “This act of interference precipitated a collapse of the PolSC.”
Daly said the events impact the credibility of the Office of the President.
“Her Excellency has remained silent. With respect, if she values the credibility of her office, it is not open to her to avoid accountability with reference to what allegedly happened at President’s House on August 12, 2021.”
He continued, “We are entitled to hold the office of President to a higher standard than the one that currently prevails in partisan politics. Do the right thing please.”
Senior Counsel Daly warned, “If the President does follow the Government’s lead and simply proceeds with business as usual, we will soon pay for the failure of the Office of the President to fulfil its responsibility to disclose what happened on August 12 in order to unmask a constitutionally dangerous cover-up.”