sto­ries by Da­reece Po­lo

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says Gov­ern­ment is co­op­er­at­ing with the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice, as it con­tin­ues the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the al­le­ga­tion of mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice against Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher in the on­go­ing Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA) probe.

While he did not spec­i­fy the spe­cif­ic na­ture of the as­sis­tance, Row­ley yes­ter­day as­sured that Gov­ern­ment, through the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, was abreast of the de­vel­op­ments and had al­so been con­tact­ed by in­ves­ti­gat­ing of­fi­cers.

“In the last 48 hours, the po­lice have asked ques­tions of the min­is­ter (Fitzger­ald Hinds) and the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil. An­swers will be pro­vid­ed as re­quest­ed,” Row­ley said in a What­sApp re­sponse to queries from Guardian Me­dia.

He al­so re­mind­ed that Par­lia­ment would con­vene to­mor­row to de­bate the ap­point­ment of an in­ter­im CoP and act­ing DCP.

“The com­mis­sion (Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion) has ad­vised the Pres­i­dent that a sus­pen­sion has been ef­fect­ed, re­quir­ing Par­lia­ment to in­ter­vene to es­tab­lish act­ing arrange­ments. It has been made pub­lic that the Par­lia­ment will meet on Wednes­day to car­ry out its du­ties,” Row­ley said.

Row­ley al­so rub­bished sug­ges­tions by po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath that the pub­lic may be scep­ti­cal about the Prime Min­is­ter’s lack of in­volve­ment in the PolSC’s re­sponse to the mat­ter.

Dr Ra­goonath ref­er­enced the 2021 mer­it list con­tro­ver­sy, in which Row­ley was ac­cused of in­ter­ven­ing at Pres­i­dent’s House to block the list that had then-in­cum­bent CoP Gary Grif­fith at the top. Fol­low­ing this, a new mer­it list was is­sued, lead­ing to Grif­fith’s re­moval as CoP.

The fall­out from the con­tro­ver­sy re­sult­ed in the res­ig­na­tion of the PolSC, led then by Bliss Seep­er­sad, who was the last to step down. Three oth­er mem­bers, Court­ney Mc­Nish, Dr Su­san Craig-James and Roger Kawals­ingh, re­signed be­fore­hand and claimed Seep­er­sad act­ed alone in the mat­ter.

Tak­ing um­brage at Ra­goonath’s com­ment, Row­ley yes­ter­day re­spond­ed: “I have said very clear­ly since Fri­day evening that I know no more about this mat­ter than what was in the me­dia at that time. I went fur­ther to say that this is a mat­ter of po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion, and if there is an al­le­ga­tion that a crime might have been com­mit­ted, then it will fall square­ly to the in­de­pen­dent of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions to ad­vise and guide the po­lice, en­sur­ing that the law takes its course. I al­so men­tioned that the au­thor­i­ty for mon­i­tor­ing and act­ing on the dis­ci­pli­nary mat­ter in­volv­ing the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and the DCPs is the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion.”

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so took aim at po­lit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor Win­ford James, who crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment’s per­ceived si­lence on the is­sue.

“What role does Win­ford James see there for the Gov­ern­ment? If any mem­ber or as­pect of the Gov­ern­ment gets in­volved, it is the same James who you will run to, and he will not hes­i­tate to cas­ti­gate the Gov­ern­ment for act­ing out­side of its au­thor­i­ty. What are your ‘go-to’ peo­ple ask­ing the Gov­ern­ment to do out­side of the le­gal process­es and the law?”