Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has shut down claims that the State will rehire any of the 28 employees fired from the Strategic Services Agency (SSA).
At a media conference on Monday, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds also rejected the allegations made by former police commissioner Gary Griffith.
Hinds denied that the SSA interviewed and/or rehired several of their recently fired staff.
Guardian Media reported that the SSA held mediation talks with the fired members of the disbanded Tactical Response Team (TRT) last Tuesday at the organisation’s Sackville Street offices.
A former member of the TRT said, “This was to thrash it out before it heads to court.”
However, speaking at a post-cabinet briefing yesterday, Rowley said, contrary to reports, the Government was not afraid of lawsuits and would fire anyone who was running afoul of the law.
“In no country, none—not the English country, Russian country, American country, the Venezuelan country, the Trinidad and Tobago country—once you lost confidence in the people in national security positions that you put them there knowingly to run national security. That is one area that you’ll be required to have confidence in the people that you put there. So for somebody to be telling you that, ‘You fired them last week, and you’re hiring them back this week’, that is their story. That is not the Government’s story.
“If you were listening to me for the last nine years, you would have heard me telling the Defence Force, the Coast Guard, the police and the prison, if you find people in these entities who are less than fit for purpose, get rid of them, and when you get rid of them in the proper way, if they are aggrieved, they will go to the court and if they have to be compensated, they will be compensated. But the one thing they can’t have is agencies populated by people who have, in fact, operated inimical to the public interest.” He added.
The TRT was assembled by former director Major Roger Best between April and May 2023.
SSA audit will continue for some time
Asked about the ongoing audit carried out by the acting director of the SSA, Rowley said he expected it to continue for quite some time.
He added that the audit remained in the hands of the TTPS, and as such, he could not give a timeline of when he could expect a final report.
He said, “I am not an investigator, and it is not for me to determine when the investigation is concluded or who is affected by it. What I do know is that the information coming to the government has resulted in significant police investigations, which are ongoing.”
He added some people with “cocoa in the sun” are attempting to change the narrative for their benefit, but gave the assurance that the Government would not be led astray.