The House of Representatives will begin debate next Friday in who will be the next Commission of Police in Trinidad and Tobago. Acting Police commissioner James Philbert's last day in office in June 30 and the Police Service commission has sent a list of five names for consideration for the top post.
The first four are foreigners, headed by Neal Parker, a former member of the Canadian Royal Mounted Police. Another Canadian and two Americans are also on the list with Assistant Commissioner Stephen Williams at number five.
If the government decides to appoint a national then the job will go to Williams, who was the number one nominee in 2008 for the job.
At that time then Prime Minister Patrick Manning rejected Williams saying he lacked some of the critical experience needed to do the job. Philbert was later appointed in an acting capacity.
Williams is a qualified lawyer and a 31-year veteran in the Police Service. He is in charge of Police Community Relations and is married to Magistrate Avason Quinlan, who presides at the Chaguanas Magistrates’ Court.
His name appears first on the order of merit list for the post of Deputy Commissioner of Police. The second person on that list is Assistant Police commissioner Maurice Piggott, whose name is at number eight in the merit list for commissioner.
Opposition Leader Keith Rowley would find himself in an awkward position if the government chooses Williams. Two years ago he voted with the government to reject Williams.
But he is now on record that he will not support a foreigner for the post, which leaves him no choice to support Williams by a process of elimination since Williams is the only national on the top five in the merit list.
The government has not stated its position but Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is keen of hiring nationals wherever possible. Last week she asked all foreign household staff at the official PM's residencee to be replaced with locals.
No comments:
Post a Comment