AG says use of blimp to be reviewed

The use of the SAUTT blimp is under review.

That's the word from Attorney General Anand Ramlogan who spoke with reporters Tuesday during a break from the Senate debate on the budget.

The airship has been used by SAUTT for surveillance since 2005. The one currently in use cost US$15 million.

Ramlogan also spoke about SAUTT's practice of monitoring phone calls.

“Wire-tapping is in fact illegal. There is no legislative support for such activity. That is why we have decided to restructure and reorganise SAUTT," the AG said.

He added that if eavesdropping on people's private calls becomes an important matter for security then the government would introduce the necessary legislation to deal with it.

He also explained why the Prime Minister announced the dismissal of the head of SAUTT. He said it was done to “facilitate the re-engineering and reorganisation of SAUTT" and to investigate financial accountability.

Ramlogan said the state has invested a lot of money in SAUTT and it is necessary to determine whether there is good value for such an investment. He added that it is also necessary to determine whether SAUTT acted with transparency in acquiring equipment and whether its activities were in the national interest.

The critical question, he said, is whether the equipment bought by SAUTT has been effectively deployed and utilised in the fight against crime.

Ramlogan said Trinidad and Tobago needs "a more co-ordinated approach to intelligence-gathering and a more co-ordinated and focused approach in the fight against crime."

He doesn't agree with having SAUTT as a parallel police para-military unit. "Then you have the Police Service with legislative power to conduct criminal investigations and you have intelligence units scattered for a tiny country like this," he said.

Ramlogan suggested that SAUTT was part of the "illusions of grandeur" that seemed to be consistent with the skyscrapers and mega projects of the previous Manning administration.