Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Plane deal above board: CoP Gibbs

Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs said Monday everything was above board in the deal to lease a light aircraft for police surveillance duty.

The controversial deal was first raised in Parliament by the opposition. Since then Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has asked for a full report and has passed it to the Attorney General for his perusal and advice.

The police service is leading a small scout aircraft for 12 weeks for just under TT$1 million. The opposition has argued that it is a sweetheart deal with what it called a "fly by night" company that was only set up last year.

It has stated further that the lease is costing seven times more than the ouright purchase of the plane, a claim that has been refuted by the company that has the deal with the police.

Gibbs spoke about the matter after the launch of the expansion of the 21st Century Policing initiative to the Central Division at the Cunupia Police Station.

“When we look at equipment tools for the Police service we want to find the best ways to do our job and so looking at the aircraft is one way to have a mobile patrol unit,” Gibbs told reporters.

He did not wish to comment on statements attributed to high government officials.

“I can’t comment on anything the Prime Minister has said or done. I can only say that we acquired this piece of equipment for testing purposes. We intend to evaluate it during its time with us and at the end of that we would see if it met our needs to help us reduce crime on the streets,” Gibbs said.

“This is just one piece of equipment that we are testing out to see if it will meet our needs in T&T,” he added.

No comments:

Jai & Sero

Jai & Sero

Our family at home in Toronto 2008

Our family at home in Toronto 2008
Amit, Heather, Fuzz, Aj, Jiv, Shiva, Rampa, Sero, Jai