The Opposition leader said the government acted irresponsibly in putting such sensitive responsibilities in the hands of a person who was not qualified for the position.
He was speaking on a motion to condemn the government for its handling of the matter of the appointment of Reshmi Usha Ramnarine to the post of Director of the SSA and a full accounting of the whole matter to the nation.
He dondemned the defence of the appointment by several cabinet ministers "who are now falling over themselves" and "scandalising themselves" to apologize for the government's error.
And he called on National Security minister John Sandy to resign, saying if the minister had "one modicum of self-respect" he would "hand in his papers and walk."
In a lengthy presentation that was interrupted several times by Speaker Wade Mark to restore order to the House, Rowley traced the matter to what he called a deliberate attempt to mislead the country.
He said it started with an official announcement of the appointment from the office of the president which stated that Ramnarine was the new Director of the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA) and not the SSA as stated by the government. The president's office subsequently sent another release stating that it has stated SIA in error.
Rowley also pointed out that while the government insisted that Ramnarine's appointment was for a six-month period to oversee the merging of the two security agencies, there was nothing in the announcement from the president's office that put any time limit on the assignment.
He also pointed to media reports that quoting government ministers as defending the decision and stating that Ramnarine held a BSc degree when she had no degree.
The other contentious issue which Rowley raised was the apparent confusion about how the appointment was made. The official response from the government was that a recommendation to appoint Ramnarine was made to the National Security Council and later approved by cabinet. Sandy is a member of the NSC, which is chaired by the Prime Minister.
Rowley said Sandy contradicted himself when he told the media that he did not know of the appointment stating that unless the rules had been recently changed if a matter of national security is to go before cabinet a note to that effect has to be prepared and the minister must sign off on it.
The opposition leader quoted the Prime Minister as saying that cabinet minister should have known about the appointment if they had read their notes.
Rowley called the entire affair an example of "gross irresponsibility" by appointing a technician as director. He said this is a pattern with the People's Partnership government.
In response Sandy scoffed at Rowley's demand for his to quit and asked why Rowley did not resign when his former boss asked him "where the money gone", a reference to suggestions by former Prime Minister Patrick Manning that Rowley should account for $10 million that had been missing from a government project. It turned out that no money was missing.
Sandy reminded the House that Rowley becomes a "bully" when challenged, quoting from Hansard of Oct. 21, 2009 when Manning said Rowley behaved "like a raging bull" whenever he didn't have his way.
The minister challenged Rowley's arguments saying many of the statements he made were misleading. He also outlined his history of service "since 1966" and his commitment to service to the country.
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