Wednesday, February 1, 2012

AG says CoP is virtual CEO of police service; asks Cox who was cutting her lawn

Attorney General Anand Ramlogan said on Tuesday Commissioner of Police (CoP) Dwayne Gibbs enjoys has autonomy, which is necessary to ensure efficiency in the T&T Police Service (TTPS).

He said the People's Partnership government gave the CoP that authority. "It's like a virtual CEO of the Police Service with executive authority in a way that he did not enjoy before," Ramlogan said.

"He does not have to come running to Brigadier Sandy (Minister of National Security) to sign of on buying a paperclip. That used to happen under the PNM, not the Partnership."

Ramlogan was speaking in the Senate on an opposition Private Motion on "Deficiencies in the Police Service".

He also explained that Gibbs had advised that the Police Service intended to create an Air Support Unit with assets from the Special Anti Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT), which Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has shut down.

He said the decision to lease a Zenith CH 750 light sports aircraft on a trial basis is a good one. The matter has become controversial since it was raised in the Parliament by the opposition last Friday. MP Donna Cox claimed that the police service was leasing the light aircraft for 12 weeks at a cost that was seven times more than the price of the plane.

"When they say, well if the amount of money you paying, which is TT$900,000, it could have bought the thing, that's not correct," the AG stated.

"The cost of it, I'm advised, is more in the vicinity of $250,000. Now if they did try out the blimp before buying it, and they realise it can't work in the night and most of the murders taking place in the night, then the country will not have been saddled with the cost of the purchase of the blimp."

Ramlogan also explained why Deputy Commissioner Jack Ewatski was flying planes in Trinidad. 


"It's a hobby of his for 12 years. Long before he came to Trinidad and as part of maintaining that pilot's license, for those who are pilots would know, that at his own personal expense, he is paying out his own pocket.

"The man, as he always does as part of his routine to maintain the license, went on a trip and it had nothing to do with the contract they are talking about."

The AG also accused Cox of using the resources of the Prison Service for private landscaping. Cox was a minister in the national security ministry during the Manning PNM administration.

Ramlogan said, "They write it off in the prison records as a community support event. I demand and call on Ms. Cox to tell the nation why it is that prisoners under guard of prison officers were cutting her lawn and fence in her private residence and if that is a community-related event."

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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