A stern warning has gone out to the Government from former chairman of the Police Service Commission Kenneth Lalla that, if wrongfully dismissed, Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs and Deputy Police Commissioner Jack Ewatski would stand to win millions of dollars. He was commenting on the latest development surrounding the Police Service Commission in which Ewatski has refused to sign his performance appraisal, saying the process was "seriously flawed." Lalla said Gibbs and Ewatski would have been assessed differently from Deputy Police Commissioner Stephen Williams. He explained: "Mr Gibbs and Ewatski are foreigners and therefore contract officers. Therefore, they would have been assessed based upon the terms and conditions of their contracts.
"Mr Williams, however, is not a contract officer and therefore he would be assessed according to the laws and regulations of the Police Service Commission." He said once it was determined, but rightly and fairly, that both Gibbs and Ewatski were not fulfilling their end of the contract, then they could be dismissed. He said: "The PSC, therefore, may be the accuser, prosecutor and judge, as no one can dictate to them except the Parliamentary Select Committee who has to conduct an overview of the commission's performance. "But in the instance of Mr Gibbs and Ewatski, this is not the case, as the commission cannot be the prosecutor, as it is whether they have fulfilled their contract or not." He said with Ewatski's blunt refusal to agree with the performance appraisal, the commission had found itself in a predicament. Making reference to when the late Police Commissioner Jules Bernard held office, Lalla said he was pressured by a former top government official to have Bernard fired.
Lalla said he told the government official he must present sufficient grounds for believing Bernard ought to be fired. "He did not and I refused to fire Bernard. The government then took the matter to Parliament, where they tried to get rid of me," Lalla said. Commenting on the amended Police Service Commission Act of 2006, Lalla said "lawyers, and, even worse, politicians," had failed to comprehend the specifics of the act. Ewatski's stance, Lalla said, could result in the commission 's being "very dictatorial" by moving quickly to seek grounds to fire him and Gibbs. "But the commission could also get into a lot of trouble if it is moving to terminate their contract, because it has to be very careful that the country does not witness another incident like that of Peter Joseph (former head of the Special Anti Crime Unit of T&T). "And if it turns out that Gibbs and Ewatski were wrongfully dismissed, it would be the taxpayers who have to pay the price, not the politicians or members of the Police Service Commission," Lalla noted. (GK)