The much anticipated probe involving Calder Hart, former executive director of the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott), featured prominently at last Friday's sitting of the Joint Select Committee of Parliament which focused on the Police Service Commission (PSC). The issue was raised by the committee's chairman Senator Subhas Ramkhelawan, who noted certain investigations involving Hart.
Ramkhelawan said he received a letter from former parliamentarian Lincoln Mayers which had also been copied to PSC chairman Prof Ramesh Deosaran. Quoting parts of the letter Ramkhelawan said: "There appears to be concern over what appears to be gross tardiness on the part of the Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs in completing the police investigation in the matter captioned, 'Questionable progress with respect to police investigation into the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago and Mr Calder Hart, former executive chairman'."
Ramkhelawan asked Deosaran whether the Hart probe was part of "deliberations" with Gibbs on the status of investigations in the public domain. Deosaran replied: "The answer is yes, that and several others." When he was pressed to share specific details, or tell the committee whether the matter had reached a conclusion, Deosaran said: "He (Gibbs) is yet to give us further information. He kept responding, 'What you want this for?' on this and other matters. We had asked him about two other enquires more recently and he keeps telling us he can't provide us.
"All he tells us generally is to say which officer is continuing investigations and we have to write him back and say, 'No we need something further than that'." Deosaran also brought up the issue of the number of paid advertisements being placed by the Police Service. He said very soon Gibbs will have to account for the amount of money being spent on the ads.
"They seem to convey the impression through media releases that all is well and whereas there is strong evidence of crime, stabbings and other incidents that perhaps give rise to serious concern despite of all these advertisements," Deosaran said. Making reference to the 21st Century Project launched in the Western Division last year, Deosaran said when Gibbs was asked to provide an evaluation report on the initiative, he said the project was a pilot study and there was no completed evaluation.
"We were also disturbed to know, as he (Gibbs) claimed and he apparently felt very confident about it when we enquired about the project he told us we should not worry because 'Cabinet already approved the project to be spread all over the country and Tobago'. "Our concern in terms of the management perspective is how could you roll out a plan that is not properly evaluated if you claim initially it was pilot study. So the public relations aspect seems to be drive the Police Service's performance much more than substantive achievements at present," Deosaran said.