Five months after he began acting as Police Commissioner, Stephen Williams will find out tomorrow if his six-month temporary appointment will be extended beyond January 31. Williams, 50, was appointed to act in the post on August 7, 2012 after the resignation of former CoP Dwayne Gibbs, which took effect last July 7.
In a telephone interview yesterday, chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC) Ramesh Deosaran said it was set to meet tomorrow. He said an announcement would be made after the meeting. He said Williams' acting appointment would be discussed. "We will notify the public after that meeting on what has been decided," he added.
Deosaran said there were complications surrounding a permanent appointment to the post. He said the commission was constrained as it now had to wait for the Service Commission Department to advertise and select a firm which would be responsible for selecting, interviewing and assessing applicants for the post.
He said the shortlisted applicants would then be referred to the commission to be considered before any recommendations could be made to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and the Cabinet and then Parliament. Deosaran declined to speculate on how long that exercise could take.
"However," he said, "we are making certain proposals to the authorities to shorten this period because it is not beneficial to the public to have such a protracted procedure for an important matter like the appointment of a police commissioner and deputy commissioners.
"We propose to have this period shortened by reviewing the role of this external firm and putting more responsibility directly under the PSC so as make the process more cost-effective, more efficient and less ambiguous." Williams could not be reached yesterday for a comment as calls to his cellphone went unanswered.
