Ani­ka Gumbs-San­di­ford

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Jack Warn­er in­tro­duced his ju­nior min­is­ter, Collin Par­tap, to mem­bers of the new Fly­ing Squad last year.In June 2012, ex­act­ly a month be­fore he was axed from the post, Par­tap was giv­en a di­rec­tive to over­see the set­ting up of an in­tel­li­gence unit. The unit, which was set up in se­cret, was aimed at gath­er­ing in­for­ma­tion to help solve crime.

But then Par­tap was fired on Au­gust 25 for al­leged­ly re­fus­ing to take a breathal­yser test af­ter leav­ing a Port-of-Spain night­club.At the time he was fired, the unit had no name. It end­ed up be­ing called the New Fly­ing Squad In­ves­ti­ga­tion Unit (NF­SIU), as list­ed on sev­er­al doc­u­ments, in­clud­ing ap­pli­ca­tion forms.Par­tap, T&T Guardian in­ves­ti­ga­tions re­vealed, met with some mem­bers of the NF­SIU in Ju­ly and Au­gust last year.

When con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Par­tap would nei­ther de­ny nor con­firm whether he met with mem­bers of the NF­SIU. Asked if he played any role in set­ting it up, Par­tap replied: "I had noth­ing to do with the set­ting up of any Fly­ing Squad. As the min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty I could not set up any unit. It was not in my re­mit to set up any such unit."

Pressed on whether he was man­dat­ed to set up an in­tel­li­gence unit, Par­tap said: "I have no fur­ther com­ment to make."Warn­er did not re­spond to text mes­sages and tele­phone calls seek­ing clar­i­fi­ca­tion on the di­rec­tive yes­ter­day.Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Mervyn Richard­son al­so met with mem­bers of the NF­SIU in Oc­to­ber. In­ves­ti­ga­tions show it was Richard­son who rec­om­mend­ed that mem­bers of the unit should be­come spe­cial re­serve po­lice (SRPs).

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Richard­son did not de­ny hav­ing made the rec­om­men­da­tion but said: "The act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Stephen Williams has dealt with that mat­ter at length."Asked if he did in fact make the rec­om­men­da­tion for the NF­SIU mem­bers to be­come SRPs, Richard­son said: "Ma'am, I would not add any­thing fur­ther. The min­is­ter has spo­ken and the CoP has spo­ken."

Com­ment­ing yes­ter­day, Williams, who has in­sist­ed he did not sanc­tion the set­ting-up of the NF­SIU, said the mat­ter had not brought his of­fice in­to dis­re­pute.Re­it­er­at­ing he nev­er met with Warn­er or any mem­ber of the NF­SIU, Williams said: "Noth­ing has been said to date that in­crim­i­nates me in any form or fash­ion.

"I must nev­er be in­crim­i­nat­ed in any wrong­do­ing. It is a sit­u­a­tion which was not with­in my do­main and is still not with­in my do­main. I have had no meet­ing with any of these play­ers in re­la­tion to the said is­sue."New­ly-ap­point­ed di­rec­tor of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Op­er­a­tions Cen­tre, Garvin Heer­ah, was in con­tact with mem­bers of the NF­SIU over set­ting up the unit, which was up and run­ning but was re­cent­ly shut down be­cause of lack of fund­ing.