Richard Lord

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has re­ferred the is­sue of the con­tro­ver­sial new Fly­ing Squad to the act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice.Af­ter re­ceiv­ing re­ports by Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er and di­rec­tor of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Op­er­a­tions Cen­tre (NSOC) Garvin Heer­ah on the con­tro­ver­sial new Fly­ing Squad, the PM passed the mat­ter to Stephen Williams for fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

It is ex­pect­ed to be Williams' sec­ond in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the mat­ter in as many months, as he told the T&T Guardian last month he was to launch an im­me­di­ate in­ves­ti­ga­tion when told of the squad. Williams nev­er made pub­lic the find­ings of his probe, but told re­porters two weeks ago that he had no knowl­edge about the re-es­tab­lish­ment of the unit last year.

In a state­ment in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she re­ceived the re­port from Warn­er, which in­clud­ed Heer­ah's re­port. While Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Warn­er main­tained he had no knowl­edge of any new Fly­ing Squad with­in the Po­lice Ser­vice, she did not say what Heer­ah's re­port con­tained."Mr Warn­er has con­sis­tent­ly de­nied that he was in­stru­men­tal in es­tab­lish­ing any new Fly­ing Squad. His re­port to the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil re­flect­ed this," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She told leg­is­la­tors: "Af­ter full dis­cus­sion and care­ful de­lib­er­a­tions, the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil took the de­ci­sion to re­fer the said re­ports to Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice for an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to any al­leged wrong­do­ings, un­law­ful con­duct and/or ac­tion by any or all per­sons pur­port­ed to be in­volved in this mat­ter."

Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who is the chair­man of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, added, "This course of ac­tion was tak­en at the very first meet­ing of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, up­on re­ceipt of the writ­ten re­ports from the rel­e­vant of­fi­cials."She re­it­er­at­ed, "There has been no di­rect or im­plied ap­proval ever giv­en by the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil or by the Cab­i­net for the es­tab­lish­ment of any such unit. I have no knowl­edge of any such al­leged ac­tiv­i­ty."

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she want­ed to "make it very clear these are al­le­ga­tions, and this is why the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil took the de­ci­sion to re­fer it to the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice for in­ves­ti­ga­tion."She said she want­ed to "state un­equiv­o­cal­ly that as Prime Min­is­ter, any ini­tia­tive con­sid­ered by my Cab­i­net for com­bat­ing crime will al­ways be ful­ly and com­plete­ly with­in the laws and Con­sti­tu­tion of T&T, and un­der the ju­ris­dic­tion, where ap­pro­pri­ate, of the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice."

But Op­po­si­tion MP Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald said the PM's de­ci­sion to send the mat­ter to Williams was just "pass­ing the buck." She said the move was in­tend­ed to di­vert na­tion­al at­ten­tion from it, but in­sist­ed that would not hap­pen.She added: "Like Sec­tion 34, we will not (al­low that)...that is pass­ing the buck."She said af­ter the probe was done Williams would pass it back to the min­is­ter.

"They need to be de­ci­sive and I see this as pass­ing the buck and pass­ing the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty."Mc Don­ald stressed: "Some­body has to pay for this Fly­ing Squad fi­as­co."She told leg­is­la­tors: "Af­ter full dis­cus­sion and care­ful de­lib­er­a­tions, the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil took the de­ci­sion to re­fer the said re­ports to Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice for an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to any al­leged wrong­do­ings, un­law­ful con­duct and/or ac­tion by any or all per­sons pur­port­ed to be in­volved in this mat­ter."

Kam­la wants cop in­ves­ti­ga­tion

Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who is the chair­man of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, added, "This course of ac­tion was tak­en at the very first meet­ing of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, up­on re­ceipt of the writ­ten re­ports from the rel­e­vant of­fi­cials."She re­it­er­at­ed, "There has been no di­rect or im­plied ap­proval ever giv­en by the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil or by the Cab­i­net for the es­tab­lish­ment of any such unit. I have no knowl­edge of any such al­leged ac­tiv­i­ty."

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she want­ed to "make it very clear these are al­le­ga­tions, and this is why the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil took the de­ci­sion to re­fer it to the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice for in­ves­ti­ga­tion."She said she want­ed to "state un­equiv­o­cal­ly that as Prime Min­is­ter, any ini­tia­tive con­sid­ered by my Cab­i­net for com­bat­ing crime will al­ways be ful­ly and com­plete­ly with­in the laws and Con­sti­tu­tion of T&T, and un­der the ju­ris­dic­tion, where ap­pro­pri­ate, of the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice."

But Op­po­si­tion MP Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald said the PM's de­ci­sion to send the mat­ter to Williams was just "pass­ing the buck." She said the move was in­tend­ed to di­vert na­tion­al at­ten­tion from it, but in­sist­ed that would not hap­pen.She added: "Like Sec­tion 34, we will not (al­low that)...that is pass­ing the buck."She said af­ter the probe was done Williams would pass it back Warn­er.

"They need to be de­ci­sive and I see this as pass­ing the buck and pass­ing the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. Some­body has to pay for this Fly­ing Squad fi­as­co."