While the controversial leakage of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) document confirms the reintroduction of a rogue policing unit–the New Flying Squad–Minister of National Security Gary Griffith said nothing can be done at this time to anyone implicated in the report and to who may be under his leadership.
Speaking with the media at the end of an interfaith service held at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) Port-of-Spain for members of the protective services who died in the line of duty, Griffith said no action can be taken against anyone from his level since no government official received a copy of the document, which was sent to the offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Commissioner of Police.
"If you have any information I am really looking forward to getting it because at this time no government official has received any correspondence whatsoever from police, PCA or DPP. It would not be appropriate to take any action at this time and the DPP is quite right he has his job and I have mine" Griffith said.At a function on Thursday DPP Roger Gaspard said he was not concerned about the leak of the document but the content and he would be focusing on that.
Griffith reiterated his call for the classification of documents which he said would prevent further leaks of sensitive information. "I have my job to do which is to prevent leaks and to ensure that classification of documents and critical information is given to individuals on a need to know basis and they have that professionalism not to abuse that position but to use it in the right manner and the DPP has his to job to do which is to deal with investigation" Griffith said.
In a media release on Wednesday Griffith said the classification of documents would be categorised into "top secret", "confidential" and "restricted". The release added that documents of an administrative nature, which may not justify a security classification but should be protected from the casual observer, will be classified as "staff in confidence", "medical in confidence" and "contract in confidence".
Griffith said the classification of documents is a world wide thing and he applauds whistle blowers as they unearth government misconduct."I already spoke of whistle blowers, I applaud that, we need whistle blowers to ensure that the government or the state is not covering something illegal."This matter has nothing to do with whistle blowing this matter has to do with individuals who have breached that level of confidentiality and passed on information that they should not have" he added.
Griffith added that classifying information would identify those who are enemies of the state who breach their ought and leak information. He said it was not a case of hiding information but ensuring that sensitive information pertaining to matters of national security that can affect the nation's security cannot be breached. Griffith said that leaked document was at it's highest a restricted document because it did not affect national security.