Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams is expected to get a fifth extension in the post from the Police Service Commission (PSC) at the end of this month. That will make him first officer in the history of the T&T Police Service to have acted in the top post for so long.However, even as the PSC grants the extension, sources say there is concern among the commissioners about the length of time it is taking to recruit and appoint a new Police Commissioner–more than two years.
Word is that tendering for selection of a firm to conduct the recruitment was supposed to be done by State-owned National Insurance Property Development Company Ltd (Nipdec) acting on behalf of the Service Commissions Department."We have no part to play in that process because it does not fall under the Commissioner. Whichever firm Nipdec chooses would be responsible for conducting the interviews," a source said in an interview.
Former Director of Personnel Administration (DPA) Gloria Edwards-Joseph, in a brief telephone interview, said that at the time of her retirement in April 2014, Nipdec had to start over the retendering process because those who applied were deemed unsuitable."We actually had gone back to retender because the persons who responded did not have the skills we were looking for, so the entire process had to begin all over again.
"But that was some nine months ago, so I do not know at what point the process has reached, or whether it has in fact restarted," she said.Efforts to contact current DPA Veronica Creed were unsuccessful. The T&T Guardian was told she was in meetings and up to press time she had not responded to messages seeking her comments on the issue.
It is understood that international and regional companies seeking to be selected to conduct the hiring process will be examined on a range of criteria including approach and methodology, qualification and experience as a consulting firm and general background. Local firms also have to submit statutory certificates.
After the process of selecting a firm is completed, that firm will then go through an additional time-consuming process of seeking applicants and selecting candidates to recommend to the PSC.
An additional challenge is that the PSC has been without a quorum for several months because a chairman is not yet in place. Last December, President Anthony Carmona nominated Maria Therese Gomes, a sociologist and behavioural scientist, to be appointed PSC chairman. That recommendation was approved by Parliament last week.
Gomes will replace Professor Ramesh Deosaran who resigned last year in apparent frustration over the failure of government to amend legislation to make the appointment of a Police Commissioner and other senior police officers less cumbersome.
Carmona, who had been out of the country, is expected to return to T&T today. Information officer at President's House Theron Boodan said he believes Gomes will receive her instruments of appointment by Wednesday as Carmona wants to deal with the matter with urgency.
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Williams acting since August 2012
On January 31 Williams' fourth six-month extension as acting commissioner will expire. He was first appointed to act on August 7, 2012, following the resignations of Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs and former Deputy Commissioner Jack Ewatski.
Asked whether he was hopeful about receiving an extension Williams had responded, "The issue of being hopeful or not hopeful, it's irrelevant to me. "I don't operate on the issue of hope. I'm doing a job to my best ability. It's up to the service commission to make a determination what to do."