Lead Editor- Newsgathering
The Ministry of Homeland Security has confirmed that annual reports required under the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) Act and the Interception of Communications Act for the years 2022, 2024 and 2025 remain before Cabinet awaiting approval.
Guardian Media uncovered the reporting gap after filing separate Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests with the Judiciary and the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service seeking data on interception warrants. While the Judiciary released annual approval and refusal figures, the TTPS said the information was already publicly available through annual reports required to be laid in Parliament.
A search of Parliament’s records, however, found reports for only 2020, 2021 and 2023.
In a letter to Guardian Media dated July 24, Acting Permanent Secretary Dr Wilson Henderson Jr said, “The reports for the periods 2022, 2024 and 2025 are currently before Cabinet awaiting approval. Once approved and laid in Parliament, these reports would also be available and accessible for your review via Parliament’s website.”
The missing reports should examine the controversy surrounding the dismissal of former director Major (Retired) Roger Best (2024) and the agency’s role during the country’s States of Emergency declared in December 2024 and July 2025.
The disclosure also comes as the State’s use of intelligence and possible communication intercepts during the ongoing State of Emergency faces growing legal and public scrutiny.
Henderson’s letter also noted that any reports or oversight reviews related to the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) and interception of communications are exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, as the SSA is excluded from the Act’s application under the Freedom of Information (Exemption) Order, 2017.
Letters sent to Speaker of the House, President
On Friday, attorney Criston Williams, acting for detainees Earl Richards, Rajaee Ali and Canadian national Christopher Hughes, wrote to House Speaker Jagdeo Singh asking him to determine whether the failure to lay the outstanding reports constitutes a matter of serious parliamentary concern.
Williams argued the reporting requirements are “not administrative formalities but structural safeguards intended to ensure executive accountability, public confidence and parliamentary oversight in sensitive areas of state authority.”
He also warned that “the systematic non-laying of statutory reports impairs the ability of Members of Parliament to discharge their legislative and oversight functions,” adding that “Parliament cannot properly perform its oversight function if the Executive selectively decides when, or whether, to present statutory reports.”
The attorney further argued that transparency and parliamentary scrutiny are indispensable checks against the arbitrary exercise of power, particularly during periods when extraordinary measures such as States of Emergency are invoked.
Williams also questioned the integrity of the 2023 SSA annual report, saying it contains serious irregularities on its face because it features an opening statement attributed to former SSA director Major (Retired) Roger Best after he left office in 2024 and “contains no signature or visible authentication” confirming he approved its contents.
Williams has also written separately to Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander seeking voluntary disclosure of documents in Earl Richards’ constitutional challenge to his Preventive Detention Order. While the attorney says he is not seeking operational intelligence or the identities of intelligence sources, he is requesting documents showing how intelligence was assessed and legally scrutinised before executive decisions were taken.
Williams has also written to President Christine Kangaloo asking her to encourage an independent constitutional and parliamentary governance review into the handling of SSA intelligence reports.
In his letter, he asked the President to encourage an independent review into whether Parliament “was properly invited to receive, understand and scrutinise” the SSA’s 2023 annual report after it was laid without the reports for 2022, 2024 and 2025.
He also urged her to seek verification of when the reports for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 were completed, submitted to the Minister of Homeland Security, transmitted and laid in Parliament, and to encourage Parliament to adopt a special protocol governing the handling of intelligence and national security reports.
Williams argued successive governments have repeatedly relied on intelligence to justify extraordinary powers, including States of Emergency and preventive detention, while providing little public explanation of how that intelligence was evaluated. According to the attorney, the missing annual reports are one of Parliament’s primary oversight mechanisms, making their continued absence a matter of constitutional importance.
Earlier FOIA responses from the Judiciary showed judges approved 314 interception warrant applications between 2020 and May 2026 while refusing only 13 applications. Ten applications were approved during the first five months of 2026.
