As has oc­curred in sev­er­al pre­vi­ous years, there has been some quib­bling about the choice of re­cip­i­ents of the 2024 Na­tion­al Awards.

While most of the 65 award re­cip­i­ents have been laud­ed through­out the coun­try, and over­seas as well, for the na­tion­al recog­ni­tion of their con­tri­bu­tions to the de­vel­op­ment of the coun­try, there are peo­ple who ques­tion why one per­son has re­ceived an award and not an­oth­er per­son.

Such ques­tion­ing of de­ci­sions is not un­ex­pect­ed in a vi­brant, de­mo­c­ra­t­ic coun­try in which each cit­i­zen is en­ti­tled to his or her opin­ion, which is pro­tect­ed by T&T’s Re­pub­li­can Con­sti­tu­tion.

As a re­sult of the dis­qui­et in some quar­ters, an in­ter­ro­ga­tion of the process by which peo­ple re­ceive na­tion­al awards is cer­tain­ly nec­es­sary.

The process starts with the nom­i­na­tion of po­ten­tial re­cip­i­ents. Any per­son or or­gan­i­sa­tion may sub­mit a nom­i­na­tion to the Na­tion­al Awards Com­mit­tee, which is chaired by the Chief Jus­tice.

One of the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties of the com­mit­tee is to con­duct a thor­ough vet­ting of the nom­i­nees to en­sure the claims that are made in favour of their nom­i­na­tions are ac­cu­rate and that they are wor­thy of be­com­ing mem­bers of the Dis­tin­guished So­ci­ety of Trinidad and To­ba­go. Every cit­i­zen who re­ceives the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ORTT), the Cha­co­nia Medal, the Hum­ming Bird Medal, the Medal of Mer­it or the Medal for the De­vel­op­ment of Women au­to­mat­i­cal­ly be­comes a mem­ber of the so­ci­ety.

The Let­ters Patent es­tab­lish­ing the Dis­tin­guished So­ci­ety of Trinidad and To­ba­go out­lines, at sec­tion 6, that the oth­er mem­bers of the com­mit­tee com­prise: the chair­man of the Pub­lic Ser­vice Com­mis­sion; the chair­man of the Teach­ing Ser­vice Com­mis­sion; the chair­man of the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion; a se­nior pub­lic of­fi­cer ap­point­ed by the Prime Min­is­ter; and two per­sons rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the gen­er­al pub­lic ap­point­ed by the Prime Min­is­ter. The com­mit­tee shall have a sec­re­tary who shall be ap­point­ed by the Prime Min­is­ter.

If the sec­re­tary is con­sid­ered to be part of the com­mit­tee, the Prime Min­is­ter di­rect­ly ap­points four of its eight mem­bers. The three com­mis­sion chair­men are ap­point­ed by the Pres­i­dent af­ter con­sul­ta­tion with the Prime Min­is­ter and the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion. The chair of the com­mit­tee, the Chief Jus­tice, is al­so ap­point­ed by the Pres­i­dent af­ter con­sul­ta­tion with the Prime Min­is­ter and the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion.

The Prime Min­is­ter’s ad­vice must be sought if awards of the ORTT, the Cha­co­nia Medal and the Hum­ming Bird Medal are to be made “to per­sons oth­er than cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

The Prime Min­is­ter may al­so ad­vise the Pres­i­dent, in ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances, to make awards of the ORTT, the Cha­co­nia Medal or the Hum­ming Bird Medal in ex­cess of the max­i­mum num­ber pre­scribed.

The Nalis web­site al­so quotes the 1969 Con­sti­tu­tion of the Or­der of the Trin­i­ty, as say­ing the Prime Min­is­ter has the right to ac­cept, re­ject, or add to the list of rec­om­mend­ed nom­i­nees made by the com­mit­tee.

The Pres­i­dent con­fers the awards, “on the ad­vice of the Prime Min­is­ter, giv­en af­ter con­sid­er­a­tion of the rec­om­men­da­tion of the ad­vi­so­ry com­mit­tee.”

The ar­gu­ment can be made, there­fore, that all na­tion­al awards are made with, at least, the agree­ment of the Prime Min­is­ter.

But per­haps more at­ten­tion needs to be paid by the awards com­mit­tee to strik­ing the cor­rect bal­ance be­tween pub­lic sen­ti­ment and is­su­ing awards based on long and mer­i­to­ri­ous ser­vice to T&T. This may at least quell some of the an­nu­al pub­lic squab­bling.