DEREK ACHONG

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

For­mer Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA) di­rec­tor re­tired ma­jor Roger Best is ex­pect­ed to learn his fate in the law­suit he filed af­ter be­ing dis­missed from the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty in­tel­li­gence agency. 

High Court Judge Na­dia Kan­ga­loo promised to de­liv­er her judg­ment in Oc­to­ber as she gave di­rec­tions to at­tor­neys in the case for the fil­ing of sub­mis­sions dur­ing a hear­ing, yes­ter­day. 

In ear­ly March last year, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced that re­tired Brig Gen­er­al An­tho­ny Phillips-Spencer had been re­called from his post as am­bas­sador to the Unit­ed States to re­place Best, who was placed on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave. 

Row­ley stat­ed that the change was due to a ma­jor na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty threat that was re­port­ed to the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil which he chairs.

Best was even­tu­al­ly ter­mi­nat­ed on May 18, last year, while he and three oth­ers were be­ing ques­tioned by the po­lice in re­la­tion to the al­leged il­le­gal trans­fer of weapons. 

Sev­er­al days lat­er, self-pro­fessed spy Ian Ezekiel Brown, who serves as the pas­tor of a church; for­mer Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Re­sponse Team (SORT) mem­ber Sgt Sher­win Wal­dron; and for­mer SSA se­cu­ri­ty su­per­vi­sor Portell Grif­fith were slapped with mul­ti­ple mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice charges re­lat­ed to the al­leged trans­fer and il­le­gal pos­ses­sion of firearms and am­mu­ni­tion. 

Best was not charged along­side them.

On Ju­ly 3 in Par­lia­ment, Row­ley read in­to Hansard a state­ment on an au­dit of the SSA done by Phillips-Spencer. The au­dit re­vealed that the agency un­der Best had amassed mil­i­tary-grade weapons and am­mu­ni­tion and op­er­at­ed a high­ly trained and mil­i­tarised “tac­ti­cal re­sponse unit.”

Row­ley said there were dis­turb­ing prac­tices of nepo­tism and op­por­tunism lead­ing to a con­cen­tra­tion of mem­bers of one church be­ing hired by the SSA, in­stances of dis­hon­esty and deep de­cep­tion. He said the 28 SSA em­ploy­ees were ter­mi­nat­ed, ei­ther for vi­o­la­tions of the SSA Act and Reg­u­la­tions or anom­alous re­cruit­ment of faulty pro­mo­tion process­es and prac­tices.

In the law­suit, Best claimed his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights were breached in the man­ner he was ter­mi­nat­ed. 

Through the law­suit, Best is seek­ing com­pen­sa­tion for loss of earn­ings as he claimed that he was ren­dered vir­tu­al­ly “un­em­ploy­able” based on al­le­ga­tions made by Row­ley about what tran­spired dur­ing his stint as the head of the SSA. 

“There has been ir­repara­ble dam­age to my rep­u­ta­tion,” Best claimed. He al­so de­nied any wrong­do­ing as he claimed that he per­formed his du­ties dili­gent­ly and with alacrity. 

Pri­or to pur­su­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al claim, Best filed a law­suit for in­for­ma­tion rel­a­tive to his ter­mi­na­tion. The claim was even­tu­al­ly with­drawn. 

Best was rep­re­sent­ed by Ar­den Williams, Mari­ah Ram­rat­tan, and Don-Marie Adolphe.