Se­nior po­lice of­fi­cials say while an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the dis­ap­pear­ance of 25,000 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion from the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force is on­go­ing, the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice is en­sur­ing that prop­er pro­ce­dures are in place so that all its arms and am­mu­ni­tion are well ac­count­ed for.

Speak­ing dur­ing the me­dia brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Ju­nior Ben­jamin said based on his cur­so­ry glance at a re­cent re­port, every­thing is above board and there are no dis­crep­an­cies wi­hin the TTPS.

“The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, we con­tin­ue to fol­low cer­tain stan­dard op­er­at­ing pro­ce­dures. I can as­sure you that last year we con­duct­ed an au­dit of our ar­moury and that re­port is present­ly en­gag­ing my at­ten­tion. And we will con­tin­ue to put those stan­dard op­er­at­ing pro­ce­dures in place on a reg­u­lar ba­sis to en­sure that we ac­count for all that takes place with­in the ar­moury,” he said.

On Thurs­day, Cab­i­net es­tab­lished a team to in­ves­ti­gate the dis­ap­pear­ance of the am­mu­ni­tion from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Reg­i­ment’s (TTR) Cu­mu­to Bar­racks.

The team, which is be­ing co-chaired by re­tired Col Lyle Alexan­der, will con­duct a full au­dit of records, the ar­moury, and stor­age fa­cil­i­ties at the bar­racks. Two mil­i­tary of­fi­cers from the Guyana De­fence Force and the Ja­maica De­fence Force will be part of the team, with one al­so be­ing a co-chair.

Dur­ing the last day of the 48th Reg­u­lar Meet­ing of the Con­fer­ence of Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment in Bar­ba­dos, Ja­maica Prime Min­is­ter An­drew Hol­ness was asked by re­porters about a se­nior mil­i­tary of­fi­cer from Ja­maica as­sist­ing with the probe.

He said, “Ja­maica is al­ways will­ing to sup­port our friends in Trinidad.”

Hol­ness said T&T Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley reached out and asked for as­sis­tance in the mat­ter. Hol­ness said his Chief of De­fence Staff will say who the se­nior mil­i­tary of­fi­cer is, “but we will send some­one who is com­pe­tent and ap­pro­pri­ate for the task.”

New the­o­ry?

Mean­while, a se­nior De­fence Force source claimed im­prop­er ac­count­ing for am­mu­ni­tion used by mem­bers of the TTR for train­ing is be­ing blamed for the miss­ing rounds of 5.56mm am­mu­ni­tion.

The se­nior De­fence Force source claimed that the miss­ing 25,000 rounds were gob­bled up on the fir­ing range while a se­nior of­fi­cer was on leave for at least three months.

The source said the am­mu­ni­tion may not be “miss­ing” but were used and not ac­count­ed for.

“Them fel­las shoot out all them rounds on train­ing and didn’t sign for it. That is ex­act­ly what hap­pened. Them fel­las just tak­ing the rounds and shoot­ing out the rounds be­cause they feel no­body is re­al­ly check­ing that. And that is slack­ness!”

The source said the last time an au­dit was done pri­or to the dis­cov­ery of the miss­ing rounds ear­li­er this month, was Au­gust last year. He claimed the ar­moury is usu­al­ly checked month­ly but a se­nior of­fi­cer was on leave for three months and since then there have been no phys­i­cal checks.

“No­body likes to go in them dusty place and get them masked up and when they come out, your eye hurt­ing. Where those things are stored, it’s not the best. If you go to do arms and am­mu­ni­tion, you would want to run out of there. That is why it have peo­ple whose re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is sole­ly that. The per­son who is ul­ti­mate­ly di­rect­ly re­spon­si­ble is the reg­i­men­tal sergeant ma­jor for the camp, who is a war­rant of­fi­cer.”