Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Two po­lice units and a gov­ern­ment agency are be­ing re­lo­cat­ed from Tow­er C of the In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Com­plex in Port-of-Spain, to make room for Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der’s min­istry.

Guardian Me­dia was told yes­ter­day that af­ter split­ting the pre­vi­ous Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty in­to Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty and De­fence, with Min­is­ters Alexan­der and Wayne Sturge at the helm, the Tem­ple Court of­fices be­came too crowd­ed for both min­istries. Tow­er C was sub­se­quent­ly of­fered as an op­tion to Alexan­der and he took it.

Three en­ti­ties cur­rent­ly oc­cu­py Lev­el 20 of the Wa­ter­front build­ing, where Alexan­der’s min­istry will soon be housed.

The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice’s An­ti-Cor­rup­tion and In­ves­ti­ga­tion Bu­reau (ACIB) and Le­gal Unit are cur­rent­ly housed on the floor, along with the Crim­i­nal In­juries Com­pen­sa­tion Board, a gov­ern­ment agency.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that both ACIB and the Crim­i­nal In­juries Com­pen­sa­tion Board had nowhere to go up to yes­ter­day, but were told they need­ed to va­cate by the end of the month. The Le­gal Unit will be re­lo­cat­ed to a build­ing on Rich­mond Street, which cur­rent­ly hous­es the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tion Unit.

In a pub­lic post, the Crim­i­nal In­juries Com­pen­sa­tion Board stat­ed: “Dear Ap­pli­cants,

Please be ad­vised that the Crim­i­nal In­juries Com­pen­sa­tion Unit has been re­lo­cat­ed from Lev­el 20, Tow­er C, In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Com­plex, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain.

“We are cur­rent­ly await­ing con­fir­ma­tion from the Min­istry of Jus­tice re­gard­ing our new of­fice lo­ca­tion. In the mean­time, please be as­sured that our ser­vices re­main avail­able and we are com­mit­ted to as­sist­ing you with­out in­ter­rup­tion.”

In a mes­sage to his of­fi­cers on Thurs­day, head of the TTPS Le­gal Unit, In­sp Ram­dath Phillip, said they must move by the end of the month. How­ev­er, he said the in­tend­ed lo­ca­tion was not yet and park­ing was yet to be de­ter­mined.

He said, “Good night, every­one. Af­ter our sur­prise vis­it to­day by the Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty and a sub­se­quent meet­ing I had with the CoP, it has been con­firmed that the said min­is­ter will, in fact, be mov­ing in­to our work­space at the end of this month.”

He added: “As such, we should start pack­ing doc­u­ments as ear­ly as to­mor­row (Fri­day) so that by the end of next week, we should be in a po­si­tion to have most of our stuff packed in box­es. The pro­posed build­ing is not yet suit­able for oc­cu­pa­tion, but work will com­mence to­mor­row on the floor of that build­ing, which we in­tend to oc­cu­py.”

Phillip’s promised to mon­i­tor the work as it goes along in his mes­sage.

“As it re­lates to park­ing, same will have to be at the Up­town Mall car park or the car park along Park Street. Let us please un­der­stand that this move is be­yond my con­trol and that of the CoP, so let’s not stress too much about it. I ap­pre­ci­ate that the move will bring change, but as it is said, the on­ly con­stant in life is change.”

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands Alexan­der vis­it­ed the space on Thurs­day and toured the three places.

In a What­sApp re­sponse to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, how­ev­er, Phillip said they are not sure where they will be go­ing.

Jus­tice Min­is­ter De­vesh Ma­haraj and Alexan­der, who were in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, did not re­spond to mes­sages up to press time.