T&T parliament backs Gary Griffith for top cop post

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Trinidad and Tobago Parliament Monday gave the green light to the Police Service Commission (PSC) to appoint former national security minister Gary Griffith as the new police commissioner even though his former colleagues abstained in the vote.

Griffith, who was dismissed as national security minister by then prime minister Kamla Persad Bissessar in 2015 amid the controversy over allegations that former attorney general Anand Ramlogan had sought to pervert the course of justice, failed to receive the support of the opposition legislators.

Nineteen members of the government voted in support of Griffith, a former captain in the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force, while the 13 opposition legislators abstained.

There were no votes against the nomination.

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley defended the decision of his administration to support for the former government minister, saying he had also instructed members of the ruling People’s National Movement to vote freely in the exercise.

On three previous occasions, the government had used its majority to vote against three other nominees including the Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams, who had placed third on the merit list as approved by the PSC.

Parliament had earlier this year accepted the report of a Select Committee of the Parliament that found the procedure followed by the PSC to be  “unsound, unsafe, unsatisfactory and illogical” in seeking a replacement for Canadian Dwayne Gibbs who resigned as Police Commissioner in 2012.

Williams has been acting in the post since then.

Opposition legislators had staged a walkout before the vote on the acceptance of the report of the Select Committee insisting that Deodat Dulalchan, who had been recommended for the position by the PSC, be given the job.

Rowley told legislators Monday that his administration had been given a mandate by the population in the 2015 general election to ensure the post of police commissioner be filled and recalled that the former administration had terminated Gibbs appointment and for “reasons known by them” refused to enact the procedure to ensure his successor was selected.

Opposition Legislator Dr Roodal Moonilal, the only opposition legislator to speak on the motion, said while the opposition considered their former colleague to be suited for the position, it was strange that the government was still proceeding on the matter when it had deemed the process to be flawed in the first instance.

“If the process was flawed for one, how can it be good for another,” Moonilal said.

Moonilal said that the opposition was also perturbed that Griffith, who is a witness in the case of seeking to pervert the course of justice against Ramlogan, would be chosen for the top police post.

But Rowley, the only government speaker on the motion, said that he found it “amazing that a Member of Parliament would come to the House and say a person who is a witness against someone…that is a basis for the person to not get the position.”

He insisted that the statement by Moonilal was intended to “muddy the water”.

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