Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi says the independence of the Police Service Commission (PSC) was not under threat by a provision in a new police Order governing the appointment of a police commissioner and deputy commissioner.
Al-Rawi said instead the autonomy of the PSC was being broadened. He sought to dismiss claims by the Opposition that the new Orders were seeking to interfere in the independence of the PSC. He was speaking during the debate on an Opposition motion, which began in the House of Representatives yesterday, to annul the Orders.
Al-Rawi spoke after Chief Whip Ganga Singh presented the first motion. The new Orders relate to the selection criteria and process for the appointment of the top police officers in the Police Service.
The Attorney General said there was adequate consultation on the issue over the past six years and because of the need to appoint the officers the Government was attempting to address the matter.
There has been no substantive Commissioner of Police in T&T since 2012 after Canadian Dwayne Gibbs resigned. Stephen Williams has been acting as commissioner since then.
The Opposition had claimed a new provision to have the National Security Minister request the PSC to contract an appropriate local firm to invite applications for the jobs was effectively interfering with the independence of the commission. But Al-Rawi denied that claim yesterday.
“We have broadened the powers of the PSC... it is the client, the Police Service Commission, which dictates the terms of reference by which the firm is to operate,” he said, adding that “by setting terms of reference, et cetera, we have in fact broadened the powers and I wish to add that we have removed restrictive conditions contained in the 2009 Order.
“What we have said is that there is a distinction between selection and recruitment. It allows the client to dictate the terms of reference and far from being a restriction on the PSC, this is a broadening of its mandate which it has ben crying for the last umpteen (several) years,” he added.
He said the provision for the minister was “merely requesting that the process be started is not to the exclusion of the PSC. They maintain unto themselves their autonomy where the unduly prescriptive approach has been removed.”
Al-Rawi told legislators: “They (PSC), as the client through the Central Tenders Board Act, have the liberty to dictate their own terms of reference through the Director of Personnel Administration (DPA).”
Al-Rawi insisted: “It is the commission and only the commission that has the power to select and appoint. They could turn it upside down, they could get a list from the firm, they could take number five and put it number one. They could do anything they wish with the firms recommendations but it is their power alone.”
Noting a threat by the Opposition to initiate legal action if the motions were, as expected defeated, Al-Rawi said: “What we have done is purely within the remit of the law and constitutionality.
“It is proportionate, in that it allows a process to move faster, the PSC does not lose any of its autonomy, it and it alone makes the decision for a PSC to act within the appointment of a commissioner of police and a deputy commissioner of police.”
The minister said the new provision was intended to “ensure that at least there is another arm watching but not crossing the line of where that boundary should stand.”