Hinds: Ministers not responsible for crime

JUNIOR NATIONAL Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds declared on Monday that no Government Minister has a “personal”   responsibility for crime. He said the concept of ministerial responsibility was “a political constitutional construct which means that as national head of a Ministry, the minister has responsibility for all of the things, in the sense that he accounts to the Cabinet, he accounts to the Parliament, and he accounts to the electorate for what happens under his purview.”

“That does not mean that the minister has personal responsibility for a rape in Bacolet, or for a murder in Toco or larceny that might be taking place outside of this room right now as we speak,” Hinds told a luncheon meeting of the Tobago Chamber of commerce at Mt Irvine Hotel. “We have come to the state in Trinidad and Tobago now where people are directing personal responsibility to others.”