Govt approves $M salary

Sandy said Gibbs and Deputy Commission of Police (DCP), Canadian Jack Ewatski, will receive three-year contracts, details of which are still being fine-tuned by the Office of the Attorney General.

At a press briefing at the Office of Prime Minister’s, St Clair, Sandy told reporters that the CoP’s pay will be US$205,000 per year (TT$1.3 million), which works out to about TT$108,000 per month. The Deputy CoP’s pay will be CAN$200,000 per year (TT$ 1.2 million) or about TT $102,000 per month.

“These packages are related to those offered to commissioners of police in jurisdictions in Canada and the US,” he said. He revealed that the salaries are actually lower than those for other foreign nationals currently employed by the State in organisations such as the Special Anti-Crime Unit (SAUTT).

“This is synonymous to packages offered to senior foreign executives contracted by Government as well as private sector agencies employed in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said. “The salary for the senior executive at SAUTT is in the vicinity of $120,000 per month and there is also executive housing to the extent of $26,000 per month. There are other executives in Trinidad and Tobago, both private and public who are receiving in excess of what the commissioner will be receiving.”

Sandy also said a termination clause has been included in the draft contract under which the CoP will be dismissed if his performance is deemed unsatisfactory by the Police Service Commission (the independent body charged with the recruitment and discipline of police officers) and by the Ministry of National Security.

Amidst concerns over the State blurring the role of the PSC and the executive in the appointment of a CoP, Sandy said his ministry will monitor Gibbs, even as he admitted that that is the purview of the PSC.

“That is the purview of the Police Service Commission,” he said of the monitoring of Gibbs’s performance. “Between the Ministry of National Security and the Police Service Commission it will be determined whether they are performing as we expect them to perform.” Additionally, the office holders will be able to leave.

“If they are here and they feel overwhelmed they are allowed themselves, a scapegoat,” he said. He did not disclose the financial conditions of termination of the contracts, saying that matter was being ironed out by the Office of the Attorney General.

Even as the State set the salary for Gibbs yesterday, Sandy said the Government was not interfering with the salary level set by the Salaries Review Commission, the Constitutional body charged with review of public sector salaries. He said the mechanism by which the CoP and his deputy will be paid is with the provision of an “inducement allowance” above the set salary in place for a CoP.

“The salary of CoP and DCP are set by the Salaries Review Commission. They cannot be disturbed. That is why in the cases of the two Canadians, they have been given an inducement allowance.”

“The principle difference in emoluments resides in an inducement allowance that took cognisance of the fact that these gentlemen were asked to uproot themselves and their families from their homes to come to Trinidad and Tobago to bring their expertise and to address the spiraling crime problem being experienced in our beloved twin-island state.”