Lalla: Picking CoP ‘convoluted’

Lalla said, however, that in order for this to take place, the Constitution would need to be amended to allow the Commission to be completely independent of the political directorate .

He was responding to claims by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley that there may have been deliberate efforts to frustrate the appointment of a Police Commissioner within recent years .

Following talks with Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar on crime, last Friday at the Office of the Prime Minister, in St Clair, Rowley also said he learnt that the Public Service had taken the position that an important part of the process to select a Police Commissioner must be done by the Central Tenders Board. The Prime Minister wondered if the situation constituted a conflict of interest .

Stephen Williams, who served five stints as Acting Police Commissioner without confirmation, proceeded on 25 months vacation leave in March. Deputy Police Commissioner Harold Phillip is currently serving in an acting capacity, pending the appointment of a new, full-time Commissioner, under new legislation .

Lalla yesterday described as “complexed and convoluted,” the current exercise to appoint a Police Commissioner. “Imagine, after 54 years of independence, we have not been able to appoint a substantive Police Commissioner when there has been a vacancy for six years,” he told Sunday Newsday .

Lalla recalled that toward the end of the tenure as PSC chairman, late prime minister Patrick Manning had requested that the commission terminate the services of former police commissioner Jules Bernard, who died in March 2007 .

“We had no objection but we needed facts and circumstances to justify the termination of the appointment, which, when supplied, were inadequate. So, we did not terminate the appointment,” he said. Lalla recalled that the then administration subsequently brought three bills to the Parliament, one of which got the requisite support from the opposition and was passed .

The legislation, he said, replaced the former commission with what currently exists .

“This PSC vests power into the hands of the political directorate in deciding who should be CoP or not and as a result, the current controversy exists,” he said .

“The first commission was totally independent of the political directorate and was also equivalent to the then Public Service Commission.” Lalla recalled that if a police commissioner, during his years as PSC chairman, was found to be incompetent, all the Government had to do was supply particulars to justify his removal .

“The commission would do precisely that bearing in mind the rules of natural justice entitled a commissioner to go to the courts to challenge his removal by the commission,” he said .

Rowley had said in April, 2015, ahead of the general election, that one of the PNM’s priorities if elected, would be to revamp the process by which a police commissioner was appointed .

Rowley had said, then, that the time had come for robust measures to tackle the scourge, firstly by abolishing the existing, cumbersome procedure for appointing police commissioners.