Long overdue

He was killed by escaping inmates as he tried to foil the Port-of-Spain jailbreak of July 24, 2015.

The families of Maynard and the six others — four policemen and two prison officers — are set to benefit under a plan initiated by former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, largely spurred on by public shock at the murder of Police Sgt Hayden Manwaring who was shot by bandits as he tried to foil a robbery in San Fernando on February 19, 2013.

Our sincerest wish is that the families of slain officers who have already had to bear so much pain — traumatised by the loss of their loved ones and at the financial deprivation of the loss of a family’s main breadwinner — can be helped as quickly as possible by this compensation.

Some may say $1 million is a substantial sum, but in terms of recompense for both lost salary earnings and pension benefits, plus the loss of a father, a husband, a son from a family, the sum is paltry. We utterly lament the undue length of time that this compensation is taking to be paid, and the whole underlying uncertainty as to who if anyone would be compensated. This wait has now stretched to a time when the Treasury is greatly challenged. This tardiness is disgraceful. It is also humiliating to the families, especially when the issue gets caught up in the usual political one-upmanship.

They also stay silent for appearing to be mendicant.

A general idea of compensation was first mooted on October 25, 2013, by the then People’s Partnership (PP) Government’s minister of national security, Jack Warner.

His successor, Brigadier Carl Alfonso, on August 4, 2015, said he expected $1 million in compensation to Maynard’s family to be paid “by the end of the week.” The measure was backed by the then finance minister, Larry Howai, and the Police Social and Welfare Association, to be run by the National Security Officers Foundation.

After the September 2015 general election, the new People’s National Movement regime stayed silent on the matter. Maynard’s mother, Octavia Abraham, in December 2015 publicly implored the Government to pay the sum.

By March 2016 it said it would pay no compensation. Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon’s “excuse” was that the PP Government had put no such policy in place. A month later Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley reversed this stance, even inappropriately finger-pointing as he told Parliament, “The public should not begrudge that family getting that kind of support.” Days later, Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus erroneously told a post-Cabinet news briefing only slain police officers would be compensated, the resulting outcry from Fire and Prison Associations leading Dillon on April 15, 2016, to declare that compensation is for all protective services.

By June 2016, Dillon mulled aloud whether recompense was due for two officers slain off-duty, with his ministry on October 6 saying “no,” it is only for those killed in the line of duty. Last September, Persad-Bissessar urged Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi to draft compensation legislation.

Yesterday’s Newsday reported that Maynard’s family had successfully filed all requisite documents, amid seven officers selected as qualifying for payment. “Once the documents are in order and processing is complete we will honour that payment,” Dillon said.

This is heartening news. We truly hope proper procedures are now in place for prompt payment to people whose grief has been unnecessarily burdened by this undue delay.