Police Bills may return to Parliament

WORKS and Transport Minister Franklin Khan yesterday sent a strong signal that Government intended to bring the controversial Police Service Reform Bills back to Parliament in 2005. The Opposition UNC refused to support passage of the Bills after a marathon 72-hour sitting of the House of Representatives in July. TTMA president Anthony Aboud said the legislation should be brought back to Parliament and the business community would be making representations to both Government and Opposition on the matter. Speaking during a meeting of the parliamentary Joint Select Committee (Municipal Corporations and Service Commissions) with the Police Service Commission (PSC) and Police Commissioner Trevor Paul at the Red House, Khan said management remained the biggest issue confronting both the Police Service and PSC, and some type of legislative remedy would ultimately have to be administered.

The minister said this point was reinforced in the foreword of the PSC’s 2002 report which showed “how convoluted the process is. Somewhere along the line, everybody is responsible and nobody is responsible. The logic stream does not flow. If there was ever bad wiring of a system, this is it,” he stated. Recalling Government’s reasons for bringing the Police Bills to Parliament, Khan declared, “I make no apologies that when we tried to introduce the Police Service Reform Bills into the Parliament. The legislation did give powers to the Commissioner of Police (CoP) to recruit up to the level of a superintendent, any resource-based personnel that he needs to effectively transform the CoP into the CEO of his institution. “For whatever reason, we have not been able to succeed in that regard. I think the system is so fundamentally flawed that it has to be changed, but it cannot be changed except through legislation, and I will leave that for the time being.” Khan added that the entire Service Commission system needed to be reviewed.

The Police Bills can be reintroduced in Parliament within six months, making January 2005 a likely period for their return, but Leader of Government Business Ken Valley said Government’s new legislative agenda for Parliament was still being worked out. Khan said in the interim, “We have to find a way to make what we have work” and suggested a tripartite approach by the CoP, PSC and Government to address the management problems in the Police Service. UNC Senator Robin Montano accused Khan of politicking, but committee chairman, Independent Senator Prof Ramesh Deosaran, overruled him. “There were political statements that were made by the other speakers and we have to allow that latitude. I don’t think we should tighten the screws unduly so,” Deosaran said. Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma earlier claimed that people used political connections to join the Police Service. PSC chairman Christopher Thomas agreed with Khan that there were gaps in the constitution regarding the jurisdiction of different bodies over the Police Service’s operations and said his suggestion for a tripartite approach to solving problems affecting the Police Service had merit.