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alexk
Guest
Parliament will meet on Monday to debate the Police Service Commission’s nomination of Gary Griffith for the Commissioner of Police post. But one senior counsel is advising that Government “tread cautiously” on this, as he accuses Government of playing the race card in the process, an allegation which has been summarily dismissed as “absurd” by the leader of government business.
A notice from Parliament yesterday advised that Griffith’s nomination will be the only order of business on the parliamentary agenda. It will be the second time Parliament will meet in the current vacation period to debate a candidate sent by the PSC via the Office of the President.
Griffith’s name was submitted to the President following its statutory meeting on Tuesday and Parliament, as it has done on three past occasions, is being asked to approve the nomination.
But will the Parliament approve it? The Government holds the majority in Parliament and once it agrees Griffith will be appointed.
Yesterday, Leader of Government Business in Parliament, Camille Robinson-Regis, said she could not say if Griffith’s was the last name on the merit list before the PSC, but said the process, as it was done before, will continue.
On June 6 when Parliament debated Deodat Dulalchan’s nomination for the post, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said the PSC had established its “own merit list. At the end of the process we have four candidates for Commissioner: D, H, S and G. It is difficult to get it without calling people’s names”. Rowley made reference to “a source document which was not available in the public domain” and spoke of flaws in the process as the Government rejected Dulalchan.
Parliament subsequently rejected the nominations of Harold Phillip and acting Commissioner Stephen Williams.
Robinson-Regis admitted that although there are “flaws in the process we have been going through the process, which is when the notification comes we ask the Parliament to come and we have gone through the process of either agreeing or negatizing the motion.” The same will happen on Monday, she said.
She said the “process will have to be re-examined because it is a very convoluted process and it also leads to it becoming very untidy. People’s reputations could be tarnished because Members of Parliament can say so many things and the person has no real recourse. It is a very untidy process”.
But the race bogey raised its head yesterday as Israel Khan SC alleged the Government claimed the process was flawed only as “a subterfuge not to appoint Deodat Dulalchan”.
“I am of the very firm view they did not want Dulalchan because he was an East Indian,” Khan said.
But Robinson-Regis dismissed this allegation.
“The PNM does not operate in that way. Those who want to raise that factor I think they should check their conscience. It is absurd.”
Khan said while on the face of it, “on the basis of his merit, ability and integrity” Griffith seems to be a good choice there was a stumbling block.
“He is a potential witness against the former Attorney General Anand Ramlogan in a very serious offence, the pending matter of an attempt to pervert the course of public justice,” Khan said.
Khan said Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley needs to “tread cautiously” in endorsing Griffith’s appointment because Griffith may be compelled by the Director of Public Prosecutions to give evidence against Ramlogan. (See Page A24)