CONFIDENCE in the secretive operations of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) - which is meant to be a central conduit for important crime-fighting intelligence - has been compromised by the statements made by the Prime Minister in the wake of the shock announcement of staff changes there.
'The Government acted on information from the police,' Dr Rowley said on Monday, a day after his office, and no other, told the country the SSA director had been sent packing. He added, 'I say no more.'
But the PM had said enough.
Aside from the range of situations, many of them alarming, insinuated by his simple statement, Dr Rowley opened a Pandora's box relating to current systems of oversight.
Who polices the secret arms of the State? The remit of the SSA is to supply intelligence to the police.
If we take Dr Rowley's actions to suggest the police have a role in informing on the SSA itself, then the question becomes: who polices the police, if not the SSA? In short, who guards the guards?
In any event, the PM did say more.
'The circumstances require the Government act to ensure that national security is not jeopardised,' he said. 'The actions that have come to the attention of the Cabinet warranted that drastic intervention.' Further: 'It's not every day we do this, something must have happened to have warranted this.'
A heightened police presence at SSA offices at Knowsley, Port of Spain, over the weekend, he said, was 'to ensure there was absolute control of the situation.'
At the same time, he suggested the current director has been sent on administrative leave and has not been replaced.
And yet the nature of the personnel review Brig Gen Anthony Phillips-Spencer has purportedly been mandated to undertake, after being recalled from Washington, DC, is so serious it is hard to see why it would be entrusted to him in lieu of the substantive officeholder unless confidence had been irretrievably lost. The SSA law authorises the appointment of an acting director only when the main postholder is 'incapacitated' or absent.
The confusion surrounding oversight has another frightening implication: secret law enforcement is left to the whim and fancy of politicians and their personal assessment of information.
The PM wants the country to trust the Government.
But he has a mixed record when it comes to trusting the Special Branch when it involves allegations against ministers, as well as recommendations surrounding building safety relating to the DPP.
Dr Rowley missed an opportunity on Wednesday to explain his personal actions in this case and to assuage fears that now arise relating both to the operations of the SSA and to its vetting processes. For how could someone purportedly meriting the unceremonious treatment witnessed this week be appointed to lead it in the first place?
The post Confidence shaken appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
