AMID all the exchanges over the circumstances that led to the collapse of the last Police Service Commission (PSC), Opposition Senator David Nakhid and former commissioner of police Gary Griffith have called on Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, SC, to investigate the Prime Minister.

While we agree it would be preferable for the full facts in the matters involving last year's collapse of the PSC to come to light, it is pure folly to expect that the Office of the DPP can serve as the appropriate forum in which such facts are to be discovered.

Contrary to frequent assertions to the contrary, the DPP has no investigatory powers. Under the Constitution, the postholder is responsible for the institution, continuation or discontinuation of criminal proceedings.

While the DPP regularly liaises with the police before criminal charges are brought and may, in this capacity, provide direction to investigating officers, those activities are advisory.

They relate to questions of law and evidence and whether the constituent elements of an offence may or may not have been satisfied to justify formal criminal proceedings.

These activities do not represent a relationship in which the DPP can commandeer officers and compel them to start an investigation, which is properly a matter for the police. Unless the police are carrying out a probe, the DPP has no role.

While matters that might come to the attention of the DPP in the course of his duties might plausibly be referred to the police for appropriate action, the DPP would, in so doing, be simply fulfilling his obligation as an officer of the law to refer matters to the appropriate body.

The irony is that though there are calls for it to perform functions it does not have, the Office of the DPP is struggling to fulfil the functions it clearly does have.

Only a few weeks ago, Mr Gaspard outlined some of the shortages his office faces, in documents filed pursuant to court proceedings. He noted there are only 50 attorneys on staff out of an approved complement of 137, dating from 2013.

If the Office of the DPP is struggling to prosecute cases, can it be expected to go on a frolic of its own?

One thing the Office of the DPP and police do have in common is their vulnerability to getting caught in the cross hairs of politics.

Ironically, the many questions that remain unanswered in relation to the PSC, President's House and the Office of the Prime Minister revolve around the appropriate bounds of executive action as it relates to our independent organisations - including the Office of the DPP, which should not be dragged into this bacchanal.

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