(Trinidad Guardian) Prof Selwyn Ryan is denying Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is paying him TT$2 million to come up with a crime plan. He spoke to the T&T Guardian before the opening of a drug rehabilitation centre for women at Beach Road, Palo Seco, yesterday.
“That TT$2 million is a myth. That’s rubbish,” Ryan added. He said the budget comprised two parts, one for the cost of the exercise and the other to pay the committee working on the plan. Without disclosing specific figures Ryan said the budget was not “within the order of magnitude” of TT$2 million.
He said the report was a “good way off” from being completed, adding: “The bureaucracy works very slowly, especially where monies are concerned. So money that could be used to take the project forward was only made available in the last two or three weeks.”
Ryan said it was difficult to speak about the final analysis of the plan, as certain steps were yet to be implemented. He added: “A lot of the steps which we assumed we would have been able to complete earlier are now coming to a head, so pointing to conclusions and costs would be premature. “These things take time and it is not because anybody is not co-operating or not being supportive.”
Saying there was a misunderstanding about the plan, Ryan said the intention was not to do the work of the police. “We are not telling the police what to do or how to catch criminals. That’s not in our terms of reference at all,” he added. He said the plan focused on youth at risk and included factors which precipitated certain kinds of behaviour in youths.
“We weren’t commissioned to tell the police how to catch them. We are trying to understand their behaviour and what can be done to reduce the kinds of behaviour which they became engaged in… so our thing is long-range,” Ryan said. Saying he was pleased with the progress of the plan, Ryan assured it would be delivered, as there was a “flow of activity.”
