(Trinidad Express) The procurement rules apply both to the leasing or purchasing of items by Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs, including the TT$900,000 light aircraft to monitor criminal activity.
So said Attorney General Anand Ramlogan as he commented on the response of Gibbs to the opinion of the Solicitor General, Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell.
Donaldson-Honeywell in advice to the Government concluded that Gibbs acted “without authority” in the award of a contract to Zenith Air Scout Surveillance Aircraft at an estimated cost of TT$902,772.00 for a 12-week feasibility study.
The Solicitor General also advised that the contract entered into the by the Police Service, made in excess of the authority’s power “will be ultra vires and void”. She also noted that the Central Board Tenders procedures were not applied as they ought to have been.
But Gibbs in a statement issued on Sunday, “to correct inaccurate statements made in the Parliament” said the TT$900,000 light aircraft was being leased, not purchased.
Stating that the level of expenditure was critical, Attorney General Ramlogan said: “It has nothing to do with lease or purchase. The issue is not whether he leased or purchased, that is a miss-the-mark. The issue as I understand for the Solicitor General’s advice is the quantum of the expenditure.”
He stressed that the Commissioner could not disregard the rules because he has leased an item. He added that if this logic applied, one could go to the extreme and lease a Boeing 747 which is hundreds of millions of dollars, bypassing all the procurement procedures “and nothing would be wrong with it”.
A Police Service Commission source echoed this position, saying: “As far as the documentation shows, it is question of procurement and its relationship to the existing regulations, procedures and the role of the Ministry of National Security with acquiring such crime fighting equipment”.
The PSC source that the Solicitor General’s advice and other documents were passed on the PSC for attention and possible decision, one way or the other.
The source said the Commission was looking at other related issues including the question of the uniforms and the raid on two media houses and other matters.
“The issue is not whether the light aircraft was leased or purchased,” the source said.
The Commission has not yet set a date for its meeting on the issue but it would convene a meeting very soon, because it wants to move expeditiously “and arrive at a decision” on this critical matter, the source said.
The Commission was given the documentation just a few days before the Prime Minister’s announcement in the Parliament on Saturday and began studying the documents immediately.
At a news conference yesterday, at the Leader of the Opposition Leader’s office, in Port of Spain, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley said the country faced the uncomfortable situation of a Commissioner of Police being accused of procuring improperly and of exceeding his authority.
“And worse we have a Commissioner of Police saying to the Prime Minister and Solicitor General that they could go and shove that where they want because he is going to proceed on his advice that he is right. We wait with bated breath to see how this one is going to play out,” said Rowley.
Rowley claimed the Attorney General supported Gibbs at first and now that the Solicitor General has contradicted him, has egg on his face. But Ramlogan said the Solicitor General’s advice is his advice.
“She cannot issue an advice unless I approve it. So in the covering letter I sent out I indicated my concurrence with the issue,” he said.
Ramlogan said Government always maintained that it would look into the procurement issue. He said he never defended Gibbs’s acquisition of the aircraft, but did speak on the allegations of corruption against Jack Ewatski, pointing out what Ewatski had stated in a press release that Ewatski was a commercial pilot for 12 years, had to maintain his licence by flying a certain number of hours annually and that he had paid out of his pocket for flying the plane.
