NEW PSC AFTER BUDGET DEBATE

THE Government does not plan to propose new members of the Police Service Commission (PSC) until after the Budget is done and dusted in the House of Representatives. 

That could mean the end of October. 

The proposed members must be confirmed by Parliament. 

A substantive Commissioner of Police could only be appointed after the freshly-constituted PSC undertakes its relevant constitutional measures, which includes submitting a Merit List to the President. 

Trinidad and Tobago is not expected to have an appointed commissioner, therefore, for at least several more weeks. 

Government sources said the focus at present is the presentation of the 2020-2021 Budget on Monday October 4, which would be followed by the debate in the House of Representatives, from October 8. 

At the end of the debate in the House, the Finance Committee would meet over several days to review fiscal proposals. 

The entire budgetary exercise in the House could last most of October, following which there would be a debate in the Senate. 

The Government sources said the PSC matter would be introduced in the House while the Senate is dealing with the Budget. 

It is expected that the tarnished Chair Bliss Seepersad would be replaced, and the entire PSC would be reconstituted. 

Other PSC members, Courtenay McNish, Dr. Susan Craig-James, and Roger Kawalsingh, have resigned during the current scandal over the appointment of a police commissioner. 

T&T has been without a substantive commissioner since Gary Griffith’s three-year term expired on August 17.