Heat at final SSC sitting

FORMER chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC) Maria Therese Gomes was subjected to a rigorous line of questioning from members of the Special Select Committee on the appointment of a Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Police during the committee’s final sitting at the ANR Robinson East room in Parliament yesterday.

Gomes, along with managing partner of human resource consultancy firm KPMG Dushyant Sookram, were called upon to explain the selection methodology used to select candidates for the post.

According to Gomes, a method called the “border count approach” was used to create a merit list of candidates shortlisted for consideration.

However committee member Ganga Singh raised questions about the suitability of the method and remarked that after the assessment of one individual for the position of Deputy Commissioner, the same person was found on the list for Commissioner. Gomes attempted to explain that the shift in methodology was considered carefully with members of the Commission before its implementation and was proposed by PSC board member and attorney Martin George.

“It wasn’t arbitrarily done, we signed off on every piece and we deliberated this measure almost six weeks. So here we are at the end and we cannot decide, as a commission, how we are going to do this. Which, as former chair, I thought would have been very simple to do because the dossiers were taken into consideration for contextual matters.”

Committee chairman Fitzgerald Hinds also tackled Gomes over the questioning of candidates on their willingness to be considered for the Deputy Commissioner position as well as Commissioner, and asked if such a question was appropriate at the end of individual candidate interviews. However Gomes reaffirmed her position that the questioning was appropriate.

“In hindsight I would still hold to the fact that because it is a process where you are funnelling down, you are general and gradually getting narrower with the line of assessment, it was appropriate to ask that question at the end.”