Colm calls Gary's cries for $$ 'fake news'

Acting deputy commissioner Erla Christopher chats with  Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith at a Public Administration and Appropriation Committee hearing in Parliament on Thursday. PHOTO BY KERWIN PIERRE.
Acting deputy commissioner Erla Christopher chats with Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith at a Public Administration and Appropriation Committee hearing in Parliament on Thursday. PHOTO BY KERWIN PIERRE.

Claims that the police cannot pay their bills have “all the hallmarks of fake news,” Finance Minister Colm Imbert said in Parliament yesterday.

Responding to an urgent question from Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal in the House of Representatives, Imbert said the Ministry of Finance would “always do what is required to assist the TTPS to get its releases.

"We consider this to be one of our most urgent priorities and we work together with the Police Service to provide the funds that they require,” Imbert said.

But then Moonilal asked if Imbert was aware that "at this time the TTPS cannot pay TSTT bills, cannot pay landlords where police stations are located and some of the project money has also gone for recurrent expenditure and some of the projects that are critically needed at this time can be impaired."

Imbert replied: "No, Madam Speaker. That has all the hallmarks of fake news."

Moonilal asked: “Are you concluding that the office of the accounting officer at the (TTPS) is misleading the country?"

Colm Imbert

Imbert said: "I am concluding no such thing. And I want to reiterate that the Ministry of Finance works hand in hand with the TTPS…They are one of our most urgent priorities in terms of disbursals. Where there are issues with respect to paperwork we assist them in completing the paperwork and we ensure all of the supporting documentation is in order."

But Police Commissioner Gary Griffith has refused the minister’s help, and instead offered the help of TTPS finance department to the ministry to figure out the confusion.

Griffith told Newsday in a phone call, “I do not need help. The people in the department are very well trained and fully understand their role and function, and it seems the people in the ministry do not understand the basics in accounting between salaries and goods and services.

"This is form three accounting. We do not need assistance for basic accounting. We need them to do their job and release the funds.”

At a press conference at his office, before yesterday’s Parliament sitting, Imbert said he had read of the commissioner’s concerns in the press, and “I have to get to the bottom of it.

“What I think happened, is that with the change of the guard at the TTPS, there has been a transition. A lot of people have come in, a lot of people have gone out.

"I think the new people are not entirely familiar with how to do the paperwork necessary to request funds because, quite often, I get asked to intervene and help and that, to me, as far as I’m concerned, is the real problem.

"But I’ll tell you one thing: whenever a problem is brought to my attention with respect to the TTPS, and in particular Mr Griffith, needing funds, we immediately move to solve the problem.”

Imbert said he knew of situations over the last six months where the TTPS had run out of money but had not made a request to the ministry.

Asked by Newsday to respond, Griffith retorted that the head of the TTPS finance department, Rosalind Hart, had been there for decades.

“I don’t know if anyone in the Ministry of Finance has more experience.”

The fact is, Griffith said, the TTPS has submitted all the required documents several times to the ministry, most recently two weeks ago, to remind it of its obligations.

At a Parliamentary Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) meeting on Thursday, Griffith reported the police were in dire straits and had not received any funding other than officers' salaries for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. As a result, the service had been unable to pay other bills generated in that period.

Griffith told the committee, “What I am trying to get now is $47 million to pay off bills that the TTPS owes debtors, approved in fiscal 2017-18 to pay off bills from December 2017-December 2018. I have not even started getting funds for 2018-2019.”

Back in January, after a Newsday report that the TTPS was running out of money, the Finance Ministry had said it received a request for $80 million from the commissioner and had released $20 million for equipment, materials, services and supplies. A further $20 million was reportedly scheduled to be released for that purpose within the next two weeks and a balance of $40 million in February 2019.

Griffith, at the PAAC, acknowledged receipt of the $20 million for projects including tasers, vehicles and new uniforms, but said, "Pertaining to goods and services, it’s over $300 million owed, and nothing has been given for this fiscal year."

He clarified that whatever was given had been used to pay outstanding debts from 2017/2018 for which money had been approved in 2018, but creditors for 2018/2019 had not been paid because funds had not yet been released, so he had to take some of the funding from the $20 million to offset debts to vendors.

“Somebody in the Ministry of Finance is obviously not looking at their accounts," he said. "The $80 million was for special projects, and that has nothing to do with the $300 million required for good and services. Somebody doesn’t understand basic bookkeeping and is trying to mix up special projects with goods and services. We received no money for goods and services.”

Hundreds of vendors still need to be paid, he said.

“The reason for that is because we didn’t get the money from the ministry. The few paid was because I had to extract from the $20 million.

"This has affected special projects. I had to stall these projects to pay bills,” Griffith said.

With reporting by Julien Neaves and Jensen La Vende

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