Mixed views from national security stakeholders

PRESIDENT of the Fire Officers’ Association Leo Ramkissoon was the lone dissenting voice as he expressed scepticism and concern over the allocation to the Ministry of National Security in the budget read by Finance Minister Colm Imbert.

Ramkissoon said while the estimated $51,011,500 increase to the fire service’s budget was welcome, he was sceptical that all of this would be allocated to the fire service. He said Imbert was wrong in saying the Arouca and Penal fire stations were in need of refurbishing as they did not exist.

“When he tells us that they are going to modernise the Arouca and the Penal stations, you ought to know as a minister that there are no fire stations in Arouca or Penal. So how are you going to modernise something that doesn’t exist?

“It tells me that your plans are not informed by facts and that is troubling to me. It shows me that it’s just more of the same rhetoric. It’s just to keep the association quiet from speaking, but it’s simply not good enough. I am not convinced as yet, but I am still hopeful that good sense prevails.”

FIRE SERVICE

For his part, acting Chief Fire Officer Marlon Smith said he was pleased for the most part with the estimated allocation and said the service would continue to do the best they can with what was available.

Among the top issues he intended to address would be the training of personnel and acquiring more firefighting equipment that would minimise risk to officers.

“We can divide the allocation into personnel training, and development and equipment and material resources. We need appliances and uniforms. Once we have more, we can do more with it.

“We have to be pleased with it. Often we have to work with what we have and we need to do it in a manner where we get value for money no matter what the amount.”

Smith also said the service would be interested in getting more fire tenders to adequately supply all fire stations.

PRISON SERVICE

Prisons Commissioner Gerard Wilson said his top priority would be ensuring remand facilities across Trinidad were properly refurbished and outfitted with adequate security systems.

According to draft estimates, the prison service would receive an estimated $34,154,800. Wilson said the allocation would be best used in better securing remand facilities to minimise escape attempts and addressing the shortage of prison vehicles.

“People always talk about escapes, but we have never had an escape from the Maximum Security Prison. We have had escapes from all the other facilities. Those remand facilities are more vulnerable, so we need to do more work on the infrastructure. We can’t always rely on the prison officers to prevent these escapes.

“Vehicles are a semi-crisis for me in terms of transporting prisoners and getting the day-to-day running of the organisation done. We really need some vehicles. The alarm system and the surveillance system are ongoing projects, but I would really like to see better maintenance of the facilities.”

Wilson said he was looking forward to technology assuming a greater role in the housing and rehabilitation of inmates.

Asked for comment, president of the Prison Officers’ Association, Ceron Richards, said while he was sceptical about the allocation being released in its entirety, he was hopeful the maintenance and upkeep of the prisons would be done over the next fiscal year.

He said electronic monitoring using ankle bracelets was one initiative he wished Parliament looked at in order to ease overcrowding in prison facilities.

POLICE SERVICE

President of the Police Service Social Welfare Association acting Insp Gideon Dickson said the allocation for the police should deal with outstanding salaries and training for officers.

He said he was optimistic the allocation would be beneficial for the police and encouraged the executive arm to make officers and their well-being a priority when making their decisions on allocation within the service.

“Right now, before the Chief Personnel Officer is the 2014-2016 period. So hopefully within that we should be able to settle outstanding salaries for officers to bring us closer to the 2019 salaries.

“We are hoping the issues of our membership getting medical claims honoured are also a high priority, and we hope we can better upgrade our police academy by providing advanced training for officers in forensic testing, drones and even to better secure our borders.”

Newsday contacted Commissioner Gary Griffith for comment, but he said he would not be able to give any feedback as the budget was not yet approved and giving a view on it at this time would be irresponsible.