Hinds: No probe needed into government's CCTV procurement

NATIONAL Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds has said there is no need to investigate the procurement process for closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.

He was responding to a question from Opposition Senator Wade Mark in the Senate on Friday.

Hinds said, "The procurement process for a CCTV network was referred to the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs (Reginald Armour, SC) for advice. No further investigation was found to be necessary."

Mark asked Hinds whether Armour had provided the advice Hinds referred to.

Hinds said, "As the question indicated, advice was procured from the Office of the AG."

Mark asked whether subsequent to this advice, "Government has given the contract for the provision of CCTV cameras to another entity."

Senate President Christine Kangaloo disallowed this question.

Mark asked Hinds what was the essence of the advice provided by Armour.

Hinds said, "The essence was that the honourable AG found that no further investigation was necessary."

Mark then claimed the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) was responsible for procuring the cameras, and had changed the closing date for submission of bids to procure CCTV cameras, resulting in applications from the Telecommunications Services Ltd and Digicel "being open and exposed to Government."

He claimed this was done "whimiscally, capriciously and arbitrarily."

Kangaloo told Mark, "That question does not arise."

In early November, the Prime Minister said after meeting with police commanders, the government had already invested $80 million in 1,500 cameras and intended to double that figure to give police more tools to track and capture criminals.

In September 2020, Dr Rowley referred to the debt to TSTT, saying the company had overcharged taxpayers by $300 million for providing security camera services.

Documents filed on July 18, before the arbitrator, retired Caribbean Court of Justice judge Rolston Nelson, set out TSTT's claim for $751, 870, 421, with varying rates of interest, as well the government's defence rejecting the figure.

The government has a 51 per cent shareholding in TSTT, and 49 per cent is owned by Cable and Wireless, a foreign company.

TSTT said it billed the government $21 million monthly and was paid part of its debt, with an outstanding sum of almost $752 million.

But in its December 5 response, the state claimed it has already paid the debt in full, and TSTT had failed to support its claim for any more money.