Gonzales wants to publish Lisa Morris-Julian fire report

NEWLY-minted National Security Minister Marvin Gonzales has promised to try to get the report on the fire which killed former MP and junior minister Lisa Morris-Julian and two of her children put into the public domain.

Morris-Julian, the then D’Abadie/O’Meara MP and Minister in the Ministry of Education and her daughter Xianne Julian, 25, and son Jesiah Julian, six, lost their lives in a fire which also gutted the family's Farfan Street, Arima home on December 16.

"I am all for disclosure and transparency," Gonzales told reporters, when asked if he would publish the report. He said one of the first things he would do at his new ministry would be to find out the status of the report.

Of his former role as public utilities minister, Gonzales said he had planned to lay the report of the TSTT cyberattack when Parliament reconvenes.

He said with the change in the portfolio of some ministers, he now hopes the new head of public utilities, Colm Imbert, would lay that report in Parliament so people could know what had taken place during the cyberattack at TSTT.

"I have absolutely no difficulty making this report public, so the citizenry can understand what took place in this unfortunate incident," he said when asked about the Morris-Julian fire report.

Saying it was important for him and Imbert to soon meet, Gonzales said, "We have a number of projects to improve the supply of water. I don't wish us to lose that momentum."

Gonzales said he would try to meet heads of the various divisions of his new ministry within the next day or two to ascertain the true state of crime and establish priorities for the suppression of crimes and murders.

Asked about an extension of the state of emergency, he pledged his support to the police against crime, but said a decision on this was for cabinet.

He promised to adequately equip the national security services and enhance legislation to fight against crime, on top of laws already passed by the government during its ten-year term.

Gonzales, a former police officer, also declared, "We have to root our corruption in the police service. I believe it is one of the major impediments in the fight against crime." He has replaced another former policeman in Fitzgerald Hinds in the national security hotseat with Hinds moving on to becoming a Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister.