Police Complaints Authority (PCA) head David West yesterday refused to comment immediately on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s call for him to step down. “I do not intend to respond at this time,” West texted in response to questions from the T&T Guardian. Persad-Bissessar trained her guns on West after removing several members of her own Cabinet on Monday.
The PM argued that West should have informed her of his role in a defamation suit involving former attorney general Anand Ramlogan and Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley when he was approached for the position last year. She also knocked Rowley for not doing the same but made no reference to the fact that Ramlogan would also have known of the matter as well. Under the Police Authority Act, the PM cannot remove West from office.
West compiled his witness statement on June 27, 2014, but it was filed on December 19, six weeks after he was appointed PCA head. In that statement, West claimed that Ramlogan did not refer to a precedent of dropping parallel criminal charges to allow for the extradition of businessmen Steve Ferguson and Ishwar Galbaransingh to the US.
Persad-Bissessar on Monday said West had compromised the integrity and independence of the PCA by not reporting his involvement in the matter and then not reporting attempts to get him to withdraw his statement in the matter. The PM also said as the head of the PCA this created a conflict of interest for West as he would now be p-art of an investigation involving the police.