Government is saving in excess of $11 million of taxpayers’ money monthly—$132 million a year—with its latest move to disband the Special Anti-Crime Unit of T&T (Sautt). Some 50 UK officers who were receiving between $100,000 to $150,000 have been given marching orders. The officers’ perks included allowances for vehicles, accommodation, support staff and entertainment and other miscellaneous allowances. Meanwhile, some 686 officers assigned to Sautt are to lose a $5,000 monthly allowance when the unit is disbanded and they return to their substantive jobs within the Police Service, the Defence Force and the Immigration Department in September. The total saving to taxpayers is in excess of $11 million per month, some $132 million annually.
Some are suggesting that the money should used for settling the wage bill with police officers. Police officers having been staging sick outs throughout T&T since last week, demanding salary increases. There are ongoing negotiations for a new collective agreement with the Government’s Chief Personnel Officer (CPO). Yesterday, Anand Ramesar, head of the Police Social and Welfare Association said the money saved through disbanding Sautt “could go a long way in treating with our issues connected to salary negotiations.” Ramesar said the Association has always been against the high salaries paid to Sautt workers. “The Association felt it was not justified for police officers to be paid an equivalent allowance.”
It was during last week’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair that National Security Minister Brigadier John Sandy made the announcement of the shutting down of the unit. Sandy said Cabinet agreed to the establishment of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) as the single agency to handle all intelligence in T&T. He said the NIA “should be fully operational by September 1, 2011.” A day earlier, on Independence Day, August 31, the Sautt would cease to exist as a unit, Sandy added.
$1 billion spent on salaries
Sautt was formed in 2003. That means close to $1 billion has been spent on salaries for officers in the Unit for the last seven years, a huge sum that has left a dent in taxpayers’ pockets with no significant change in the reduction of crime. Sandy had said a three-member special implementation team, headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams, would be mandated to ensure the implementation of the recommendations approved by Cabinet. Asked to comment on the $5,000 reduction in the compensation package of the Sautt officers, Sandy said: “Well, I am sure it will be hard for them to readjust.”
Officers from the Police Service, the Defence Force and the Immigration Department were seconded to Sautt when it was established under the former People’s National Movement. Sandy said the main reasons why Sautt was being disbanded were that it was illegal and that it was seen as a parallel organisation to the T&T Police Service. He admitted, though, that some good has come out of the operations of Sautt. He said another recommendation was that “all communication/intercept technology and operations be located within the National Intelligence Agency to avoid redundancies and possible abuse.”
Opposition MP: It’s a monstrous mistake
Diego Martin Central MP Amery Browne, who spoke about the disbanding of the Special Anti-Crime Unit of T&T (Sautt), said scrapping the Unit was a “monstrous mistake.” During his contribution in Parliament on Friday, Browne briefly mentioned that the Deputy Director of the Strategic Services Agency(SSA), Julie Browne was on the review committee that led to the decision to scrap Sautt.
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