By SEAN DOUGLAS Friday, November 13 2009

MINISTER of Public Administration, Kennedy Swaratsingh, said he has given the nod of approval for Pennsylvania State University (“Penn State”) to proceed with the selection of a new Commissioner of Police (CoP) for TT.

At yesterday’s post-Cabinet media conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair, Swaratsingh was asked about a paid press advertisement by the Police Service Commission (PSC) which indicated that Cabinet had not yet decided if to accept or reject Penn State for the job.

Swaratsingh said the Service Commission had sent a note to his ministry asking that Cabinet agree to the process to award Penn State the $4.6 million contract.

“Cabinet at the time had asked for some further details as to how the expenditure was to be done, and has since made the decision to agree with the recommendations of the Minister of Public Administration on behalf of the Service Commission to award a contract. That decision was made at today’s Cabinet,” declared Swaratsingh.

The minister also expressed Cabinet’s concern over two recent shootings of prisons officers. Last Saturday, prisons officer Ian Seegobin was shot dead at Arouca, while last week Monday prisons officer Anthony Sinanan was shot and wounded by gunmen as he left Golden Grove Remand Yard.

Information Minister Neil Parsanlal pointed out that “any incident like that, or the untimely passing of any member of our protective services is of concern to the Government” he added.