PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar finally admitted that her administration made a mistake when it appointed a 31-year-old communications technician to head the Strategic Services Agency (SSA).
“We are doing everything we can to ensure that the misstep that was made doesn’t happen again,” she told reporters after attending a function.
The Prime Minister said that she would be making a statement on the matter in Parliament on Friday
Reshmi Usha Ramnarine has since tendered her resignation from the post and the eight-month-old government has come in for much criticism over the appointment, particularly after media reports indicated that Ramnarine’s educational qualifications as stipulated on her resume were false.
A number of government ministers, including the National Security Minister John Sandy who backed the appointed in a debate in Parliament, have since tendered public apologies.
But the Prime Minister had steadfastly refused to apologise, telling the nation at one time that the country needed to move on.
But speaking with reporters after the Vision on Mission’s second annual awards ceremony, she said that the National Security Council met recently where the process of selecting an interim SSA head had also been discussed.
She said the government is going to spend time on finding the right person for the job and took the decision “that we will have an interim person which will allow for a longer period of time in which to source the best person for the job”.
“I don’t blame the media; the media does their job. I hold no hostility towards anyone in the media. They got a story and they ran with their story, so I say there is always room for improvement. On the part of Government, there is always room for improvement, and we will continue to try to improve at what we do.”
The Trinidad Express newspaper, which broke the story about the appointment of Ramnarine said that its reporters had been threatened in an email sent by someone with the alias “Janice Thomas”.
The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) said it was concerned over intimidating e-mails sent to the journalists.
“The journalists singled out in the e-mail message have been involved in reporting on a major story which has also been taken up by many other media houses.
“Members of the public are of course free to warn, advise and criticise when they feel a media house has made an error or fallen short of acceptable standards. Indeed, the media should and do welcome salutary comment.
“However, to accuse individual journalists of carrying out personal vendettas is something else altogether. This is an unwarranted ad-hominem attack by an individual who has stooped to the level of “shooting the messenger,” MATT said. (CMC)
