Alexander: TTPS saddled with $550m ‘black hole’
The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) has found itself in a $550 million “black hole” due to fiscal mismanagement and “scandals” under the former People’s National Movement (PNM) administration. So said Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander in an interview with the Sunday Express yesterday.The minister said more than half a billion dollars was spent, plus billions more over nearly a decade, yet the TTPS was still left wanting.
The minister also confirmed that a TTPS audit covering 2017-22 found a troubling picture of its past financial and procurement practices, identifying $350 million in confirmed liabilities, questionable multimillion-dollar contracts, unusable equipment, payments made without contracts and what the document describes as a “unified Hockey Field Scandal”.
Another major cause for concern is a $200 million government-guaranteed loan involving the National Insurance Property Development Company Limited (NIPDEC), which, according to the audit, was taken during the same period.“This $200 million-dollar loan, in fact a total of $263 million with interest and another $350 million in liabilities, has placed the TTPS in a financial black hole and at a disadvantage in terms of obtaining technology and resources needed,” Alexander said