The NTA continues to be dismayed by Prime Minister Keith Rowley’s insistence on keeping Fitzgerald Hinds as Minister of National Security. In a televised interview last evening, after several attempts to avoid the question, Hinds finally admitted that he is aware that there are fire stations without fire tenders.
An admittance of failure, since when making his now infamous statement that his role is not to ensure the safety and security of citizens, Hinds went on to say it is his duty to ensure the agencies under his charge are provided with the resources they need.
Predictably, his response to the lack of fire tenders was that he had ordered and was waiting 18 months to receive one tender. Apart from the fact that big spending allows for higher kickbacks and unacceptable delivery times, a more economical and goal-oriented response might have been to outfit regular trucks with water tanks, pumps and hoses, to aid the remaining fleet of fire tenders, as a temporary measure.
A demonstration of poor leadership and no management systems, what should have been done is to allocate resources from one area which had more than one fire tender and place them in areas which have none. Simple and basic.
In addition, ensuring that there is a plan that involves preventive maintenance of fire vehicles, the likes of which was employed so successfully when Gary Griffith was CoP, should be in place. The complaint against the police back then, a year and a half ago, was that there were too many blue lights, as vehicles were seen everywhere citizens turned.
A well thought out and executed plan, Griffith engendered a meaningful partnership with the business community through the I Support Our Service initiative (ISOS), which connected citizens to their own safety and security, encouraging them to contribute to the maintenance and upkeep of TTPS vehicles.
The facts are, Hinds fails to assist in coordinating, directing, liaising, and inspiring and motivating those under his charge. And whilst he faces attention for the tragic deaths of a mother and daughter in a fire, let us not ignore the fact that in the less than 2 years that Hinds has been on the job, over 1000 persons have been murdered.
An absolute disaster that not even his most hardcore supporter can deny, the NTA renews its call to Prime Minister Rowley to immediately remove Hinds, and to replace him with someone with the relevant competencies that make them fit for the job.
Email: ntaistheway@gmail.com
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