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  • 8 months ago
The suitability of Former Head of the Special Branch Arthur Barrington to lead the Strategic Services Agency is coming into question by Leader of the National Transformation Alliance Gary Griffith.
Griffith had a mouthful to say, including on Barrington's role in the controversy that led to him not being re-appointed as Commissioner of Police.
Alicia Boucher has more report.
Transcript
00:00On March 20, Prime Minister Stuart Young announced that former Special Branch Head Arthur Barrington
00:06will take the helm of the SSA when Brigadier General retired Anthony Phillips Spencer's
00:11tenure ends on April 1.
00:13And while Barrington's selection by Cabinet has been labelled by Young as a move which
00:18provides immediate stability to the SSA, former Commissioner of Police and leader of the National
00:24Transformation Alliance Gary Griffith is questioning Barrington's suitability for the post.
00:30Griffith has taken to social media to address his concerns, saying Barrington was in New
00:35York as a representative during a lot of his latter years in the police service.
00:39Then he spent about a few months in charge of Special Branch.
00:42So the perception you're getting of he was the previous head of Special Branch, the guy
00:45spent a few months.
00:46Before that, he spent several years being the person who will carry the suitcase and
00:50stuff when the Prime Minister and the Security Minister will arrive in New York.
00:54He was the representative for Special Branch.
00:56In the era of technology, you need to have someone who is fully equipped to understand
01:00technology and so forth to be in charge of an intelligence agency for a country.
01:04He did not do that over the last few years.
01:06But outside of that, Griffith points to Barrington's appointment by then Prime Minister Dr Keith
01:11Rowley and approved by himself when he was police commissioner to conduct an independent
01:17firearms audit in the TTPS.
01:19He claims that it was due to a backlog of about 30,000 applications that were not being
01:24cleaned up.
01:25Former Chief of Defence Staff, retired Rear Admiral Hayden Pritchard, was appointed alongside
01:30Barrington.
01:31The information I have is those two individuals, when they signed that report, there was nothing
01:36that was illegal or unethical.
01:37In fact, they had some recommendations.
01:38Lo and behold, this Arthur Barrington decides to put it upon himself to write his own report,
01:45submit it to the Prime Minister, submit it to the Prime Minister, and then the Prime
01:50Minister then takes this and forwards it to Bliss Seaposad.
01:54Bliss Seaposad decides on her own to then withdraw the merit list with all the approval
01:59of the Police Service Commission.
02:01The Police Service Commission, it is minuted that they voice their concern that this Barrington
02:05sends a report and he is sending the report as a civilian without authority because he
02:10was not part of the two-man committee that signed it, he signed it on his own.
02:14Barrington claims that it was that report that was used as an avenue for the merit list
02:18withdrawal and what resulted thereafter.
02:21That was used as an avenue for a commissioner of police not to be reappointed.
02:24I noticed three years later, not one person has been questioned, arrested or charged based
02:29on that so-called Barrington report.
02:32But look at the damage that was done.
02:33Our whole Police Service Commission resigned in disgust because of what was done.
02:37Griffith Express' concern over the level of authority Barrington will now have as SSA
02:43against the backdrop of a report he claims was filled with hearsay.
02:47Subsequent to the Barrington-Pritchard report, the government appointed retired Justice Stanley
02:52John to investigate further and he produced a scathing report.
02:57Griffith then went to the court to prevent the government from laying the John report
03:01in Parliament, stating that he was not given an opportunity to respond to the damning allegations
03:06in that report.
03:08Griffith succeeded in that regard.
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