Attorney wants independent audit into TTPS’s $800M overtime bill

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

At­tor­ney Keron Ramkhal­whan is call­ing for an in­de­pen­dent au­dit in­to the man­age­ment of over­time with­in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), fol­low­ing rev­e­la­tions that near­ly $800 mil­lion was paid to po­lice of­fi­cers in just two years and eight months.

Ramkhal­whan, who filed a Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion (FOI) ap­pli­ca­tion on be­half of cit­i­zen Vishal Per­sad to get the in­for­ma­tion, says the grow­ing ex­pen­di­ture rais­es se­ri­ous ques­tions about staffing, ac­count­abil­i­ty and the man­age­ment of po­lice re­sources.

“Over­time is meant to be the ex­cep­tion, not the rule,” Ramkhal­whan said yes­ter­day.

“Yet, fig­ures dis­closed un­der a Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion re­quest show close to $800 mil­lion in over­time pay­ments in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, and un­der the present Com­mis­sion­er, Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro, the bill ap­pears to be climb­ing, not falling.”

Of­fi­cial fig­ures re­leased by the TTPS show that $793,893,264.65 was paid in over­time be­tween Jan­u­ary 2024 and Au­gust 2026.

The an­nu­al bill in­creased from $233.87 mil­lion in 2024 to $276.84 mil­lion in 2025, while pay­ments for the first eight months of 2026 had al­ready reached $283.19 mil­lion.

Ramkhal­whan ques­tioned whether the ris­ing ex­pen­di­ture re­flect­ed deep­er man­age­ment and staffing chal­lenges with­in the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

“A com­mis­sion­er is mea­sured not by the hours his of­fi­cers are made to work, but by how well his di­vi­sions are staffed,” he said.

“When the ex­cep­tion be­comes the rou­tine, it is the man­age­ment, not the clock, that must an­swer.”

The at­tor­ney said his client was now seek­ing in­de­pen­dent scruti­ny of how over­time was be­ing au­tho­rised, man­aged and paid.

“My client, Vishal Per­sad, is there­fore call­ing up­on the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion and/or the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go to cause an in­de­pen­dent au­dit to be con­duct­ed in­to the op­er­a­tion of over­time in the TTPS.”

He added, “The pub­lic has paid the bill; the pub­lic de­serves the an­swers.”