The National Security Ministry has been strengthened further by the addition of former Assistant Commissioner of Police, Toco/Sangre Grande MP Glenda Jennings-Smith, who will be appointed Parliamentary Secretary in the ministry.
Her appointment was announced yesterday by Government and she will assume duties today after being sworn in by President Anthony Carmona.
It is the second addition to National Security in as many weeks.
The People’s National Movement (PNM) administration now has a former soldier (National Security Minister, retired major general Edmund Dillon) diplomat (minister in National Security, Dennis Moses) and retired senior police officer (Jennings-Smith) heading the ministry in charge of T&T’s security.
It is the only ministry in the PNM Government with three “bosses”.
Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Keith Rowley mandated Foreign Affairs Minister Moses to be Minister in the Ministry of National Security, assisting Dillon “in the performance of such duties as the Minister (Dillon) may specify from time-to-time.”
Yesterday, another statement from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), giving Jennings-Smith’s appointment, explained it was part of a “comprehensive overhaul and re-organisation of the national security and public safety effort.”
Jennings-Smith, 58, served with the Police Service for 32 years before retiring at the level of ACP in 2014. She had not been given a Cabinet portfolio when the new PNM Cabinet was announced last September.
The OPM release stated Jennings-Smith, who has extensive training in the policing and social impact of the gang culture and police outreach programmes, would assist Dillon “in these and similar programmes and the overall outreach activities of the uniformed services.”
Communication Minister Maxie Cuffie said: “It’s all part of Government’s attempts to use all resources available in the fight against crime.”