Trinidad and Tobago’s top police official has exposed far-reaching financial mismanagement within the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), revealing that a well-documented $200 million debt-inducing loan is only the tip of the iceberg uncovered in an independent government audit. Current Commissioner of Police Allister Guevarro made the revelations this week while responding to public criticism from former TTPS chief Gary Griffith and former national security minister Marvin Gonzales, both connected to the previous People’s National Movement (PNM) administration.
The sweeping audit, commissioned, conducted and released by Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Finance, examines TTPS procurement, contracting and financial operations between 2017 and 2021. It has already confirmed a $550 million total fiscal deficit, widely described as a financial “black hole”, rooted in systemic mismanagement and multiple scandals during the PNM’s tenure. Of that deficit, $350 million in confirmed outstanding liabilities have been verified, alongside a host of troubling irregularities: unvetted multi-million-dollar contracts, useless unutilized equipment, off-contract payments, and the so-called “unified Hockey Field Scandal” cited directly in the audit document. Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander first confirmed the scope of the deficit in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Express.
One high-profile point of controversy is the $200 million government-backed loan arranged through the National Insurance Property Development Company Ltd (Nipdec), taken during the audit’s review period. But Guevarro emphasized that the problems uncovered go far beyond this single loan. Among the most alarming findings, the audit documents how a senior TTPS accounting officer, unfamiliar with the legal obligations of their position, approved irregular contracting practices that would have forced the TTPS to pay more than $100 million to a single private firm. Guevarro confirmed he intervened personally to halt the improper payment before it was processed.
The current commissioner pushed back against claims from Griffith and Gonzales that neither was aware of the independent audit’s existence or findings, calling their lack of knowledge “genuinely astonishing”. Guevarro noted that the audit’s conclusions directly address flaws in the TTPS’s financial oversight and internal governance during the period the two leaders oversaw the organization. The full final audit, officially titled “Ministry of Finance Central Audit Committee Review of the Procurement of Goods and Services and the Hiring of Staff on Contract undertaken by the TTPS for the years 2017 to 2021”, is a public document produced by independent finance ministry auditors, not an internal TTPS report, Guevarro clarified. He has publicly referenced the audit’s findings since 2023, and has repeatedly urged media outlets to access and publish the full report to inform the public.
“The now-controversial $200 million loan is only the surface. The audit outlines a staggering catalogue of procurement breaches, contract irregularities and financial mismanagement that collectively pushed the TTPS hundreds of millions of dollars into debt,” Guevarro said in his remarks to reporters. Beyond the $100 million improper payment incident, the audit identifies a pattern of systemic violations: contract splitting to bypass approval thresholds, unapproved financial commitments, premature payments to vendors, and consistent decision-making that demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of public procurement law and basic financial stewardship for public funds.
Guevarro stressed that all the findings are the work of independent auditing experts, not his own assessment, and he has deferred to their professional conclusions. “It reveals in black and white what was actually occurring inside the TTPS during that specific period. It is now a textbook illustration of how extreme self-importance, when left unchecked, can evolve into a severe case of Dunning Kruger effect with catastrophic consequences for public funds and public trust,” he added. The Dunning–Kruger effect is a well-documented cognitive bias where individuals with limited knowledge or skill in a specific domain drastically overestimate their own competence.