COMMISSIONER of Police Dwayne Gibbs yesterday said the procurement procedure relating to the lease of a light sport aircraft by the Police Service was done above board.

Gibbs, in an exclusive interview with the Express, on his arrival at Piarco International Airport yesterday, said they were moving full speed ahead with the project.

Two Fridays ago, Opposition MP Donna Cox raised the award of the contract to Air Support Company of Trinidad and Tobago (ASCTT) in Parliament and referred to e-mails between one of the company's directors, Daniel Condon, to another director, Dirk Barnes, indicating Deputy Commissioner of Police Jack Ewatski wanted to go flying with him and this would enable him (Condon) to "seal the deal".

Ewatski, in a statement on Tuesday, said when he flew with Condon, he was honing his personal flying skills, and there was no business involved.

Yesterday, Gibbs denied claims of a conflict of interest on the part of Ewatski and officials at the ASCTT.

Gibbs said he and Ewatski did absolutely nothing wrong when the $900,772 contract was awarded to ASCTT to lease an aircraft for three-months to conduct aerial surveillance on criminal activity.

He said, "I won't comment on that (issue of a possible conflict of interest), but I could tell you that there has been complete integrity from both Deputy Commissioner Ewatski and myself.

"This is an open and transparent process we have gone through. Certainly, it's again meant to see if we could actually use this piece of equipment in the fight against crime in Trinidad and Tobago," Gibbs said.

The Police Service, Gibbs said, has been acquiring tools deemed necessary to assist it in performing its job in an efficient and effective manner, on the backdrop of the 21st Century Policing Initiative soon to be implemented throughout the Police Service.

Questioned on why the Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and National Security Minister Brig John Sandy were not informed of the decision to lease the aircraft, Gibbs said it is nothing new for the Police Service to acquire assets on its own.

Gibbs said, "As a policing body, we have a lot of different equipment that comes in. We have IT equipment, we have purchases on furniture, vehicles and all sorts of things, and this happens on a regular basis. This (plane deal) falls in our itinerary where we are bringing things on, testing it out.

"Certainly have we found that this is a useful tool we'd be going forward advising everyone. At this point, it's just one of those things which is part of the whole bigger picture, and at this point and again probably people weren't aware of what we are doing."

"As far as what (reports) was asked, yes, we have no difficulty in sitting down with people sharing reports in terms of what we are doing. Most of those reports have already been prepared, they have already been out there, so it's nothing new. It's nothing that is not transparent," Gibbs said.

Both the Police Service Commission and the Police Complaints Authority have requested the Commissioner furnish, for analysis, information on the aircraft deal.