A REPORT relating to the 2010 police raid on the covert Security Intelligence Agency (SIA) has been made public by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley.

The document states the report was compiled by Senior Superintendent Surajdeen Persad, of the Police Special Branch, the same officer who recommended to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to dismiss the head of the agency, Nigel Clement, and 30 other employees because of their links with the People's National Movement (PNM).

According to the document which Rowley provided on Wednesday, Persad, on October 26, 2010, wrote a letter to former commissioner of police (CoP) Dwayne Gibbs, providing a report on a raid of SIA offices in Port of Spain and Piarco and security analysis of its equipment.

A week earlier, on October 15, 2010, Persad had written to the Prime Minister recommending that she fire all PNM supporters in the SIA—including its former director—and appoint a junior technician, Reshmi Ramnarine, in the interim to head the agency.

The Express obtained a copy of the letter which Persad wrote to Gibbs from the Opposition's Leader's office.

In the report, Persad stated on October 24, 2010, Kelvin Hemlick and Kevin Harrison, information security experts from Canada, visited the SIA and carried out a security audit of the telephone lines and intercept equipment.

"During their comprehensive search, evidence was found that during the period 2008 to 2009, the SIA had tapped the telephones of members of the United National Congress (UNC), as well as members of the trade union movement," stated the letter.

The officer named Persad-Bissessar, Jack Warner, Rudy Indarsingh and Errol McLeod as persons whose phones were tapped, according to the report.

It further stated there were no records on the system for 2010 to show the telephone lines of the Prime Minister, as well as members of her Government, were tapped.

"From all appearances, SIA and SAUTT (Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago) had purged their intercept system of all wiretaps of the Prime Minister and other members of the Government for 2010. It is only reasonable to conclude that if wiretaps were done in 2008-2009, then those agencies would have continued with that exercise during the height of the 2010 general election campaign," according to the report. Persad recommended a forensic audit to be done on SIA's accounts, the document stated.

The report stated a security audit was also conducted on the intercept equipment of SAUTT at Piarco International Airport, which found McLeod's phone was tapped for one day in October 2009.

The report to Gibbs stated that on October 23 at 6.15 a.m., Persad, together with police officers from the Special Branch and officers from the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Investigations (ACIB), under the command of acting Senior Superintendent Solomon Koon Koon, locked down the SIA headquarters in Port of Spain.

It added that "based on security reasons", all the firearms and ammunition that were in the possession of the SIA were seized and secured at the ACIB. In addition, the report stated, cash amounting to $5.9 million found at the office was also seized.

Contacted yesterday by phone, Koon Koon told the Express that reports on the raid of the SIA were already in the public domain and he had nothing further to say on the issue.