Gonzales questions if citizens getting value for money spent by TTPS

For­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les has crit­i­cised the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice’s (TTPS) es­ca­lat­ing over­time bill, ques­tion­ing whether tax­pay­ers are see­ing re­sults from the hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars be­ing spent.

Ac­cord­ing to in­for­ma­tion re­ceived via a Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­quest, the TTPS has paid near­ly $800 mil­lion in over­time over the past two years and eight months, with spend­ing in the first eight months of 2026 al­ready ex­ceed­ing the to­tal paid out in 2025.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Gon­za­les said the Op­po­si­tion raised con­cerns about over­time ex­pen­di­ture dur­ing the Mid-year Bud­get Re­view and de­lib­er­a­tions of the Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee.