National awards process explained

The Na­tion­al Awards Com­mit­tee con­ducts care­ful vet­ting of nom­i­nees be­fore mak­ing rec­om­men­da­tions for na­tion­al ho­n­ours, ac­cord­ing to for­mer head of the Pub­lic Ser­vice Reynold Coop­er, who said it is al­so cus­tom­ary for the Chief Jus­tice to re­ceive the coun­try’s high­est award, the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ORTT).

Coop­er, who served on the Na­tion­al Awards Com­mit­tee for about five years be­fore re­tir­ing from the Pub­lic Ser­vice 11 years ago, said the com­mit­tee ex­am­ines in­for­ma­tion sub­mit­ted about nom­i­nees and can re­quest ad­di­tion­al doc­u­men­ta­tion when claims can­not be ver­i­fied.

His com­ments come amid pub­lic crit­i­cism over the 2026 awards, in­clud­ing the de­ci­sion to con­fer the ORTT on Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Sen­a­tor Wade Mark af­ter he used his cast­ing vote to break a 15-15 dead­lock in the Sen­ate on the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill.