Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon
Government is planning to establish a National Intelligence Centre before the end of the year, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, has announced.
Commenting on the recent leakage to the media of sensitive information about payment to joint services’ ranks for work in the area of interception of communication, Dr Luncheon said it was an “unfortunate sequence of events.”
The cabinet secretary stated that such a body will be required to work under the strictest rules of confidentiality, and the introduction of legislation will ensure a more rigorous arena in that respect.
“The Access to Information Bill will identify such information that is exempt — that would not be made available; sometimes with statutes, maybe 20-30 years. Most countries will have legislation prescribing illegal access, distribution and publication of information of national security significance,” Dr Luncheon noted.
He admitted that confidentiality was breached.
Dr Luncheon noted that the response by the state, represented by Chief of Staff Commodore Gary Best, on payments made by the Office of the President to a team of joint services’ officials was fully supported by the administration.
The cabinet secretary said government is undertaking a wide range of interventions outside of the specific law enforcement and military realms, but since the intelligence agency has not yet been established, joint services’ operatives are being used to provide national security functions.
“It is in that context that the disclosure collided with our concerns of confidentiality. We felt it was fairly obvious to the publisher that they were crossing the great divide in disclosing the names and identities of the operatives,” Dr Luncheon stated.
The cabinet secretary added that although the person who leaked the information may not be cognizant of its impact, the publishers of the illegally-obtained material knew of the repercussions.
Dr Luncheon said he believes that anti-government obsession had clouded the publishers’ judgment as to what was safe, reasonable and justifiable in printing such information.
However, with the establishment of the centre, government is anticipating a more secure environment; but, until then, provision has been made for the Office of the President to discharge those functions.
