NCIA will be operational by 2021

Minister of National Security Marvin Dames said the National Crime Intelligence Agency (NCIA) will be operational by the end of the first quarter of 2021, noting that a director of the agency will be named in January.

“They should be operational by the first quarter and it will continue to grow through the second quarter and the rest of next year,” Dames told The Nassau Guardian.

“They’re working on numbers now as to how many persons they would need to start the agency. They have a location identified already for their headquarters. They’re working on a building.”

Functions of the NCIA include the gathering, coordination and analysis of intelligence and providing the National Security Council with information relating to security matters or criminal activities.

Part III, Section 7(3) of the NCIA Act says “a person appointed to hold the office of the director of National Crime Intelligence must possess a background at a senior level in law enforcement, national defence or intelligence gathering”. 

Dames said the person tapped to head the NCIA is “no stranger to any of us”.

“We know who the new director is and we should be announcing that individual sometime in January,” he said.

“There’s so much that goes into setting up a unit such as that and one of the things, as a government, that we say we will do is we will not be spontaneous. We will not be ad hoc when we introduce something.

“And so, we have been doing a significant amount of work in the background.”

Dames said a deputy director and a few assistant directors will also be announced next month.

He said one of the assistant directors has already accepted the offer from the government.

When asked how long after the announcements before the agency is operational, Dames replied, “It’s being formed as we speak. The hirings, obviously, that’s driven by finances as well. Very quickly. Like I said, we’ve been spending a lot of time working on the foundation. So, it’s only a matter now of populating the organization.”

The director of the NCIA answers to the minister responsible, which has raised concern for civic groups and the opposition who questioned whether this provision subjects the agency to potential abuse.

Section 9 of the Act empowers the minister to give written instructions to the director, who “shall, as soon as practicable after giving a direction in writing to the director, cause a copy of the direction to be given to the prime minister and the review committee”.

The review committee is the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, a seven-member committee of House and Senate members charged with review and oversight of the NCIA and investigating complaints made against the agency.

The prime minister selects five of the members and the leader of opposition appoints two – a provision that prompted concern about the likelihood of the committee holding the NCIA accountable for its actions. 

Dames told The Guardian that the government wants to ensure that it creates an agency that can serve Bahamians and one “that will not be influenced by politics, that will not be influenced by influence peddlers, that will not be influenced by anyone and whose only obligation is to the people of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and to this nation”.

“We’re on the right track,” he said.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/ncia-will-be-operational-by-2021/