Rational for placement of NOC under National Security Council
In the international arena and in the sphere of National Security in most democracies, the entity tasked with national operations and coordination exists within the domains of the lead ministries or presidential offices of the various countries, such as the White House in the United States and the Office of the Prime Minister in the United Kingdom (UK).
This international best practice ensures that the various branches (administrative, executive and logistics) of the government as a whole are prioritized and placed within a structured framework.
The Cabinet Office Briefing Room [COBR] of the United Kingdom and the Office of Operations Coordination and Planning of the United States, are two such entities, whereby these Coordination Agencies fall under the umbrella of the UK Office of the Prime Minister and the US White House, respectively.
In similar manner to Trinidad and Tobago’s National Operations Centre (NOC), these coordination agencies provide a focal point for the Government’s response and an authoritative source of advice for local responders.
In the COBR in the UK, senior Ministers and senior officials who are co-opted for the relevant UK government departments and agencies, along with representatives from other organizations as necessary, are brought together in a common location to ensure that all agencies involved in a particular incident or event are all on the same page and that all have common appreciation of the situation. In so doing, they will be able to assist in the effective and timely decision making process. These decision making forums are chaired by the Prime Minister of the UK.
This activity is what the NOC Situation Awareness Room is presently doing for Trinidad and Tobago. For instance, the decision to activate the National Alert State would be generated from within the NOC but would be triggered after inter-agency and inter-ministerial consultation. This joint approach emphasizes the need for the whole of government participation.
It is in this light that the recent decision to have the NOC placed under the National Security Council (NSC), which is situated at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), needed to be clarified.
The Honourable Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is chair of the NSC. A number of other Ministers including the Minister of National Security also sit on the NSC. It is at this forum that matters pertaining to National Security are discussed and further operationalized via the Ministry of National Security.
The operational control and responsibility for optimizing inter-agency coordination and the utilization of the technology and architecture of the NOC would still reside with the Ministry of National Security. The OPM would have the administrative and logistical authority of the NOC.
It must be appreciated that the NOC is involved in the whole of government coordination and inter-ministerial interface to all matters of national operations, and not only within the domain of national security. Be it a man-made or natural disaster, health epidemic, energy sector or environmental crisis, or a matter involving our Tourism sector, the NOC is activated in its Multi Agency Coordination role to coordinate and optimize all assets of government to support the initiative. This means that at times the NOC may be utilised equally by several Ministries such as National Security, Health, Energy, Works and Infrastructure, and Water Resources and the Environment, based on the threat assessment. This obviously leads to the rationale for NOC to be under the umbrella of the National Security Council, which is structured under the Office of the Prime Minister.
In this aspect, the lead Ministry under the line Minister would assume leadership in the coordination, as this practice is conducted worldwide and has proven to be very effective in synergizing the whole of government approach to national coordination and the unification of effort.
The decision to place the NOC under the NSC at the OPM is therefore in tandem with this Government’s mandate to restore Trinidad and Tobago to a safer and more secured society for all of its citizens.
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10th September, 2014.
Marcia Hope
Director – Corporate Communications Unit (CCU)
Ministry of National Security