And while Usher says that the DPP's office is the proper place for the Budna investigative file - he didn't address the issue of the widely held public perception that it was a police led operation and that there is a cover up.
Our media colleague Marisol Amaya challenged him on that:
Reporter
"Sir but this has caused a huge black eye on the department because there are several levels that the public feels have left covered up. In essence, you have the fact that the videos have not been disclosed to the public and it has been done in other cases. But also that the deletion has happened of footage from those government departments. And also once the footage was released you have the surveillance footage, the grainy one, you have one officer who is determined to have been involved, that suggests that he would have been working with other people. How is it that we....?"
Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service, Governance, and Disaster Risk Management
"So what you are saying right now is trying to try this case in the media and I think that is important to understand that if you really want justice to come out of this situation, if you really want to find out what happened then let the authorized bodies do their work. To have the media trying to try this case, the public trying to try this case, we have already seen instances where one media house had to apologize to 2 police officers for calling their names. You know this is the way investigations should happen and I think it is important. You made an allegation just now that there were deletions, how do you know that?"
REPORTER-
"Because the public service union has said this and they have their sources."
Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service, Governance, and Disaster Risk Management
"Well then you are quoting the public service union and I would be very careful to how you quote anybody when it comes to making these types of allegations without proof, I am sure you have not gotten that type of proof, your media house has not gotten that type of proof. What is important is that if this is the situation, it is important that the constitutional body that should investigate this matter, the DPP's office should, is responsible for looking if charges should be filed, that body be allowed to do its work."
