President to appoint Police Service Commission soon

Police Emblem

Georgetown: President David Granger Friday announced that members of the Police Service Commission will be appointed by the end of December.

Speaking at a year-end press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency earlier today, the President said, “As far as the new Commission is concerned I had hoped that by now it would have been in place and I would not like to go into 2018 without that commission being in place so, I expect that by December 31, that appointments would be made.”

The President further indicated that his decision to request that promotions within the Guyana Police Force (GPF) be halted was based on information received suggesting that the process of nomination was not adhered to.

“Taken as a whole I felt that the integrity of the process was compromised and that it would not be in the public’s interest to proceed with those nominations and that is why it was requested that the recommendations be frozen,” President Granger told media operatives.

Further, President Granger said he received information alleging attempts to discriminate against several qualified officers in favour of lesser qualified ones.

“I did receive a letter pointing out that deserving persons were being superseded.One letter writer claimed that there had been no internal procedure for the nomination of officers. It is the convention that the commissioner would convene a committee of the most senior officers to nominate persons and this had not been done,” President Granger said.

In addition, the Head of State and Commander of the Armed Forces said that the failure to follow the established procedure could have seen qualified ranks being passed over for promotion.

“There is a danger that persons who were not qualified would be recommended for supersession and persons who were qualified would be left behind. In addition to that there were other allegations which I feel were justified that the actual selection process at the Commission had been compromised.,” President Granger added.