Latest update May 13th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 23, 2014 News
Guyana’s 44th Republic anniversary is upon us and today thousands will seize the opportunity to give true meaning to the word Mashramani–CELEBRATION AFTER HARD WORK.
But this time around there is a cloud of despair in the air; they have been desperately looking forward for this year’s promotions, and although they were promised that come Republic Day the long anticipated list would be announced, they are still holding their breaths in deep anticipation.
The reason being touted is the absence of the Police Service Commission.
While the PSC is responsible for the promotion and other matters directly related to the senior ranks of the Force, the junior promotions will suffer since there will hardly be room for their upward mobility if the vacancies are not created at the top of the Force’s administration.
Without the Police Service Commission there can be no promotions from inspectors up to Assistant Commissioners of Police.
This will come as a major disappointment to several ranks both senior and junior, many of whom have been stagnated in one position for several years.
While their sister uniform organizations have gone ahead with their promotions, there appears to be no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
This newspaper has been making repeated enquiries about the establishment of the PSC but the responses have been less than satisfactory from senior government officials who are directly or indirectly responsible.
Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon had indicated at one of his Press Conferences that the administration was looking at the establishment of several Commissions, the PSC being one of them.
Two months ago Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee had promised a press conference to deal with the establishment of the PSC and other matters; of course that engagement never came off, although he regularly hosts his Party’s media conference.
When the question of the Police Service Commission was recently posed to Rohee, he gave no assurance that this process would be rectified soon.
And this situation is affecting the promotion of several senior officers of the Guyana Police Force.
“The Junior Promotion Board has already met and finalized the promotions, but the commissioner is not too keen on making that announcement in the absence of the senior ranks promotion,” a senior police source told this newspaper.
“These people are playing with our careers,” another lamented.
Officers of the Guyana Police Force are worried that the situation that occurred in 1999 when there was no Police Service Commission (PSC), could visit them again.
The Police Officers are hoping that that situation, which resulted in no police promotions for three years, would not recur, especially since there appears to be no urgency on the part of the administration to deal with the issue.
The last Commission was chaired by Dennis Morgan who died in November 2012 while serving in that capacity.
The Police Service Commission, a five-man body, was then rendered inactive.
Some ranks have been stagnant in one position for long periods, some for as long as 20 years without promotion.
It was explained that some ranks have pending disciplinary matters that are hampering their advancement.
But of even greater concern is the stagnation of more than 40 Cadet Officers.
In 2008, then President, Bharrat Jagdeo, challenged the Guyana Police Force to appoint 50 Cadet Officers over three years in a move that was intended to strengthen the officer corps of the organization.
However, five years later, Cadets, even from the first batch, are still waiting to be confirmed in the gazetted position of Assistant Superintendents.
The reason being given for this apparent administrative hiccup is the lack of vacancies in the Assistant Superintendent bracket.
Under what is being touted as the ‘Jagdeo Cadet Scheme’, the first batch of 15 police cadet officers graduated from the Basic Cadet Officer Training Programme in 2009. This group was followed by larger groups of Police Cadet Officers in the following years, up to the last batch of two in 2011.
There were four batches in all that satisfied Jagdeo’s mandate for the Force. But according to a police administrative expert, there was no provision to accommodate the Cadet Officers into the gazetted police ranks.
It was explained that the system could only accommodate a certain number of Assistant Superintendents and there is a preference for experienced Inspectors and Chief Inspectors to fill positions that become available from time to time.
“The Police, in their haste to satisfy Jagdeo’s mandate, fast tracked the Cadetship Programme without making the necessary provisions. Now these Cadets are languishing in their Cadet position,” the senior officer added.
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