Latest update June 7th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 30, 2013 News
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Balram Persaud, accepted, yesterday, that according to records, it appeared that dismissed former Superintendent of Police Simon McBean was treated different from senior policemen who had requested to go overseas to study.
The senior policeman was responding to questions forwarded by Patrice Henry, Attorney for the plaintiff Simeon McBean. Persaud spoke from the witness box of the High Court as a witness for the defence. In 2009, McBean brought legal
proceedings against the Public/Police Service Commission (PSC) claiming that he was wrongfully dismissed from the police force when he sought tertiary level education overseas.
Assistant Commissioner Persaud, under cross examination at the High Court before Chief Justice Ian Chang, told the court that when going through the documents needed for processing an application for leave, a correspondence addressed to the Ministry of Home Affairs and carbon copied to the then Commissioner of Police, was found pertaining to McBean’s request to study abroad being turned down.
This, he said, was because the force had no written policy or procedure that facilitated ranks getting paid while studying out of the jurisdiction or overseas. On the last occasion, Persaud testified that McBean had written to his seniors for permission to study overseas with pay.
He explained at that time, the procedure followed in accessing leave, and added that McBean’s document was submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs which denied the application noting the none policy for paying officers while studying overseas.
It was during the cross examination, however, that the senior officer said that he is aware of senior officers such as the late former Police Commissioner Henry Greene, now Attorney-at-Law Michael Somersall and former Magistrate/ Attorney-at-Law Gordon Gilhuys, being allowed to seek higher education overseas while being paid for their time away. They were also allowed to return to work in the police force until the time of their retirement.
Attorney Henry asked whether an inference could be drawn that McBean was treated different from those officers who studied overseas with pay. Persaud responded that the record seems to suggest so.
The matter has been adjourned to June 25.
McBean applied for study leave in 2009 to further his education in the United Kingdom but was denied. He was however granted vacation leave and he used the opportunity to commence his studies. McBean said that he got ill while overseas and was unable to return at the end of his vacation.
He claimed that he followed all standard procedures of informing his seniors about his illness, but was still sacked by the former Commissioner of Police Henry Greene.
McBean had spent some 20 years in the police force prior to his dismissal.
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