In a Facebook post, yesterday morning Former Assistant Commissioner of Police Paul Slowe posited that there is a difference between someone Acting as the Commissioner of Police and someone performing the functions of the Commissioner of Police. Slowe was at the time responding to what he termed “inaccuracies” in a “Peeping Tom” article in Tuesday’s Kaieteur News about the appointment of Hicken to Act as Commissioner of Police, replacing Nigel Hoppie who is on pre-retirement leave.
The article which is captioned “Nothing improper about someone performing the functions of Commissioner of Police” failed to make a clear distinction between someone performing the functions of Commissioner of Police and someone Acting in that capacity, Slowe said. According to the Former Assistant Police Commissioner, nothing is wrong with someone performing the functions of Commissioner of Police, I did so on two occasions when the then Commissioner was on duty overseas and I was the next senior person to him.
However, claims by Peeping Tom that the outgoing Commissioner Nigel Hoppie could not have subsequently been appointed as acting Commissioner of Police or Commissioner of Police because of the problems with the appointment of a Police Service Commission” are inaccurate. Slowe explained that when the office of Commissioner became vacant on April 1, 2021, there was in place a Police Service Commission of which I was the Chairman. There was also a Leader of the Opposition. It, therefore, meant that there was nothing preventing the President from initiating the constitutional process to appoint someone either to act as Commissioner or to the substantive position.
Slowe also challenged the assertion that after Seelall Persaud was sent on leave, David Ramnarine performed the functions of Acting Commissioner. It was the media that immediately began to refer to him (Ramnarine) as acting Commissioner but legally he was merely performing the functions of Commissioner at that point in time, Slowe asserted.
Slowe went on to correct this inaccuracy; David Ramnarine was never appointed to act as Commissioner. There was never any consultation between President David Granger and the Leader of the Opposition Mr. Bharat Jagdeo, and the President and the Chairman of the Police Service Commission in relation to the appointment of Ramnarine to replace Commissioner Seelall Persaud, either in an acting or substantive capacity. He noted that when Mr. Ramnarine was performing the functions of Commissioner in the absence of Commissioner Persaud on pre-retirement leave there was no Police Service Commission.
As such, consultation by the President to fill the vacancies of Commissioner following the retirement of Commissioner Persaud, and Deputy Commissioners took place in August 2018 when I was the Chairman of the Police Service Commission. Mr. Ramnarine continued to perform the functions of Commissioner of Police until the appointment of Leslie James in August 2018. The notion being peddled that it is inconceivable that the Constitution and the law would allow for a situation to exist in which the Police Force would not have someone to head its operations is rubbished by Slowe, who asserted that there is nothing improper about appointing someone to perform the functions of Commissioner.
However, such a person cannot legally be (sic) deemed as the acting Commissioner. Slowe informed that such an appointment, if necessary, must await formal consultations mandated by the Constitution and which will be done as soon as Parliament settles the business of the nominees to the Police Service Commission and overcomes the imbroglio surrounding the appointment of a Leader of the Opposition”.
More, In The Ring.
