Director of the Child Care & Protection Agency (CC&PA) Ann Greene, whose officers were aware that Neesa Gopaul was being abused before she was murdered, said that the buck stops with her and she is awaiting the completion of the investigation.
Greene, in a terse release yesterday, said she has not made a statement to the media since the child’s death since she is facilitating an investigation into the matter.
“I am not involved in any ‘blame game’ for the ‘buck stops’ with me; I am the Director of the Agency with overall responsibility for its operation. I am awaiting the completion of the investigation,” Greene said.
Last week Minister of Human Services & Social Security Priya Manickchand said officers from the Agency clearly breached the written protocols in their handling of the case involving the murdered teenager. She announced that her ministry has launched an internal investigation into the matter.
According to the minister, from initial reports “it appears that our protocols that are written… were not followed in the manner the writers, the authors expected.” The minister emphasized that procedures and protocols that are well established in the agency “were breached and we have to determine why and how we can prevent this from happening again…”
Reports are that the abuse of Gopaul was brought to the attention of the CCPA by teachers of Queen’s College who had observed marks of violence on the child’s body. The teenager had also reported acts of abuse to the teachers and after the agency became involved, she was removed from her mother’s home and placed in the care of her grandparents. How-ever, the mother later took the child from the grandparents, and the agency’s officers reportedly had no further contact with her as whenever they visited the home they were met with locked gates. They were also reportedly prevented from interviewing the child at her school.
It was at this point that the agency’s protocols may have been breached as the officers, instead of reporting the difficulties they experienced to their supervisors kept quiet and Neesa Gopaul’s file was left on a desk.
The child’s mother and her mother’s paramour have since been slapped with murder charges.
It was alleged that between September 24 and October 2 at Madewini, on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway, Bibi Sharima Gopaul and Jarvis Small, both of 13 Public Road Leonora, West Coast Demerara, murdered Neesa Lalita Gopaul.
