Even as he sought to reassure the public that the allegations made against Crime Chief Lyndon Alves will be properly probed and the truth found, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan yesterday said that he sees nothing wrong with the force’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) conducting the investigation.
“I am very comfortable with the OPR…Who you want us to put ? …We have to build institutions in Guyana to the extent of letting them get integrity and reputation and unless we start doing that, nothing will grow in Guyana,” he told reporters following the commissioning of two key pieces of equipment at the Turkeyen-based Guyana Forensic Science Laboratory (GFSL).
Recently, a number of police officers have spoken out about alleged corrupt practices in B Division, including money being collected from criminals.
Several policemen, on condition of anonymity, have told this newspaper about corruption associated with a senior policeman who was previously stationed in Berbice but is now assigned to Georgetown.
Ranks, who said they were breaking their silence after their reports of the activities of the senior policeman fell on deaf ears within the division, have also identified several junior ranks who have reportedly aided the senior rank in his activities, which are said to include offering protection from prosecution to persons accused of crimes.
Many are not satisfied with an internal probe and have called for an independent investigation to be done to ensure there is no cover up. The Granger administration has convened a series of Commissions of Inquiry – some on matters less serious than the allegations recently made.
Ramjattan in responding to questions from the media yesterday insisted that an OPR investigation is the first step and noted that the OPR has conducted hundreds of investigations.
“Doing that is the first place you start…You want…to call a CARICOM Commission to come in?” he questioned.
The minister informed that the operational head of the force, Commissioner of Police Leslie James “would have asked that he (Alves) be temporarily removed as is normal when investigations this serious are being conducted.” Ramjattan, insisting that this step is nothing “untoward”, added “if he is cleared he will come back there, if he is not, well fine. The president having appointed him will make certain decisions.”
While noting that the police commissioner would be better able to say what Alves is being investigated for, Ramattan told the media that it arose out of “certain allegations” which were recently reported by the media. “The more specific allegations has to do with the same thing coming out of the press and policemen saying that they were well aware of it and all of that, so we have to take the statements of those police. Of course they will be questioned and of course thereafter legal advice will be sought.”
Ramjattan refused to venture into commenting on whether all of this might have been occurring under the nose of the commander without his (Ramjattan’s) knowledge.
Mouthings
“Ministerial mouthings like that are not very good for due process, so please let the OPR who are the investigators continue their investigation. It will then go the legal advice way…” he said.
In Stabroek News’ first report, a group of junior ranks spoke out about a Lance Corporal and other ranks who were alleged to have been linked to a murder accused, Kelvin Shivgobin, who was recently killed during a shootout with police in Black Bush Polder, Berbice.
It was alleged that their numbers were found stored and in the call log of the mobile phone of the dead man. The senior officer was accused of protecting those ranks linked to the dead man as they purportedly aid him in his activities in the division.
The senior rank in question has also allegedly accused two detective constables in ‘B’ Division of being sources behind news reports, which has resulted in them being transferred.
More recently, it has been alleged that two police ranks linked to the corruption racket in Berbice have been fingered in a plot to kill another police officer. There were reported promised a total of $3 million to carry out the hit.
Even more frightening to ranks within the division was the fact that the Detective Constable who was allegedly paid to carry out the hit had been fingered in the execution-style killing of a policeman in September of 2012.
In that case, Detective Constable 20682, Jirbahan Dianand, 23, of Lot 70, Number 64 Village, Corentyne, was found dead, shot to the head execution-style in his car along the road at Jackson Creek, Corentyne.
Ramjattan assured that he acts on a presumption of regularity and said that this is how a minister must always act. “If a minister start jumping to conclusions that every one of his police officers or Deputy Commissioner is a rascal then that’s terrible. You cannot apply anything at all with that kind of approach and I acted on a presumption that everybody is good and clean and if you now have egregious information that says his conduct was bad [then] you investigate. That is what you do in every police force in the world and that is what we have done,” he said.
Speaking directly to the public, Ramjattan said “We have everything in control and that even he who is at the very highest, when they misbehave, we are going to conduct investigations to find out whether it is the truth. A good administration gets to the truth… We are not going to have a perfect police force just like any police force in the world but what is good is that whenever things happen to the extent like what is happening here, an investigation will be conducted” he said.
