Commissioner of Police (ag) Nigel Hoppie has been given until noon today to respond to a missive demanding that he effect the promotions announced by the Police Service Com-mission (PSC) or face legal action.
“Your action in not ensuring that the Special Promotion Order is prepared and published one week after receiving the promotion list from the Police Service Commission is interpreted by the Police (Service) Commission as you defying the legitimate action of the Police Service Commission in promoting ranks of the Guyana Police Force,” Chairman Paul Slowe wrote in a letter dispatched to Hoppie yesterday.
Stabroek News reached out to the Commissioner for a response but calls and messages to his mobile went unanswered.
Head of the Guyana Police Force Communications Unit, Mark Ramotar in an invited comment explained that Hoppie had not provided a response.
“We have no response right now. The Commissioner would have to make that comment,” he stated.
In the letter, Slowe reminded Hoppie that the Commission had issued a list on June 28 of ranks of the Guyana Police Force who were promoted and stressed that though the Commissioner’s office acknowledged receipt on June 30 he has failed to prepare the promotion order so that the promoted ranks and other members of the Force can be informed of the promotions.
“The Quartermaster also uses the Special Promotion Order to issue badges of rank to the newly promoted ranks,” Slowe remind-ed.
The promotion list was made public just one hour after Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire dismissed a challenge which had delayed the promotions for more than six months.
Hoppie’s delay in com-plying with the directives of the PSC is likely due to a declaration from Attorney General Anil Nandlall that the promotions were “unlawful and illegal” and therefore would not be acknowledged by the government. It has how-ever been pointed out that Hoppie is answerable to the PSC on police pro-motions and not the Attorney General.
Nandall accused the PSC of countermanding, disobeying and disregarding the President’s decision to suspend its members. The action he argued “not only amounts to an effrontery to the highest executive office in this land, but is simply absurd.”
On June 17, President Irfaan Ali purported to suspend all five members of the PSC with immediate effect pending an investigation. The president informed the PSC members that a tribunal will be established to conduct an investigation.
In the letter addressed to Conway, Ali noted that the decision was taken based on advice given by Prime Minister Mark Phillips.
The Commission res-ponded through its lawyer Selwyn Pieters that the purported suspension was ultra vires Article 225 of the Constitution, since a tribunal to probe their removal had not yet been established and he had not been properly advised to act by the legally defined “prescribed authority.”
On the tribunal, Pieters pointed out that with no Judicial Service Commission in place, there is no avenue to set up a tribunal, which is required by law to iron out the issues with the PSC.
“The Police Service Commission will therefore continue to perform its constitutional mandate in respect to discipline and promotion of Guyana Police Force officers from Inspectors to Assistant Commissioners,” he said in a letter, which was seen by this newspaper.
The attorney further argued that although the President can suspend the commissioners via his executive powers, he can only do so on the “advice of the prescribed authority.”
“It is clear from the provisions that Your Excellency’s purported suspension of the Chair-man and other members of the Commission is contrary to the Constitution in two respects: first, because the question of removal from office has not yet “been referred to a tribunal”; and second, because, for all members other than the chairman, you have not acted “in accordance with the advice of the prescribed authority” with respect to the suspensions,” Pieters stated.
This letter is referenced in yesterday’s communication to Hoppie and he was again urged to cause “the Special Promotions Order to be published forthwith, and…give instructions to the Quartermaster to issue the newly promoted ranks with their badges of rank.”
“The PSC would also like to remind you that as the most senior rank in the… Force you are expected to lead by example and to carry out all legal instructions/directives and to disregard unlawful instructions/directives. This principle is considered one of the hallmarks of good leadership,” Slowe reminded before indicating that further delays will require the Commission to take legal steps to compel the Commissioner to carry out duties in relation to the promotions.
We look forward to your response, and in any event, by no later than 12:00 p.m. on July 06, 2021.
In May, this year, Slowe and his fellow retired assistant commissioner Clinton Conway had been asked by Prime Minister Mark Phillips to show cause why the charges of fraud leveled against them should not result in their removal from the Police Service Commission (PSC).
“It has been brought to my attention that you have been charged with the offence of conspiracy to defraud…and placed before the Georgetown magistrates court (where) the matter remains pending…I hereby direct that you show cause in writing why I ought not to advise…that you be removed from the office of a member of the [PSC] as a result thereof,” the letter to Conway reads.
The two later mounted a defence but this did not detain the Prime Minister from recommending to the President that a tribunal be set up.
A sexual assault charge was also brought against Slowe in May.
Removal of the PSC would give the government an opportunity to appoint its members and influence promotions to senior positions in the force.
