No response by Hoppie to promotions ultimatum
-PSC has decided on way forward
While Police Commissioner (ag) Nigel Hoppie has acknowledged receipt of an ultimatum letter from the Police Service Commission (PSC) he has not responded to its contents which demanded that he honour the promotion list published by the constitutional body.
On Monday, PSC Chair Paul Slowe wrote to Hoppie directing that he respond by noon yesterday 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,” Slowe wrote in the letter.
Attorney Selwyn Pieters who represents the PSC told Stabroek News last evening that a decision has already been made on the way forward.
PSC member Assistant Commissioner (Ret’d) Clinton Conway indicated that the Commission will not bend.
“We are going further. We won’t give up,” Conway indicated.
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 said.
The promotion list was made public just one hour after Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George-Wiltshire dismissed a challenge which had delayed the promotions for more than six months.
Hoppie’s delay in complying 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 however been pointed out that Hoppie is answerable to the PSC on police promotions and not the Attorney General.
Notably 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 responded through its lawyer 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.