After facing much fire from various sections of the society, including the Police Service Commission, political parties and some NGOs over its handling of the issue regarding the promotion of police ranks, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) today issued a statement seeking to provide clarity on the matter.
Here is the full text of the GPF’s statement:
Cognisant of a Press Statement issued by the Police Service Commission on December 31, 2015, in relation to the promotion of police ranks, the Guyana Police Force wishes to clarify that the Police Service Commission wrote to the Commissioner of Police asking for the personal files of Officers, Inspectors and Sergeants since during October 2015 and also requested that identified ranks report to the Service Commission since then and this was complied with immediately.
The Police Service Commission never requested the recommendations for promotion from the Commissioner of Police until during December 2015 and this was acted upon.
During January 2015 the Commissioner of Police had written the Chairman of the Police Service Commission for information on the criteria used by the Service Commission in making promotions in the Police Force, in order to guide the Force Administration in making recommendations, but has not received any response to date.
For that very reason, and taking into consideration the fact that the Service Commission had sent for the personal files and interviewed a number of ranks, the Force Administration did not volunteer a list of recommendations for promotion until it was requested.
The Guyana Police Force is also asking the Police Service Commission to clarify to the public which section of the Police Act states that promotion is dependent on a rank passing the Appropriate Qualifying Examination.
