By Kurt Campbell
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Opposition Leader David Granger says he has no faith in the proposal by President Donald Ramotar to institute integrity testing before promoting Officers of the Guyana Police Force to top posts.
“I have no faith in the President’s proposal at all, I have never heard of it… you are bound to get people who are good at test and bad at performance,” Granger said, adding that “I really don’t know if the President’s recommendation is the way to go.”
President Ramotar while speaking at the opening of the Annual Police Officers’ Conference on Thursday, April 24 had said that ‘integrity testing’ will possibly become a feature that top ranking officers will have to undergo before being promoted.
It is the President’s hope that this move will weed out corrupt officers from the helm of the Force which will translate to a less corrupt institution.
However, the Opposition Leader is of the view that longer period of formal training over a person’s career and supervision of performance may be a more accurate assessment of character. He posited that it could be a dangerous move to go the way of polygraph testing on a single event.
“I believe proper training and supervision could result in selection of officers of competence and good character,” the Opposition Leader added.
He called on the government to enforce integrity legislation and not resort to testing, adding that the administration must be more careful of how they select persons for high offices and respond to public calls.
“I don’t believe a system of testing will solve the problem… there are serious structural problems.”
The Opposition Leader went on to add that the Police Force is a political football used by government. He said the Force is subject to too much political interference and called on the admiration to rethink its approach.
Only recently Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee announced that dozens of ranks of the Force were awaiting the results of polygraph tests which they did recently.
Government has over the last year conducted lie detector tests for ranks of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
There have also been calls for Ministers of the government and high ranking public servants to undergo similar tests when allegations of corruption are leveled against them.
Polygraph testing is being used currently in the prosecution of criminals.
