Geisha Kow­lessar

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Ed­mund Dil­lon has backed the de­ci­sion made by act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Stephen Williams to con­sid­er act­ing Snr Supts Sim­bon­ath Ra­jku­mar and John Trim take ear­ly re­tire­ment.

The of­fi­cers met with their at­tor­ney Ger­ald Ramdeen on Thurs­day in a bid to chal­lenge the in­tend­ed dis­missals.

They are seek­ing their ser­vice be con­tin­ued un­til the statu­to­ry date of re­tire­ment, which un­der the Po­lice Ser­vice Act is 60 years.

Ramdeen, in a let­ter to Williams, said the forced re­tire­ment, while not il­le­gal was how­ev­er, a breach of the Act.

Dil­lon, speak­ing dur­ing the launch of the new dri­ver's per­mit yes­ter­day, al­so made it clear that there was no po­lit­i­cal pres­sure placed on the top CoP to make the de­ci­sion.

"The com­mis­sion­er has his role to play and it is tru­ly with­in the do­main of the po­lice com­mis­sion­er to take the nec­es­sary ac­tion that he deems it fit based on the Po­lice Ser­vice Act," Williams said.

He main­tained there must be re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and ac­count­abil­i­ty on the part of all di­vi­sion­al heads re­gard­ing man­age­ment.

"If each di­vi­sion....each sta­tion be held ac­count­able then you get an ef­fi­cient per­for­mance through­out the Po­lice Ser­vice," Dil­lon added.

Asked whether there was an im­prove­ment in the per­for­mance of di­vi­sion­al com­man­ders the min­is­ter said he did not as yet mea­sure this but was sure this would hap­pen.

Speak­ing about the is­sue for the first time Williams said he ex­pressed to Ra­jku­mar and Trim that he was con­sid­er­ing ex­er­cis­ing his au­thor­i­ty un­der Sec­tion 74 (2) (b) of the Po­lice Ser­vice Act.

"And in those cir­cum­stances they were pro­vid­ed with an op­por­tu­ni­ty to make rep­re­sen­ta­tion for my con­sid­er­a­tion.

In those cir­cum­stances I will pe­ruse the doc­u­ments from the at­tor­ney to ver­i­fy if such rep­re­sen­ta­tion was made," Williams said.

He al­so sought to clear the air that he re­quest­ed the two of­fi­cers to re­sign.

"It is not res­ig­na­tions. It is a let­ter in­Se­cu­ri­ty

Min­is­ter on fir­ing of non per­form­ing cops...di­cat­ing that the com­mis­sion­er of po­lice is con­sid­er­ing ex­er­cis­ing un­der Sec­tion 74 ( 2) (b)," Williams added.

Asked if there was a pos­si­bil­i­ty that he could re­scind his de­ci­sion Williams said he "did not go in­to the realm of spec­u­la­tion" but rather fol­lowed a process.

"They had sev­en days to re­spond and their at­tor­neys re­spond­ed on their be­half and I would read the re­sponse and make a de­ci­sion from there," Williams said.

Asked if there were any oth­er first di­vi­sion of­fi­cers who would be fac­ing a sim­i­lar cir­cum­stance he said, "At this time I speak of two of­fi­cers," and al­so dis­missed re­ports that there was a list 21 of­fi­cers who would be asked to take ear­ly re­tire­ment.

On the re­moval of In­spec­tor Roger Alexan­der from Be­yond the Tape Williams said this was done due a court mat­ter re­gard­ing al­le­ga­tions of as­sault.

But he said fol­low­ing the out­come of the mat­ter Alexan­der would have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­turn to the pro­gramme.

Williams said oth­er of­fi­cers have been del­e­gat­ed to fill the gap on a week­ly bases adding that the show would not be ter­mi­nat­ed.

WHAT THE ACT STATES

In ac­cor­dance with Sec­tion 74(2) (b) of the Po­lice Ser­vice Act No 7 2006, which states that "A po­lice of­fi­cer in the First Di­vi­sion shall re­tire from the Po­lice Ser­vice on his at­tain­ing the age of 60 years, but may–

(a) at his op­tion; or

(b) at the in­stance of the Com­mis­sion­er, re­tire from the Po­lice Ser­vice at any time af­ter he has at­tained the age of 55 years."