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Police unaware of disciplinary action against Asst. Commissioner Ramnarine
The Guyana Police Force says there is no pending disciplinary matter against Assistant Commissioner David Ramnarine, even as former Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee insists otherwise.
The Force in an official statement yesterday, in response to concerns raised by Rohee on Monday, said, “The Guyana Police Force wishes to state that it is unaware of any disciplinary matter pending against Assistant Commissioner David Ramnarine, DSM.”
Former Home Affairs Minister Rohee in a statement on Monday, had expressed concerns about persons with pending disciplinary matters may be recommended for promotion. He had singled out Ramnarine as one of the persons who is likely to be promoted despite a pending disciplinary matter against him.
The matter Rohee is referring to has to do with a request made in 2012 by Rohee to then Acting Commissioner of Police, Leroy Brumell, to institute disciplinary action against Ramnarine, who he accused of breaching force regulations.
Ramnarine had ruffled a few feathers when he publicly announced that he had not received any money to provide meals for his ranks during the 2011 General Elections, from the funds allocated for such purpose by the government. He embarrassed the then administration by stating that he was advised to beg members of the business community for assistance to feed his ranks.
Rohee, the then Minister of Home Affairs, obviously irked by Ramnarine’s outspokenness, immediately asked acting Commissioner Brumell to initiate disciplinary action against the Assistant Commissioner.
Brumell did write to Ramnarine, demanding an explanation of the circumstances that led to him breaching the police Standing Order when he went public with his views on the alleged misappropriation of monies allocated for elections duties.
Ramnarine did respond and according to a senior police official, that matter died a natural death, and the former Home Affairs minister is seeking to curtail the upward movement of the outspoken Ramnarine.
But Rohee is maintaining that the matter is not dead.
“I stand by what I said in my statement. Brumell writing to him (Ramnarine) does not end the matter. As far as I am aware, the matter was not brought to a closure. If the police are saying that they are unaware of any disciplinary matter against Ramnarine. I am standing by what I said,” Rohee told Kaieteur News yesterday.
This newspaper contacted former Commissioner Brumell last evening and he explained that he did send the matter to the Police Service Commission after receiving a response from Ramnarine.
He stated that at the time, there was a problem constituting a tribunal to try the matter.
“We had to have a senior man to make up the tribunal to try the Assistant Commissioner, and we did not have the full component of officers to do it. So I sent it to the Police Service Commission for advice on the way forward and I can’t really recall if they had responded,” Brumell told this newspaper.
At the time, the force did not have a deputy commissioner, a rank above Ramnarine’s, who could have headed the tribunal to try an Assistant Commissioner. Both Brumell and Seelall Persaud carried the same rank as Ramnarine.
However, it was noted that Brumell and Persaud subsequently became Deputy Commissioners and yet Ramnarine’s matter wasn’t tried.
“Then again, almost four years would have elapsed, and you can’t have a man held up for so long without a trial. What happened to natural justice?” another senior officer asked.
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