Latest update January 17th, 2025 6:30 AM
Paul Slowe among nominees for Police Service Commission
Paul Slowe
Former Assistant Commissioner, Paul Slowe, who was denied promotion within the Guyana Police Force before he retired in 2010, has been nominated to sit on the Police Service Commission (PSC) which is empowered to undertake promotions and disciplinary proceedings in the Force.
Slowe was nominated by the Parliamentary Select Committee of Appointments along with Clinton Andrew Conway, former Assistant Commissioner of Police; Vesta Geneva Adams, former Woman Assistant Commissioner of Police; and Claire Alexis Jarvis, former Woman Assistant Commissioner of Police.
The names will now be presented to President David Granger for further consideration. The life of the former Commission, which was chaired by Omesh Satyanand, expired in August 2017.
In its report to Parliament, the Select Committee chaired by Minister of Social Cohesion Dr. George Norton, pointed out that several organizations were consulted.
The Committee established that the active groups that represent the police were the National Community Policing Executive, Guyana Police Association and Association of Former Members of the Guyana Police.
According to the report, the committee expanded their nomination efforts to include the Guyana Association of Professional Social Workers since the Constitution states that the President appoints four members to the PSC.
The committee wrote to the entities on March 8 inviting nominations. In response, only the Guyana Police Association and the Association of Former Members responded. Both nominated Slowe.
“After exhausting the process of notification, the Committee agreed to proceed with the appointment of Members to the Commission,” the report stated.
Slowe was appointed last July to head the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the alleged assassination plot against the President. By August 31, after public hearings, the report was submitted to the President.
Several alarming recommendations were made in the report including the removal of Commission of Police, Seelall Persaud, who retired in April.
The CoI report had recommended that proceedings be initiated in accordance with Article 225 on the Constitution to have Seelall removed from office for misbehaviour.
Persaud was accused of inserting himself into the police investigation of the assassination plot while he was on leave.
The report found that the Top Cop should have recused himself from the matter. Persaud was accused of bypassing the chain of command when he instructed that Nizam Khan, who was a suspect in the alleged assassination plot, be sent on bail.
The CoI report had also concluded that there was a public rift in the top brass of the Force between Persaud and now Acting Commissioner of Police David Ramnarine.
The rift had reached the level of Cabinet and was pointed out in the CoI report.
Aside from Persaud and Ramnarine, the report identified Assistant Commissioner Clifton Hicken and Senior Superintendent Wendell Blanhum as “the main protagonists,” who “lack the professionalism to lead the Force in this touted period of reform and transition.”
The Commission had recommended that serious consideration must be given to having all the main protagonists reassigned, even if it means placement outside the Force. Blanhum was subsequently reassigned from Crime Chief to Deputy Commander of ‘A’ Division.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
No conflict of interest exists
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- Accusations of conflict of interest have a peculiar way of rising to the surface in Guyana.... more
Clarifying misconceptions about the Panama Canal
Sir Ronald Sanders (Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the US and the OAS) By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News–... more
Weekend Cartoon
