Police promotion list released after court challenge thrown out

Jun 29, 2021 News

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By Rehanna Ramsay

Kaieteur News – The case filed by Senior Superintendent of Police, Calvin Brutus, to challenge the Police Service Commission’s (PSC) 2020 promotion list on the basis of what he termed as “unfair criteria for elevating officers,” has been thrown out by Chief Justice (Ag), Roxane George-Wiltshire.

Brutus had moved to the High Court in a bid to block promotions for senior members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) until the decision not to promote him is recanted.
Brutus’ case was among a series of lawsuits filed in the High Court by police officers to block the promotions of other ranks including, Senior Superintendents of Police, Edmond Cooper, Philip Azore and Kurleigh Simon.
Among other things, Brutus complained that the PSC’s decision not to promote police officers with pending disciplinary complaints regardless of the nature or seriousness of such complaints, “perpetuates a permanent injustice” against him and others who are scheduled for promotions.
However in her ruling yesterday, Justice George-Wiltshire essentially said that there is nothing unlawful about considering disciplinary matters when making a decision whether to promote a police rank or not.
While the officers had challenged the PSC on the grounds that their method of promotion has been unfair and unlawful given that the commission had withheld their promotion owing to pending disciplinary cases, the Chief Justice noted that the Court could not reasonably declare the policy as unlawful, and said it could amount to a usurpation of the PSC’s authority.

The judge noted too, that the Court could not require the PSC to reconsider its decision. “We can only ask that a system be put in place to ensure that disciplinary matters are finalised without delay,” the judge said, noting that the case only served to highlight “the poor and haphazard system,” of the GPF for dealing with disciplinary matters of police officers.
Further, in her ruling, the judge declared, “I would not quash the promotions of the other officers.” As such, moments after the decision was rendered by the Chief Justice, the PSC released a list of officers who were promoted in 2020.
But in a subsequent statement issued on behalf of the Government, Attorney General (AG), Anil Nandlall, SC, said that government would not recognise the 2020 list of police promotions issued, since the PSC had been suspended by President, Irfaan Ali, since June 16, last.
“The Government of Guyana rejects as unlawful and illegal, a list of purported promotions of members of the Guyana Police Force by the Police Service Commission,” the statement continued, adding that, the decision of the President to suspend the PSC was communicated to each member of the PSC by way of a letter.
As such, the statement noted, that the said decision can only be rescinded, revoked, set-aside or reversed by the President himself, or by a court of competent jurisdiction. “No person, let alone, a constitutional commission, will be allowed to become judge, jury and executioner in our constitutional democracy. The rule of law simply does not permit it,” the AG said in the release.

In this regard, the statement said that the attempt of the PSC, therefore, to countermand, disobey and disregard the President’s decision, not only amounts to an effrontery to the highest executive office in the land, but is simply absurd.
“If anyone had any doubts about the independence and rectitude of this grouping that constitute the Police Service Commission, those doubts should now be put to rest,” it added.
According to Nandlall, “it must be made abundantly clear, that nothing in the ruling rendered this afternoon by the learned Chief Justice, Roxane George-Wiltshire, in the case filed by Mr. Calvin Brutus, Senior Superintendent of Police, against the PSC and the Attorney General, gives legitimacy to the purported list of promotions issued by the PSC or any such list, as suggested in certain segments of the press.”
In this regard, Nandlall alluded to the fact that one of the grounds that the PSC proffered in opposition to the case brought by Mr. Brutus is that, “the Commission has not made a final decision regarding promotions.”
In the circumstances, the AG noted that the purported list of promotions of members of the GPF would be ignored.
(Please turn to page 8 to see the list of promotions of senior officers of the GPF, which the Attorney General said, should be ignored. The list is usually released in December but the 2020 list was marred by the legal proceeding filed to block it until the determination of the court case.)

 

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