‘No’ to two deputies

THE recent appointment of a second Deputy Commissioner of Police by the Protective Service Commission is not sitting well with one Opposition Senator.

In a statement released recently, Senator Caswell Franklyn of the People’s Party for Democracy and Development (PdP), raised concern about the appointment of a veteran cop to the new post as of May 1, 2020, as it effectively creates a second number two spot within the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF). It was last May that another senior police officer was appointed to that position. The PdP representative’s comments came as he made it clear that his complaint was not with the new appointee’s qualifications for the job, but rather that no such position actually exists in the law.

“This has nothing to do with his fitness for the post. I do not know of his work or performance as a senior police officer and cannot speak to his fitness. My concern is that he has been appointed to a non-existent post, since someone is already substantively appointed Deputy Commissioner,” he said.

Franklyn bolstered his argument while referring to the Police Act, which he said at Section 6 states explicitly that the “Force shall consist of a Commissioner, a Deputy Commissioner and such number of Assistant Commissioners, Superintendents, Inspectors, subordinate police officers and constables respectively as does not exceed the number provided by any order made under section 2 of the Civil Establishments Act; but the members of the Force at 16th October 1961, shall continue to be members of the Force and shall be subject to this Act”. The Opposition Senator went on to contend that the number of persons appointed to the post of Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner is subject to the Police Act, and therefore any change to those numbers can only be facilitated through an amendment to that piece of legislation.

“On the other hand, the Police Act goes on to give the Minister responsible for Civil Establish-ments the power, by subsidiary legislation, to determine the number of Assistant Commissioners, Superintendents, Inspectors, subordinate police officers and constables. For completeness, the Civil Establishments Act was repealed and replaced by the Public Service Act on December 31, 2007. The power to determine the number of posts in the Public Service is now found at section 13(1) of the Public Service Act,” he stated.

Franklyn added, “The power to make appointments to public offices and to remove and to exercise disciplinary control over persons holding or acting in the Public Service is vested in the Governor-General, acting in accordance with the advice of service commissions, in this case the Protective Service Commission.”

Franklyn, who is also the leader of the Unity Workers’ Union, explained that the Protective Service Commission, like all other such entities in this country, can only recommend the appointment of persons to posts that are available. In this case, he iterated that there is only one post of Deputy Commissioner, and it is already filled.