Act tidied up
Government has moved to “tidy up” the issue of the appointment of a second Deputy Commissioner of Police, which has been the subject of public debate over the past few months, regarding its legality.
Leading off the debate on the Police (Amendment) Bill and the Supreme Court of Judicature (Amendment) Bill in the House of Assembly yesterday evening, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Dale Marshall, said that of note was that the arguments from those opposing the appointment, never addressed if such a post was needed. It came as the AG stated that Government, in creating the post, was answering a plea from the Commissioner of Police for help.
According to Marshall, in a letter dated November 7, 2018 written by the Commissioner of Police to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, a recommendation was made for an additional post of Deputy Commissioner of Police and setting out the rationale for such. Reading the correspondence to the Chamber, the AG quoted the top cop, as indicating that oversight for the various departments for which the deputy has, was becoming demanding and some areas were not being “as effectively monitored and managed as is desirable”. Moreover, the Commissioner in the letter said that the demands of law enforcement have grown exponentially over a five- to ten-year period, requiring the constant rethinking and reviewing of policing strategies and the need to pay greater detail to follow through.
“This Administration, in seeking to appoint a Deputy Commissioner, was not engaged in any act of wastefulness or dishonesty. This Administration was seeking to satisfy the earnest request of a Commissioner who felt that he needed an additional hand on the deck at that level,” he stated.
With that in mind, AG Marshall dismissed the idea put forward by the Opposition, that the person currently in that post should have to repay the salary he received while in the post prior to the legislation being changed.
“For them to even suggest that an individual who goes to work every day; carries the burden of his office; discharges his responsibility to the public, but because there is an inconsistency between two legal provisions, that the gentlemen should not get paid. You know who should not get paid, Sir? People who don’t work shouldn’t get paid,” he contended.
He added, “The point is that the gentleman went to work for months and worked hard and carried his weight, and the Opposition could be associated with the request that that gentleman return his pay. That is what politics has come to in Barbados.”
AG Marshall went on to say that based on the legal opinions on the matter that he sought and obtained, he is satisfied that “the gentleman is in an office”, but indicated that Government would still ensure that the legislation is tidied up.
“... What we have done by creating the post of an additional Deputy Commissioner of Police is to strengthen the hand of the Police Force and to enable them to do a better and more modern form of policing, Sir. It is a hell of a thing that you have a Force that has remained largely unchanged over the last decades, and that efforts to change them Sir, could have come to be so criticised, not because we have in any way done the wrong thing or done a dishonourable thing, but because the formula that was chosen might not have been correct,” he added. (JRT)