Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Ju­nior Ben­jamin says the po­lice ser­vice is con­tem­plat­ing ap­peal­ing a High Court de­ci­sion re­gard­ing the pro­mo­tion process of po­lice of­fi­cers from the rank of in­spec­tor to as­sis­tant su­per­in­ten­dent.

In a tele­phone in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Ben­jamin said the mat­ter is now en­gag­ing the at­ten­tion of the po­lice ser­vice’s at­tor­neys.

“At this point in time, we are meet­ing with the at­tor­neys, and we will, in due course, make a re­sponse, as to what’s our po­si­tion in that mat­ter. But again, it has been not­ed what was said and it is en­gag­ing our at­ten­tion at this time. And we are go­ing to be meet­ing with our at­tor­neys to see ex­act­ly how to move for­ward.”

On Tues­day, High Court Judge Frank Seep­er­sad quashed the process as he up­held a law­suit brought by In­sp Mark Her­nan­dez, who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the pro­mo­tion ex­er­cise last year.

Jus­tice Seep­er­sad found that sus­pend­ed Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher and Odyssey Con­sult­inc Lim­it­ed, the con­sul­tan­cy firm hired to as­sist with the process, made mis­steps at every stage of the three-tiered pro­mo­tion process.

He ruled there were mul­ti­ple breach­es of the Po­lice Ser­vice Act and as­so­ci­at­ed reg­u­la­tions which meant the process had to start all over again. At­tempts to con­tact the pres­i­dent of the Po­lice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion ASP Gideon Dick­son for com­ment on the is­sue were un­suc­cess­ful.

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In an un­re­lat­ed mat­ter, Ben­jamin said the po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to Hare­wood-Christo­pher re­mains “ac­tive” as in­ves­ti­ga­tors await feed­back from the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions.

“We are still wait­ing for fur­ther in­struc­tions. Every time we go, they (DPP) give us in­struc­tions. We have met sev­er­al times. Every time we go they give us in­struc­tions. So we nor­mal­ly fol­low and then we go and get fur­ther in­struc­tions. So right now, ba­si­cal­ly I would say that the mat­ter is still very ac­tive. We are seek­ing to do a thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the mat­ter. And so we con­tin­ue to go to the DPP and await in­struc­tions and fol­low those in­struc­tions to the best of our abil­i­ty,” he ex­plained.

Hare­wood-Christo­pher is be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed in con­nec­tion with the pro­cure­ment of two sniper ri­fles for the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency.