— requests early retirement after exhausting leave

ASSISTANT Commissioner of Police David Ramnarine, who served as the country’s “top cop” but was overlooked for the substantive post last August, has written the force requesting early retirement.

Early retirement is afforded to officers who have served more than 20 years in the force. Once early retirement is granted, those persons would be afforded all the benefits and emoluments that would have been given at the time of retirement, age 55.

Since Assistant Commissioner Leslie James was appointed Commissioner of Police and four other Assistant Commissioners of Police: Nigel Hoppie, Paul Williams, Maxine Graham and Lyndon Alves were appointed Deputy Commissioners of Police, Ramnarine has never worked a day under the five who were promoted ahead of him.

Sources alleged that prior to the appointment of the five assistant commissioners of police, Ramnarine had made it clear that he was not prepared to work under any of them if they were promoted ahead of him.
James, Alves, Graham, Williams and Hoppie were all junior to Ramnarine and took commands and instructions from him while he acted as “top cop” and served as Assistant Commissioner (Administration) of the Force.

After Leslie James was appointed Commissioner of Police, Ramnarine packed his belongings from his office and left. He was also absent from the swearing-in of James, but did indicate to this publication that he telephoned James and congratulated him and the other deputies.
Since that day, Ramnarine has been off the job on accumulated leave and when that was exhausted, he applied for unpaid leave and his request was granted. When the last request was exhausted, Ramnarine made the decision to opt for early retirement.

President David Granger, in the months leading up to the appointment of the commissioner of police, said that he was looking for someone who is unbribable.
He again repeated those sentiments at the Guyana Police Force Officers Conference in January of this year.

When contacted on Tuesday, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan confirmed that Ramnarine has requested early retirement.
Ramjattan said Ramnarine wrote the permanent secretary indicating his position.

A LOSS
“I think it is a loss, he had a lot of experience; he was extremely good with the press; he could articulate his position very, very soundly and with a lot of passion and so had a lot of positives and I really had wanted him to stay on, but he made his decision and I respect that,” Ramjattan told the Guyana Chronicle.

When contacted by the Guyana Chronicle, Ramnarine refused to comment on his position, saying “No comment, I am not in public life right now” and discontinued the call.
Ramnarine served the Guyana Police Force as divisional commander for ‘F’ Division and once as ‘C’ Division commander. He also served in the capacity of assistant commissioner of operations and administration before becoming acting commissioner of police.

A few years ago, he was involved in a public battle of words with then Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, after questions were raised about the funds which were allocated to Ramnarine’s ‘F’ Division to cater for meals and other logistics for ranks during General and Regional Elections.

Ever since that fiasco, Ramnarine was overlooked for promotions to deputy commissioner and even the commissioner of police post, while those below him including Leroy Brumell and Seelall Persaud, were promoted ahead of him.

Ramnarine again became the subject of much media attention when he began acting as commissioner of police whenever Seelall Persaud was away from the job. During his tenure, he made several changes within the organisation including reshuffling commanders, dismissing ranks whom he claimed were rouge cops and even promoting a number of junior ranks.

Many of the decisions which Ramnarine made while acting as commissioner of police were reversed by Leslie James when he assumed the post. James also looked at some case files and dismissed ranks were returned to the job in cases where it was determined that their dismissals were done in a unilateral manner.

Ramnarine also gained much public attention when he openly appeared to have been challenging the judgment, and in some cases, reversing the decisions of former Commissioner Seelall Persaud and Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum.

This was evident in statements made when he was called to stand before the commission of inquiry which heard of the blameworthiness of officers and other persons in the handling of an alleged plot to assassinate President David Granger.