PRESIDENT David Granger has described the acrimony between Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud and his likely successor David Ramnarine which recently spilled over in public as uninspiring.Speaking during his weekly television programme ‘The Public Interest’, the Commander-in-Chief said Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan has been asked to investigate the quarrel between the two men. On Monday, the tiff between the two reached new levels, with the Top Cop ordering that a decision by Assistant Police Commissioner Ramnarine to promote six ranks recently be rescinded. Persaud was on leave and Ramnarine was acting in his position when he made the decision to elevate the ranks.

Ramnarine has since challenged the police chief’s interpretation of the Constitution, contending that it is erroneous and embarrassing. Persaud in a letter to Staff Officer Administration 1, Maxine Graham, had called for the rescission of the promotions Ramnarine had effected, and drew the officer’s attention to Article 212 (3) of the Constitution of Guyana.
That provision empowers the Commissioner of Police to make appointments to any office in the Police Force below the rank of inspector. Persaud also quoted Article 211 (i) of the said constitution, which he said indicates that the appointment of the Commissioner of Police is done by His Excellency the President.
“His Excellency the President makes such appointments by issuing an instrument which is signed by him/her,” he argued. But Ramnarine contended that he was duly authorised by the appropriate authority, in keeping with the relevant Article of the Constitution, to act as Commissioner of Police.
And according to him, he did so “to the strict letter, meaning and spirit of the Constitution and the Law.” Ramnarine was of the view that by virtue of being the acting top cop, he was authorised to hire, fire, discipline, promote, transfer, post and reward any member of the Force in accordance with the relevant powers vested in him.
NO SEAT WARMER
President Granger addressing the matter on Thursday said Ramnarine acting as Top Cop was not expected to warm the seat of the Top Cop. “The Police Force is a hierarchy and the Commissioner of Police is the head of the Force and the Assistant Commissioner who was

acting for him during a period of vacation, obviously has to take authoritative action on some matters. He just can’t sit on his hands,” President Granger said.
He added: “If problems need to be solved, he is there to solve the problems, so I wouldn’t want to go further at this point in time. It has been brought to the attention of the National Security Committee and although there is a hierarchy, although there is a structure, there is also convention that persons who are acting, have to do their work in an authoritative manner and not in passive manner.”
The President was also of the view that the problem between Persaud and Ramnarine was not one that cannot be solved and lamented it can hardly inspire confidence in the Police Force and the public. “It might…embolden people who feel that this is an opportunity to do mischief. Everything that I have heard about the matter or read about the matter suggests that it is actually a storm in a tea cup,” Mr Granger said.

Minister of State Joseph Harmon who also addressed the matter at his post-Cabinet briefing on Thursday said, in any large organisation, there will be issues, but the quarrel between the senior policemen should have been dealt with internally.
“Once you have two persons in a room or three you’d always have a difference. Sometimes you and your wife alone in the house and y’all still have differences. So you’d have these things, but the important thing is because of the importance of the Guyana Police Force to the national security structure… it is important that these matters that occurred in the public space, in the media, that they be dealt with in another way. We believe there were issues that could have been dealt with internally, without this question of writing letters here and there,” said Harmon, who related that the matter was raised at Cabinet.