Dear Editor,

IT is utterly appalling, that in spite of all of the evils with which our society is confronted, as a consequence of the aberrant acts being committed frequently by sexual deviants in Guyana, with the more recent one being the molestation and murder in Berbice, that the Georgetown municipality would continue to keep a constable who was accused of sexually molesting a minor, on the job, in uniform and seized with the power of a law enforcement officer.

Granted it is an allegation that has been made against this constable by one of his colleagues and the alleged victim at this time, and one has to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, but it must be noted that this constable was charged before with similar immoral acts and was dismissed, only to be brought back to the Constabulary by a senior political official, with whom this constable is well known to be a friend, running errands for them including paying their utility bills and purchasing their lunch. This is cronyism at its best.

Why were the national police not called in to investigate this matter as they were the last time around? It is unprincipled and lacking in transparency for the Council to investigate this matter about one of their own, particularly with frequent accusations of favouritism being levelled against them by members of the public.
Has the Council’s human resources manager not heard of interdictions, which refers to a temporary removal of an officer from performing his or her normal duties when disciplinary proceedings for his/her dismissal are being undertaken, or are about to be undertaken? Does the HR Manager not know that interdictions can also take place on the grounds that criminal charges are pending? Or is this individual who has been on the job more than a month now since the alleged incident occurred, protected and above the law.

Is the Council waiting until something fatal occurs before becoming serious about the lawless actions of some of its officials? How long will the investigation into this particular incident take to be completed? Until the next Local Government elections in 2018? All of the persons at the Council responsible for having this constable remain on the job should be sent home as well. The silence by religious leaders and their many church pals who are employed at the Council is nauseating.
The municipality should know that if they they turn a blind eye to sexual predators, if they have accustomed their staff to getting away with criminal acts against our citizens, they are making it more likely that they will go on to commit more serious crimes. That is why we have so much disorder in Georgetown. It is such a disgrace

Regards
Debra Gibson