CHAIRMAN of the Police Service Commission, (Rtd) Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Slowe said that he has advised the administration of the Guyana Police Force not to send matters of a disciplinary nature which involve inspectors or officers of the force to the Public Security Ministry.

He made the disclosure during an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Wednesday at his Kingston Office. He said while representing the PSC during a recent engagement with the administration of the force he made the plea. According to Slowe, the Police Service Commission, which is a constitutional body, is the legal body to address matters of a disciplinary nature once it involves Inspectors and Officers of the force.

Slowe pointed out that upon assumption of office, the now constituted commission found that in the past a number of files were first sent to the ministry before making its way to the service commission and that is not the correct procedure. He further stated that such practice adds to the bureaucracy and lengthy delay in a number of matters being dealt with in a timely matter by the Police Service Commission. “Don’t send it to anyone else; don’t send it to the ministry, we have said to them they are not to go to the ministry, they must come straight to the commission and we will make the decision as to how the matters, disciplinary especially, the constitution says the commission should deal with it. Cut out the bureaucracy and let it come to the commission and the commission will then advise itself and the relevant other agencies, and then we [will move] on with it and once that process is followed, then the unusually lengthy delays will be eliminated” Paul Slowe explained.

Since being reconstituted, Slowe said the first order of business was to address the issue of recommendations for Commissioner of Police and Deputy Commissioners of Police, which has since been cleared out of the way. That was followed by the commission meeting and addressing issues which have been pending since 2013. Slowe said it is the intention of the commission to ensure that all pending matters are cleared up and sent back to the police administration so that the business of year- end promotion can be smoothly conducted.
He stressed that there were mainly two categories of matters which they have been dealing with since taking office and those were matters which the former commission ordered tribunal investigations and the others had to do with matters which came for the commission’s attention while the commission was not constituted. According to Slowe, all the matters which were dealt with by tribunals and sent back to the commission for action have been addressed and the necessary memos sent to the administration of the force where the decision of the commission on the way forward with respect to action has been communicated.