PRINCIPAL Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus, on Friday, released the suspended Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Paul Slowe on a combined total of $325,000 bail for two separate charges of sexual assault and conspiracy to defraud the Guyana Police Force (GPF) over $10 million.

Slowe was arraigned at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court following a summons for his appearance.

He was first expected to appear in court back in May, however, it is believed Slowe was not in the jurisdiction and was instead charged in absentia.

A number of senior persons connected to the Guyana Police Force were also charged for a similar offense in May 2021. Those persons include retired Assistant Commissioner, Clinton Conway; current Assistant Commissioner, Royston Andries-Junor; Assistant Commissioner, Claude Whittaker; Senior Superintendent, George Fraser; Superintendent, Mark Gilbert; Assistant Superintendent, Marlon Kellman; Woman Senior Superintendent, Marcelene Washington; and retired Senior Superintendent, Michael Sutton.

The particulars of the charge allege that Slowe together with Conway, Whittaker, Fraser, Gilbert, Andries-Junor, Washington, Sutton, and Kellman, between March 1, 2019, and July 7, 2020, at the GPF Headquarters, conspired to defraud the Force of $10,056,000 by paying Slowe, Conway, Whittaker, Fraser and Gilbert, the said sum, without complying with the proper procedures.

Slowe was not required to enter a plea to the indictable charge and was released on $100,000 bail.

FRAUD INVESTIGATION

The charge was laid after an investigation by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) which revealed that former Commissioner of Police, Leslie James, unilaterally hired Conway, Whittaker, Gilbert and Fraser, all former GPF officers, to conduct a complete revision of the force’s Standing Orders in March 2019.

SOCU is alleging that James made no contractual agreements, with specifications, of what was to be revised, and the terms of payments, and also that he did not prepare a budget for the service that was being rendered.

Further, SOCU posits that seeing that the payment was in excess of $10M, it should have been budgeted for, and sent to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) for approval; however, James never sought nor received approval from the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Security nor the NPTAB.

SOCU is contending that the same Standing Orders James hired the ex-officers to revise had already been revised “by highly qualified and competent policy analysts” of the Strategic Planning Unit of the GPF. It was also discovered during the said SOCU investigation that while the enormous sum of money was paid to the former police officers, they are yet to provide the force with a completed revised Standing Order.

The probe found that from March 2019, payment accounts were prepared upon the instruction of the then-Head of the Strategic Planning Unit (SPU), Assistant Commissioner Royston Andries-Junor, and when he was transferred to the force’s Public Relations Department in November 2019, he allegedly instructed his successor to continue making the payments, which was done until February 2020.

SEXUAL ASSAULT

Slowe was also slapped with three counts of sexual assault which read that between March 26 and April 2, 2019, at Police Headquarters, Eve Leary, he allegedly touched the victim in a sexual way by rubbing her left leg and foot without her consent.

He was not required to plead to the charges and was released on a total of $225,000.

Slowe was represented by attorneys-at-law Selwyn Pieters and Patrice Henry.