Dillon says Forensic Centre understaffed

The Ministry of National Security is not “fully” satisfied that the Forensic Science Centre (FSC) , St James is adequately staffed and has asked the Director of Personnel Administration to fill additional posts says National Security Minister Edmund Dillon.

While there are vacancies, he said, the firearm testing area is not one of them.

Asked at yesterday’s meeting of the Standing Finance Committee in the Parliament if the $1.8 million allocated for salaries for monthly staff at the FSC was sufficient given that there seems to be a bottleneck in the crime solving area, Dillon said, the estimated sum does not cover forensic pathologists.

The sum allocated for contract employment is $4 million, which Finance Minister Colm Imbert said, means, “This will employ more people than last year.” The sum allocated for contract employment last year was $3.7 million.

The other sum of $1.8 million, Dillon said, covers the scientific staff that deals with forensic, ballistic and chemical tests and such, he said. The positions of pathologists attached to the Forensic Science Centre are filled by contract.

On the vacancy left by the departure of pathologist Valeri Alexandrov, Dillon said, Government was “treating with the replacement.”