Cops query qualifying marks for promotion 2

FIRST Division police officers are querying a decision by acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams to apply a qualifying mark in promotion exams.

At a recent briefing with First Division Officers, the Acting Commissioner revealed that officers will be required to score above 50 percent in their promotion exams to move to the second phase of the promotion exercise. Officers are expected to write the first phase of the exam in four weeks time.

However, the officers are claiming that this move by the Commissioner is not what the Police Service Act provides and that his decision will generate legal action if it is not removed. On Monday, the Police Social and Welfare Association wrote Williams after receiving complaints from the membership of the First Division. Association secretary ASP Anand Ramesar confirmed that the association’s president Inspector Michael Seales despatched the letter to the Acting CoP as a result of the complaints. He said the association’s position was outlined in the letter and speaks to a recent judgement.

“While we acknowledge that the Acting CoP has interests in promoting the most competent officers available to him, the process does not allow him to put a qualifying mark in the process. What we understand from a High Court judgement is that the top performers will be allowed to go forward and the top performers should be determined after exams have been delivered, and that is the criteria for moving to the second stage. The decision by the Acting CoP was unilateral and did not include consultation with the Association and we agree with the complaints of the membership,” Ramesar said.

Newsday obtained a copy of the letter sent to the Commissioner in which ASP Seales noted: “The issue for members combined are their interpretation of the instant judgement and your comments: where it relates to the written stage of the promotional process. Members have taken umbrage to your comment (a fifty (50) mark threshold before proceeding to the second stage). “The Association has perused the judgement and is satisfied that the language suggest that the top performing candidates are the ones to proceed to the second stage of the promotional assessment and thereafter to be short listed on the order of merit list. It is in this regard the matter should be made clear to our members that they must fall within that category of the ‘top performing candidates’ to proceed to the second stage, the determination of which has been elucidated by the court.”