Drug, polygraph tests planned for protective services

PUBLIC watchdogs in sensitive roles such as police officers could soon be subject to mandatory drug-testing and polygraph-testing and may be required to submit their biometric details under a new bill laid in the House of Representatives recently by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi.

The Police, Defence, Prison, Fire Service, Civil Service, Financial Intelligence Unit, and Judicial and Legal Service Acts will be amended by the Miscellaneous Provisions (Testing and Identification) Bill 2022. The bill needs a three-fifths majority, as it breaches the Constitution.

On top of the protective services, the bill covers state attorneys/legal officers plus public officers who monitor financial affairs such as customs and tax officers, plus transport officials. It applies to existing officers in various state units plus experts/consultants, contracted staff and new job applicants.

The bill's explanatory notes say it is restricted to "specified circumstances such as where the officer performs any intelligence or counter-intelligence functions, where the officer is assigned to a section, unit, department or division where top secret, secret, confidential or sensitive information is accessed, processed or stored or where there is a reasonable suspicion that the officer is suspected of or involved in misconduct in relation to an ongoing investigation by law enforcement into the commission of a serious criminal offence."

The bill empowers heads of departments in the protective services, the Judicial and Legal Service, and the Civil Service to mandate certain of their officers "to submit to polygraph or any other lie-detecting tests, drug tests and the collection of their biometric information for the purposes of integrity testing."

Across the protective services, the bill empowers the Commissioner of Prisons, Chief of Defence Staff, Commissioner of Police, Chief Fire Officer and Director of FIU.

In the Public Service, the bill empowers the Comptroller of Customs and Excise, Chief Immigration Officer, chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue, and Registrar General (but perhaps inadvertently did not list the Transport Commissioner.) These heads are also empowered to scrutinise the law/legal officers in their units, as the bill amends the Judicial and Legal Services Act.

The bill amends the Civil Service Act by letting a head of department order an officer of these divisions or the Transport Division to submit a "(i) polygraph or any other lie-detecting tests; (ii) drug tests; and (iii) the collection of biometric information."

For all types of public officer, the bill lists the conditions under which he may be required to submit to the three forms of scrutiny.

These are basically firstly, where an officer is in a sensitive post, is suspected of committing an offence, has access to secret information, has killed or injured someone, or is close to someone charged with an offence involving dangerous drugs, terrorism or human trafficking.