Jagdeo supports diversity policy but denies instructing Police to implement it

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo today rubbished a lawsuit by embattled Assistant Commissioner of Police, Calvin Brutus over a reported Diversity Policy that has been put into force in the Guyana Police Force on the direction of the Vice President.

Mr. Jagdeo called the lawsuit a “publicity stunt”.

Last week, Mr. Brutus filed a $1.6 Billion lawsuit against the Government over the Diversity Policy, which he described as discriminatory.

In the lawsuit, Brutus detailed that at a meeting with the top brass of the Police Force in 2020, a directive was given by the Vice President that the structure of the Police Force should mirror the ethnic composition of the country’s population.

At a press conference today, Mr. Jagdeo said he cannot recall meeting with the Commissioner of Police on any such issue. He said that it appears as though the Assistant Commissioner of Police, who is facing over 200 fraud charges in the Courts, is now making all types of statements to rally support.

“So first of all there has been no such a directive, I never met with the Commissioner of Police and I never asked him to replace Brutus as head of Admin, but I spoke with a number of my colleagues about what was being discovered and what people were coming to tell me about and this was not Indo-Guyanese, large number of people kept coming to me and saying we cannot be paid, even mechanic were saying to me they (the police) owe me for 150 vehicles that I repaired in the last three and did not receive a single cent from them and there was no money and there were lots of other complaints of that nature,” the Vice President said.

The Vice President said it is dangerous for Mr. Brutus to say he was racially discriminated by his removal as Head of the Force’s Administration Department, just before the fraud accusations surfaced.

He said the complaints against Mr. Brutus by persons providing services to the Guyana Police Force were insurmountable. But Mr. Jagdeo said it is not a bad thing to have the diversity of the country being reflected in institutions across the country.

***Assistant Commissioner of Police Calvin Brutus***

“The merit of it I think is zero, so first of all there is a claim that somewhere along the line the PPP said, we would like to see diversity in all of our institutions and across the country and I support that, and we have been open about it, we have spoken about having diversity that reflects the people of our country in our institutions including in our political party, the People’s Progressive Party,” Mr. Jagdeo said today.

Mr. Jagdeo said he and his government have no apology for Brutus’ removal as the Head of Administration of the Police Force.

He said Brutus was not a clean or upstanding officer, and read a long-list of charges that Mr. Brutus is facing.

“These are the charges, there are lots of them he has to answer to and he will get a chance to answer in court, but this had nothing to do with race, absolutely nothing that he is now trying to make, in this environment he is now trying to accuse the PPP of racial discrimination, now who did not benefit from these things that were paid for, it’s the policemen,” Mr. Jagdeo stated.

In his lawsuit Brutus stated that a number of Police Officers who are Indo-Guyanese have been placed in positions above their more qualified and experienced colleagues who are not Indo-Guyanese.