Former Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee has taken Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud to task over claims that he, Rohee, allegedly stymied the training process of police ranks while he served as Minister under the People’s Progressive Party government.
Mr. Rohee denied that he ducked applications for overseas training of ranks and called on Persaud, who was promoted and served as Commissioner under him, to publish the full details of all ranks who were denied training.
Rohee said the claims are totally inaccurate and explained that at one point the Ministry was sending police and other security ranks for training abroad but had failed to publicize it.
The former Minister also heaped fault on the Police Force who he said was late in submitting information to the Ministry for approval.
Rohee said all public servants traveling abroad needed Cabinet Approval. He further explained that because of the lateness of the Police Force, sometimes, in submitting the relevant documentation to Cabinet, ranks were not able to take advantage of the foreign funded training programmes. He also noted that there was also a chain of command at his former Ministry and ducking applications would have been impossible without collusion between himself and the Permanent Secretary
“Would the PS collude with me to do so?” Rohee questioned. Angela Johnson, who served at P.S under Rohee for several years died last year.
Rohee refused to comment on the type of relationship that existed between himself and Persaud during his time at the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The criticisms flowed from the Police Commissioner after Rohee praised the work of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The Commissioner responded by accusing Rohee of denying ranks valuable training that was needed within the force for a while now.
Since the change in government last year, members of the Police Force, the military and Prison Service have gone on several overseas training programmes.
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