2 weeks ago
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President of the Public Service Union (PSU) Dean Flowers is calling on the newly installed CEO for Home Affairs, Elton Bennett to probe into the circumstances surrounding the interdiction of Police Constable Barrington Flowers. PSU’s President says it remains a mystery as to why the constable was initially placed on interdiction in September with half pay, and then later given full pay on interdiction. It was in September that PC Flowers was notified of his interdiction with half pay. A few weeks later, in October, he was notified that he would be receiving a full salary and reimbursed the monies taken in the previous weeks. According to the PSU President, CEO Bennett would be the only hope to rectify what he says are extremely questionable administrative decisions.
Dean Flowers, President, PSU: “He has a human task and the first thing as CEO he should be asking himself, well I’m pretty quite sure he would have taken the time already to familiarize himself with the Security Services Regulation to ask himself how in the world can the Commissioner of Police put an officer who, he’s on interdiction, on full pay ? He is getting full pay in accordance with what we saw coming out of the commissioner’s office while on interdiction and where the DPP might be getting ready to impose criminal charges on him. The Commissioner of Police, unless it’s like the former Minister of Police who said “I answer to the prime minister I don’t answer to no CEO.” So I don’t know and that’s why I don’t take some of these appointments too serious because the character of these people will be tested when they start challenging the system and calling out the corrupt actors. And so I have not, I don’t know how he has settled in, but I am hoping that through him the Belizean people will get justice. Because I can tell you, through the minister, that’s another joke, because we saw the state in which he had BDF officers in for the term that he and a former commandant and a former senior soldier was at the helm of our national defense. So I have no faith there. My faith is definitely in Mr. Bennett and I’m hoping that he will do better than his predecessors, much better because I don’t know that his predecessors did anything much to really improve law and order in this country and to the hold the police department accountable for some of the poor decision making and quite frankly the poor management of the ministry in and of itself.”
In September last year, the then Acting Commissioner of Police, Bart Jones, confirmed to the media that it was his decision to place Flowers on interdiction. He says the constable was the only person on video footage that was positively identified.
English (US) ·