ASP gets injunction against PSC

The injunction was granted by Justice Lennox Deyalsingh at the Port-of-Spain Tenth Civil Court and the matter was set for trial on October 11.

According to Graham’s attorney Anand Ramlogan, his client was one of, if not the most qualified police officer in the service, and had been bypassed for promotion on several occasions since his promotion to his current office in April 1991.

He said two other inspectors — Oswyn Allard and Frank Diaz — had been promoted to the same position. However, Ramlogan said, their appointments, unlike Graham’s, were made retroactive to erode Graham’s seniority since seniority was calculated from the date of promotion to the higher office.

The attorney said his client had been given three “exceptional” performance appraisals for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005 by Deputy CoP in charge of Strategic Planning and Development Glen Roach in April.

However, when he (Graham) met with CoP Trevor Paul on July 13, he was asked to sign three different appraisals which he (Paul) claimed had been the same appraisals prepared by Roach, Ramlogan said.

The attorney argued that the two controversial positions — Deputy CoP in charge of Crime and Operations and Crime and Intelligence — had been vacant since 2004. He said the second position had been created since September 2004 but was never formalised.

Attorney for the PSC Rachel Thurab contended that preventing the vacancies from being filled would not be in the public’s best interest given the current escalation in violent crimes. She also argued that the injunction would affect a third party — other applicants for the positions.

According to Thurab, the job specifications were being worked on and the positions would be advertised. She added that Graham’s application was premature and he was free to apply when the advertisements were published.

Thurab said the position for Deputy CoP in charge of Crime and Operations had been filled by Allard, who left the post vacant when he was assigned to a foreign attachment. Seniority played less of a role than merit and experience in the selection process, the attorney said, adding that an attempt to stymie the operations of the Police Service for one person was unfair.

Thurab said Graham’s promotion had been backdated to 2002, and to go further than that would be a bit difficult.

Justice Deyalsingh granted the injunction, however, adding that the positions would not be filled within the next two months anyway.

Attorneys Grace Jankie and Karen Reid appeared with Thurab for the PSC.