The police force on Tuesday announced that it has invoked disciplinary action against three of its own who participated in a training workshop without permission from the force’s administration.
The workshop was hosted by Director of the Confidential Investigation Bureau in New Amsterdam, Robert Gates who was named in a wanted bulletin issued back in July for allegedly obtaining by false pretence.
The police statement, however, did not name Gates but referred to an article in the Stabroek News published on Thursday, August 17 captioned, ”Private eye accuses police of vindictively issuing bulletin for him.”
In that article Gates referred to the bulletin which was issued for him and explained what led to the charges laid against him.
He said he found it strange that the police had issued a wanted bulletin as he was convinced the lawmen knew where to find him.
He pointed out that he could have been easily found by the lawmen since he had been conducting a workshop every Saturday since July 5 at the Hotel Tower on intelligence gathering. Moreover, an inspector and two sergeants were among the workshop participants.
The police said in the release on Tuesday that the three officers had attended the workshop of their own accord. The statement added that it is a policy of the force for any serving rank desirous of participating in any form of training outside of the organization to get the written approval of the force’s administration.
It noted too that none of the ranks in question had sought permission and so the administration had invoked disciplinary action.
Gates had contended that he was targeted following comments he made on an NCN Channel 11 programme when he criticized police intelligence gathering and stated that there is a lack of public confidence in the force.
The police had said he was wanted for allegedly obtaining by false pretence. But he stated that he was an employee of Central Import and Export which had borrowed money from a number of persons. While some had been repaid others were not as the business had collapsed. He said a report was made to the police and he was called in and he gave a statement in the presence of his lawyer since last December. He heard nothing from the police since that time until he saw the wanted bulletin in the newspapers.
He was later placed before the courts and was granted $425,000 bail on false pretence charges.
