Greene to be given marching orders if he doesn’t resign - Govt. official
Henry Greene
The Guyana government will remove embattled Police Commissioner Henry Greene out of office if he refuses to resign, a top government source said yesterday.
But the decision to fire Greene or have him resign could involve him returning to his Eve Leary, Kingston headquarters.
If that happens, the source said Greene will only be there for a “brief” period, possibly a week, to allow for the installation of a new Commissioner.
“You cannot just fire the Commissioner; there are constitutional provisions that have to be followed to allow for a transition,” the well placed source told this newspaper.
Kaieteur News understands that before leaving for the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, President Donald Ramotar asked Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon to “talk” to Greene, mainly to ask him to clear out his office.
But if he doesn’t walk on his own, the source said he will be given marching orders, as the government has no intention of keeping him in office.
Articles 211(4) and 225 of the constitution prescribe the procedure for the removal from office of the Commissioner for misbehavior.
If the government wants to remove the Commissioner for misbehavior, it has to appoint a tribunal to make such a recommendation.
The President has to appoint a tribunal which shall consist of a Chairman and not less than two other members, namely highly qualified judges. The members would be named after consultation with the Judicial Service Commission.
The President has the power to suspend the Commissioner from office while the tribunal carries out its work.
If such a tribunal is set up and makes the recommendation for Greene to be removed from office, the President is constitutionally bound to consult with the Opposition Leader before appointing a new Commissioner.
Greene had moved to the High Court to challenge a recommendation by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) that he be charged with rape. The Chief Justice ruled in Greene’s favour, saying the charge would not stand a chance of success in the courts.
But opposition political parties, human rights groups and at least one government minister, has asked the Top Cop to vacate his post given that he admitted to having sex with the woman at the centre of the scandal.
Whatever the outcome, it would be an embarrassing end to Greene’s almost four-decade long career with the Guyana Police Force.
He was named Police Commissioner on July 24, 2006 when then Commissioner of Police Mr. Winston Felix, proceeded on pre-retirement leave.
Greene is the ninth national of Guyana to command the Force since its establishment on July 1, 1839.
The woman in the scandal has claimed she was raped, but the Commissioner has insisted that the sex was consensual.
Following an investigation by local and Jamaican detectives, the DPP recommended that Mr. Greene be charged with rape.
The Transparency Institute of Guyana has said Greene is unfit to hold high or any public office and called on him to resign immediately.
“Regardless of whether this sexual encounter was consensual or not, it violates the minimum standards of professionalism and integrity required of any member of law enforcement and certainly that required of the Commissioner,” the human rights watchdog said in a strongly worded statement condemning Mr. Greene’s behavior.
In December last year, a 34-year-old mother of two claimed that she was forced into a city hotel and raped by Greene. She said they first met on November 15, 2011, when she went to meet the Top Cop to enquire about the status of an investigation regarding her.
She said that in the process of the investigations, the Police had taken possession of her mobile phone and she wanted to recover the phone.
The woman claimed that Greene told her to meet him on November 22 to uplift the phone and afterwards he offered her a ride home.
However, she alleged that she was driven to a city hotel where the Commissioner pulled out a gun and waved it at her, causing her to be afraid.
At this point, she said she reluctantly exited the vehicle after Greene made a strange demand.
In a statement he made to investigators, Greene said that when the woman came to meet him at Police Headquarters on November 22 last and it was upon her insistence that they meet “socially” that they ended up at a villa and had sex.
The Top Cop has claimed that he did not have a gun in his possession at the time.