Police upgrading deal
threatens to go sour
~ Unions demand answers of Justice Minister ~
PHILIPSBURG--Civil Servants Union ABVO is demanding an explanation from Justice Minister David Dick why, against the terms of the Win-Win Agreement (WWA) signed on March 31, the new turnaround manager to help upgrade the Police Force of St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius has received epaulettes indicating he has been appointed in the rank of Police Chief Commissioner.
In a May 6 letter to the Dick the union stated that the Minister had a deadline of May 12 to answer. According to the WWA, the turnaround manager would not be appointed to a rank higher than the current acting head of the Police Force, who has the rank of Police Commissioner.
Dick, in an invited comment, rejected the allegations as being untrue. He said the rank of Police Chief Commissioner did not exist within the new legal structure of the Police Force.
“Persons of bad faith have been feeding the union with wrong information. After the process of reorganising the Police Force, the rank of Police Chief Commissioner was eliminated. Only some officers who already had such a rank under the old legal structure were allowed to wear epaulettes indicating they were Police Chief Commissioners, but in reality they did not have that rank because it does not exist,” Dick said.
However, ABVO president Roland Ignacio said the union understood from well-placed sources that turnaround manager Ronald Dongor had receive epaulettes of a Police Chief Commissioner, making the situation seem very “fishy.”
The union had already posed questions on the matter to Dick in an April 21 letter and still has not received an answer. “We want the Minister to be very transparent in his answering, because not answering will only cause suspicion and unrest within the Police Force,” Ignacio said.
He said the union had started to wonder whether Dick had been telling the entire truth and if the Minister might have signed another deal with Dongor besides the WWA. “We want to know also what arrangements for housing he made with Dongor, as these types of arrangements have become a major problem within the Police Force.”
Ignacio continued: “It seems as if the Minister has a hidden agenda, but we of the union hope that all who co-signed the agreement will live up to it and stand by the philosophy on which the WWA is based.” He stressed that, based on the WWA, the level of security in St. Maarten had been increased, the tension within the Police Force had eased and the turnaround process had commenced.
“The citizens of the Windward Islands were proud of the way all parties involved, including the Lt. Governors of the three islands, negotiated this agreement. But if the Minister has a hidden agenda, resistance to the WWA will build up within the Police Force and ABVO will not be responsible for the consequences.”
Furthermore, Ignacio said ABVO had information that Dick planned to fill vacancies in the General Affairs Department and Judicial Department of the Police Force without deliberating with the union first.
Also the fact that Trudy Hassell resigned has created another vacancy with police management ranks, as Police Commissioner Ademar Doran was given other tasks after Hassell arrived on the island, Ignacio said.
He concluded by saying he hoped the Minister didn’t plan to keep possible other agreements with Dongor a secret until after his first day of work.
