Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan Friday registered his disappointment that former Head of the SWAT Unit Motie Dookie was removed from active duty and sent on administrative leave.
Ramjattan told reporters that he would have preferred if Dookie had remained on the job despite his unresolved involvement in the smuggling of alcohol into the country.
While Ramjattan was out of the country recently, Dookie was sent on administrative leave by Citizenship Minister Winston Felix who was at the time performing the duties of Public Security Minister.
Ramjattan had defended Dookie’s reshuffling from the SWAT Unit to a senior position in the Police Force’s ‘A’ Division but he said on Friday that he has no intention to reverse the decision by Felix.
At an AFC press conference today, Ramjattan did say that even if it meant posting Dookie to the Canine division, he would have preferred if he remained on the job.
“I would have preferred him working. Now he is not working but he is being paid,” he said.
Ramjattan said there is currently a need for senior officers in the force, on active duty, notwithstanding their indiscretion.
According to the Public Security Minister, because of retirement and the removal of several other senior officers from the force, the GPF is left with a leadership which is limited.
Ramjattan said he has no intention to remove other ranks from the force who has pending matters before them.
He prefers to await the constitution of the new Police Service Commission which will deal with disciplinary matters against the implicated ranks.
Back in December 2017, Dookie was intercepted in a vehicle with a large amount of smuggled whiskey at a police roadblock in front of the Whim Police Station.
Dookie, who was invited into the Police s=Station on the night the bust was made, reportedly told his juniors that the vehicle was ferrying ten cases of whiskey for the Guyana Police Force Old Year’s Night Ball but it turned out to be a lie.
