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It was only a human error says NPC Chief
Following are excerpts from the interview held with the Police Commission Chairman Ranjith Abeysuriya:

Q: Do you admit that there was a lapse on the part of the Commission?
A. Yes.

Q: Could you state why these lapse arose ?
A. Due to human error. I am honest enough to admit it. This was only where a few cases were concerned.

Q: Could you specify ?
A. There were seven cases where top rank promotions were involved. This is a lapse on our part. But no one who had serious blemishes were promoted, including Ajith Devapriya Samarakoon.

Q: You stated that Ajith Devapriya Samarakoon was put in the reserve list to be promoted from IP to CI. How is it that a criminal serving a death sentence could be on the reserve list ?
A. This is a lapse owing to incorrect information by the police who were asked to send the latest records.

Q: There are allegations by the police that you had rushed through the confirmation of names within two days. Do you have any comments?
A. There was no question of rushing through. The names of these officers with their seniority and track record were sent to the police commission twice. First in the month of April and then May. Finally when we insisted that the details be authenticated we got the lists from the police headquarters on the 26th. By the 29th we had finalised the list because we were already familiar with the names.

Q: Were you also familiar with the blemishes of the officers ?
A. Yes.

Q: Did the first two lists have the same blemishes against the officers as in the final draft ?
A: Yes. Most of the cases against them were human rights violations.

Q: Were there any discussions with the IGP with regard to the promotion issue before the names were confirmed ?
A. Yes. There were three rounds of discussions where the IGP informed me that he was not satisfied with the one off promotion scheme the commission had formulated (which gives equal prominence to merit as well as seniority) as he felt the police force had to have a stable background. He felt that owing to the war, the history of insurgencies and the unrest in the country had put the police force on a paramilitary footing and as such did not give the police an opportunity to display much merit. I respected and agreed with his viewpoint but did not venture to rectify the stand that the police commission had taken.

Q: Could you explain how the Police Commission planned to effect the promotions ?
A. The Police Commission was entrusted with the task of filling some 4,000 vacancies in the police force. The vacancies had remained unfilled for more than ten years.

The Police Commission had drafted a set of recommendations for a 'one off provisional promotion scheme' which was approved by the Supreme Court.
The scheme was especially formulated as a temporary scheme to deal with the backlog of promotions into which was included the provision of 450 promotions according to a court order.

Q: Was the IGP made fully aware by the Commission about the promotions and the details required to effect it?
A. Yes, the IGP was made fully aware.

Q: You state that you were under pressure to fill the vacancies. Was there any kind of time frame that you had to adhere to or any political pressure that you had to face ?
A. No. But we have been trying to finalise the promotions since last year since we were aware that there was a lot of frustration owing to stagnated promotions.

Q: Was there any specific reason you needed to compromise on the final quality of the selections made for promotion ?
A. No. There was no specific reason but the fact that we were keen to grant the promotions as quickly as possible.

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