Chief Inspectors protest at grads going over them

By Chris Kamalendran

The Government’s proposal to recruit graduates directly as Assistant Superintendents of Police (ASPs) has been strongly opposed by Inspectors who claim that as many as 6000 officers’ promotions may be held up,

The Inspectors Association’s president Chief Inspector Dale Gunaratne told The Sunday Times that the Association will meet Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on Thursday to discuss the issue and put forward its own proposals to grant promotions to those officers who have been affected.

He said that if the scheme was implemented it would prevent any of the current serving chief inspectors of reaching the rank of a Deputy Inspector General of Police as they would have to retire before they were eligible for the post.

He said that during the past eight years similar recruitment schemes have been carried out and as a result promotions of chief inspectors were held back forcing some of the officers to retire without getting any promotion.

Chief Inspector Gunaratne said under the new scheme 17 graduates were to be taken is as Probationary ASPs and as a result some of the ASP posts which fall vacant this year due to retirements would be filled by the new recruits. During the year some 25 ASPs are due to retire.

“As the officers get in as ASPs they will move up faster than the Chief Inspectors who have been in service more than 20 to 25 years”, he said.

One of the recommendations put forward by the Association is that Sub-Inspectors who complete eight years of unblemished service may be promoted to the rank of IP overruling the examination process and similarly Inspectors who complete four years of service in the rank and count an unblemished service of 12 years as an Inspector be promoted as a Chief Inspector.

It has also been suggested that 75 Chief Inspectors be promoted to the rank of ASPs each year.

The Association also calls for a halt to recruiting graduates directly to the rank of ASPs, until the present stagnation problem is completely resolved, but instead recruit graduates as Inspectors. Another suggestion has been that to create an attractive premature Voluntary Retirement Scheme for inspectors who complete 20 years of unblemished service.

Introducing a ‘maximum duration of service in one rank’ was another proposal made by the Association. Chairman of the National Police Commission Nevile Piyadigama reacting to the allegations said only 25 per cent of the requirement of ASPs would be filled by graduates while the others would be from officers already in service.

He said that therefore injustice would not be done to the officers serving currently.