Updated: Government should stop promotions abuse in police force - MLP

(Government's reply added)

It was the sacrosanct duty of the government to stop abuses in the police force immediately, even in view of pending legal procedures, MLP deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia and spokesman for Home Affairs Michael Falzon said in a statement.

They said that after legal action was initiated against the authorities in view of injustices that were likely to take place in the award of promotions, the government should ensure that such injustices were not carried out.

The police force, they said, was part of the tools used to implement justice and injustices in the award of promotions could not be allowed.

Whenever promotions were to be given, the merits of all involved should be considered. It was obvious that this was not being done, especially in the award of promotions for assistant commissioners.

It was the government’s duty to stop injustices immediately, they said.

They reiterated the Labour Party offer of assistance and support to all police officers involved.

In its reply, the government said that the selection process for assistant commissioners was carried out on the basis of merit folliowing an internal call by a purposely nominated board.

It said that the process was pending in view of the legal procedures which had been taken in Court by one of the applications.

The government said it would be premature to arrive at conclusions before the process was fully concluded. It said that contrary to what used to be done in the past, the selection of assistant commissioners was not done by a direct order but by a selection board which followed transparent procedures based on rigorously and purposely established regulations by the Public Service Commission.