As ques­tions con­tin­ue to swirl re­gard­ing the se­lec­tion of Snr Supt Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro as the top-ranked can­di­date for the post of Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP), a for­mer Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC) com­mis­sion­er says there were sev­er­al fac­tors to con­sid­er.

How­ev­er, at­tor­ney Mar­tin George said yes­ter­day it is now crit­i­cal for the PolSc to ex­plain the process used in the se­lec­tion.

“It would be in­ter­est­ing to see the cri­te­ria and the in­di­cia which the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion re­lied up­on, to ar­rive at these de­ci­sions. There are guide­lines and there are pro­ce­dures and pro­to­cols in place, where­by one is sup­posed to car­ry out this as­sess­ment ex­er­cise,” George said in a tele­phone in­ter­view.

He said this in­clud­ed a thor­ough and de­tailed look in­to all can­di­dates, in­clud­ing their phys­i­cal well-be­ing, fit­ness for of­fice and past per­for­mance.

“If it is that they do meet the stan­dard and thresh­old, of course, you rank and grade them ac­cord­ing­ly,” George said, adding, “It would def­i­nite­ly be worth­while to see how the PolSC ar­rived at these de­ci­sions, but un­less and un­til we are able to see so, it is dif­fi­cult to say yay or nay in re­la­tion to ei­ther of the can­di­dates they have pro­posed.”

As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (ACP) Wayne Mys­tar has al­so been nom­i­nat­ed for the Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice post. Both po­si­tions will be de­bat­ed up­on in Par­lia­ment to­mor­row.

Asked about Gue­var­ro be­ing one of the less­er-known can­di­dates, George said that was not a dis­qual­i­fy­ing fac­tor.

“The re­al­i­ty is we have to look at his track record and how he per­formed in the ap­praisal ex­er­cis­es which would have been con­duct­ed by the PolSC. We re­al­ly need to look at the scores and see how he was grad­ed, ranked and in what cat­e­gories he would have ex­celled be­fore mak­ing any de­ter­mi­na­tion on his fit­ness and suit­abil­i­ty for of­fice.”

The process of rec­om­mend­ing a can­di­date usu­al­ly starts with the PolSC sub­mit­ting the name of the first-ranked can­di­date on the mer­it list to the Pres­i­dent, who then for­wards it to the Par­lia­ment to be de­bat­ed.

If the num­ber one can­di­date is re­ject­ed in the de­bate, the same process is fol­lowed with the sec­ond-ranked can­di­date, and this will fol­low un­til a can­di­date is de­bat­ed and ac­cept­ed.

The PolSC did not pro­vide a mer­it list­ing. How­ev­er, Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands it in­clud­ed cur­rent act­ing CoP Ju­nior Ben­jamin; Gue­var­ro, ACP Mys­tar; act­ing DCP Curt Si­mon; DCP Suzette Mar­tin; ACP Anand Rame­sar; Snr Supt Clint Arthur; Snr Supt Sub­has Ramkhelawan; for­mer ACP Joseph Chan­dool; ACP Ter­rence Pierre; and Lt Colonel Shel­don Ra­manan.

George said there were now ques­tions about where Ben­jamin ranked and if and why the PolSC, “did not even con­sid­er putting his name for­ward.”

He al­so point­ed to Suzette Mar­tin, who cur­rent­ly oc­cu­pies the post of DCP, In­tel­li­gence and In­ves­ti­ga­tions.

“She has been much in the pub­lic spot­light so, of course, ques­tions would be asked in terms of these oth­er of­fi­cers and it would be quite good to hear from the PolSC as to how these of­fi­cers al­so scored and per­formed in their rank­ings.”

George re­mind­ed the PolSC of the 1936 rul­ing by the Privy Coun­cil in Am­bard vs the AG, where Lord Atkins said, “Jus­tice must not be a clois­tered virtue, and it must sub­ject it­self to scruti­ny of or­di­nary men.”

In this case, George added, “I would like to rec­om­mend that to the PolSC.”