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ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s police chief has received this third service extension, however the transfer by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to retain Chandana Wickramaratne additionally underscores the intense management disaster within the 157-year-old group.
Granting one other extension to Inspector-Common Wickramaratne seems to be an affront to these appalled by the crime wave gripping the nation, however not many know that the police chief has completely no disciplinary management over his officers due to the latest bureaucratic layer that has wrested the police chief’s powers.
Whereas it’s pure to carry the top of the police answerable for the prevailing pathetic state of regulation and order, the deepening disaster is a direct results of institutionally subverting the command-and-control construction, the Police Fee.
No Motion Towards Officers Coming Below Police Fee
“The Police Fee, which was meant to guard officers from politically motivated actions and transfers, could have ended up insulating them from any disciplinary motion.”
The establishing of a Police Fee to deal with all disciplinary issues and transfers of policemen and girls has taken away the authority of the police chief to place such points into impact himself. In truth, the IGP can solely handle the Police Fee by the secretary to the ministry of Public Safety, a political appointee.
For instance, the Presidential Fee of Inquiry into the Easter Sunday assaults advisable disciplinary motion towards a number of prime officers, together with the then intelligence chief Nilantha Jayawardena and Senior Deputy Inspector Common (SDIG) Deshabandu Tennakoon, however nothing has been finished to-date due to the ineffectual Police Fee.
The police chief’s authority extends solely to males beneath the rank of sergeant and two lower-level constables have already been dismissed from the service for failing to forestall the Easter Sunday assaults. However, not a single senior officer has been disciplined to this point due to procrastination by the Police Fee.
The identical applies to police transfers. Whereas the first courts, the Lawyer Common and the police chief himself have known as for the arrest/removing of officers comparable to Deshabandu Tennakoon from the Western province, the Secretary to the ministry of Public Safety has blocked motion.
Quick and Complete Reforms
It’s clear that the present state of the Sri Lankan Police Division requires fast and complete reforms. For a begin, empowering the police chief, whether or not Wickramaratne is retained or not, is a vital step in direction of addressing the problems plaguing the division.
Within the present hierarchy, the officers straight in line to interchange Wickramaratne have critical blemishes that preclude them. The primary is present SDIG Nilantha Jayawardena who has been fined by the Supreme Court docket over his position within the Easter Sunday assaults. Subsequent in line, SDIG Lalith Pathinayake and quantity three, SDIG Deshabandu Tennakoon have hostile findings towards them and the Presidential Fee of Inquiry wished them disciplined in addition to criminally prosecuted.
Sources near President Wickremesinghe mentioned neither of the three contenders for the highest job had been thought of and therefore the extension to low-profile Wickramaratne.
Any change of guard within the management, nevertheless, could not change the regulation and order state of affairs within the nation given the disciplinary construction following the institution of the Police Fee. The fee was meant to get rid of political interference and make the division extra environment friendly, however successive commissions have repeatedly revealed their partisanship, which has successfully blocked any decisive motion.
Politically Motivated Appointments Proceed
The direct interference by the Ministry of Public Safety has additional compounded the problem. This interference has led to the appointment of politically motivated people accountable for police stations, a lot of whom have confirmed to be ineffective and ineffectual.
The implications of this follow had been evident after the violence that occurred on June 9, 2022, exposing the inefficiency of officers accountable for sustaining regulation and order and safety.
But, there was no important shake-up in police management inside high-crime areas. This lack of accountability not solely perpetuates the issue but in addition raises critical questions in regards to the integrity and effectiveness of regulation enforcement.
The IGP needs to be given the authority to guide the 80,000-plus women and men within the drive and restore self-discipline and order. Nevertheless, this reform have to be a part of a broader restructuring effort to make your complete police system extra clear, accountable, and attentive to the wants of the general public.
The trail to reform will probably be difficult, however it’s vital to revive public confidence and make sure the security and safety of the nation, particularly in high-crime areas the place drive-by shootings have develop into a grave concern.
The latest Worldwide Financial Fund governnance diagnostic report went into quite a few income businesses and recommended an inside affairs unit to probe misconduct of officers. Sarcastically police assist was advisable for key businesses, together with the anti-bribery fee.
Nevertheless no point out was manufactured from issues inside the police, or the dearth of an efficient disciplinary mechanism or inside affairs unit inside the police division itself. (COLOMBO/Oct 15/2023)
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