CoP Gibbs fights back, challenges PSC evaluation

Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs is challenging the fairness of his performance appraisal conducted recently by the Police Service Commission (PSC). Gibbs was rated as "fair".

Now the top cop has retained the services of attorney Dana Seetahal, SC, to deal with the matter.

Deputy Police Commissioner in charge of Operations, Jack Ewatski has refused to sign his evaluation documents, stating that the process was “seriously flawed.” He explained his position in detailed letter sent to PSC chairman, Professor Ramesh Deosaran and members of the commission.

Ewatski told local media Monday he is yet to received a response to his letter, which was sent at the end of February.

The Guardian reported Monday that a source close to Gibbs has said that Seetahal has written to the PSCon behalf of Gibbs requesting a copy of Gibbs’ performance appraisal and details of how the exercise was conducted.

Both Gibbs and Ewatski are concerned about the fairness of the process the commission used, including a decision to record the views of junior officers for a survey on Gibbs’s management and human-resource skills. 

The Guardian quoted an unnamed source close to the commission, stating that the source expressed concerns about the methods used in the appraisals. “What I expressed didn’t matter because the majority had the say,” the paper quoted the source as saying.