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Cabinet lost confidence in commissioner says Golding
The Prime Minister has told Parliament that the Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin tendered his resignation just over a week after the Cabinet indicated that it had lost confidence in him.
Bruce Golding was on his feet on more than one occasion this afternoon providing the same answer to the same question posed in different ways.
Why did Admiral Lewin resign?
First Mr Golding said he was not aware of the reason; neither did he seek that information from the chairman of the Police Service Commission Professor Gordon Shirley who informed him of the resignation.
But as the questions continued from the Opposition benches, Mr Golding would relent and would offer a more detailed response.
That response in effect indicated that there was no reason for the Commissioner’s resignation.
The Commisioner’s resignation letter was dated October 20.
The Prime Minister was advised about the resignation on November 1.
But Mr Golding told the Parliament that the Cabinet had earlier indicated that it had lost confidence in the Commissioner to deal with the crime problem.
Mr Golding said two days after a meeting on October 12 with the chairman of the police service commission to indicate that he had lost confidence in Admiral Lewin he met the entire commission to express his concerns.
According to Mr Golding on October 23, he received a request from the Commissioner for a meeting and that meeting was held the same day.
This was three days after the date stated on the resignation letter tendered by the Commissioner.
But Mr Golding says during the October 23 meeting, the Commissioner pledged that he would be making changes to the crime response strategy.
Mr Golding is insisting that like himself and the national security minister the police Commissioner must be held accountable.
He says although Commissioner Lewin has made significant strides, much more work must be done to curb crime.
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