Police owed over $20 million in allowances

Eleven years after former Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite signed an order approving the payment of various allowances for members of the Barbados Police Service (BPS), the money has still not yet been granted.

The Police (Regulations) Allowances 2010 which listed 11 different allowances was dated October 26, 2010, three months after Brathwaite became Attorney General and three days following the swearing-in of Freundel Stuart as Prime Minister.

The money for the allowances, more than $20.9 million, was provided for in the 2010-2011 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure, and included payment for detectives, plainclothes officers, washing, travel, flexible responsibility, subsistence, duty allowance and special operations.

The regulations also cover allowances to be paid to orderlies, drivers and riders.

For example, the legal instrument shows that certain members of the service are to be paid a responsibility allowance of $878.64 per month, effective April 1, 2010.

“Members of the force assigned to protect the Explosives and Ordinance Disposal Unit shall be paid a monthly allowance at the rates and with effect from the dates specified in the Thirteenth Schedule,” stated the regulation made by the minister responsible for police administration.

“Members of the force shall be paid an annual responsibility allowance at the rates and with effect from the dates specified in the Fifteenth Schedule,” the order read.

When contacted, President of the Barbados Police Association (BPA) Mervin Grace said he was aware of the long outstanding payments for the allowances which had been approved in 2010 and he was taking steps to have the situation settled.

“It is one of the matters that we have set to discuss with the new commissioner of police. At this point, I can’t comment on it before I put it to the commissioner first. That is a particular topic we have been addressing, but with the new commissioner, I prefer to speak with him before I make any comments to either of the members or the press…knowing it was one I had been addressing,  I want to put it to the new commissioner first, and then we can move from there,” Grace told Barbados TODAY on Monday.

The 2010-2011 Estimate provide payment of $1.6 million for Police Headquarters and management; $18.1 million for general police services; $380,484 for those in the police band; $771,641 for traffic wardens and $2,901 for officers attached to the Anti Money Laundering Programme.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb