Graduands of prosecutor’s course to be inducted into Police Force

The graduands of the first cohort of the Certificate in Advocacy and Evidence for Summary Courts and Prosecutor’s Course will be inducted into the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and given the rank of Sergeant, Attorney General Anil Nandlall has disclosed.

He met with the graduands on September 5 to explain the mechanism by which interested persons would be inducted into the State’s prosecuting arm.
The Attorney General also shared the salaries and other benefits the students were expected to receive, and explained that summary prosecutors who acquit themselves well would benefit from scholarships to pursue their Legal Education Certificate (LEC) at one of the Region’s law schools toward becoming full-fledged Attorneys-at-Law.

Inducted into Police Force
Nandlall explained that after the graduands were inducted into the Police Force, they would then undergo additional training for three months to become acquainted with the rules, regulations, and standing orders of the GPF, as well as the practical workings of Guyana’s Magistrates’ Courts.
This training will, in part, serve as an orientation for the prosecutors, informing them of pertinent information, including the GPF’s chain of command and how they are expected to conduct themselves as ranks of the GPF.
The GPF began processing the graduands on Thursday. Importantly, Nandlall noted that while the graduands will be made Police Officers to execute their prosecutorial duties, they would not be required to carry out any other duty usually required of Police Officers.
Explaining the rationale for this approach, he said: “Police Prosecutors have an audience and a right to prosecute by way of a statutory provision. So, we had to decide to induct these graduands into the Police Force and to confer upon them a rank which has the statutory authorisation to stand before the court and prosecute, and we have made that decision.”
Additionally, the Attorney General has written to the Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag), Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards seeking her permission to allow these persons to don the garb worn by lawyers, as opposed to Police uniforms when prosecuting in the Magistrates’ Courts.

Financial package
According to Nandlall, the graduands, once they become prosecutors, will take home $160,000 monthly. Their gross salaries, inclusive of allowances, will amount to $220,000. These sums were arrived at through collaborative efforts between the Attorney General’s Chambers, the GPF, and the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Asked by the graduands about the factors which informed this decision, and why a higher salary was not offered, he shared that “…we had to strike a delicate balance, being sensitive to the fact that you are within the public sector and a Police force which has prevailing remunerative realities”.
“Therefore, for cohesion, harmony…etc, you cannot be parachuted into such an organisation and be conferred with a remuneration package that can be considered inconsistent with, or offensive to the remunerative regimes existing in the Force”.
He also said that “we also have to ensure that you recognise that even within the…public sector level, we have remunerative realities of lawyers who are fully trained. I have even been informed that in the Police Force as well, you have Police Officers who have first degrees and master’s as well, and even a third degree but are paid a Police person’s salary…the package arrived at had to take into account all these realities. Between the DPP and the Police Force, we found what we consider to be a fair, just, and equitable range.”
The graduands will start to receive their remuneration as soon as they are processed and commence their training, and will continue to receive their remuneration throughout the training period.
“You are part of history. This is the first time that an initiative like this is being done anywhere in the Commonwealth, and as I have indicated to you in our discourses before, the Caribbean, at least, is watching and they are planning to do something similar. They are looking at Guyana as a pilot, and if we pull this off successfully, they will draw from our experience,” Nandlall said to the graduands ,adding that “They have already begun to borrow our syllabus and course materials.”

Working space
Moreover, the Attorney General also shared plans that will work to assist the Prosecutors as they dispatch their duties.
He said that the new edifice which would be built where the old Brickdam Police Station stood would be 12 stories high. He also said that the DPP Chambers would have a new building soon where adequate facilities would be fixed for them to meet and brief witnesses.
“You will have a library. And once we can satisfy the demands, you will have assistants who will work on cases during the investigative stages. You will now help to build the cases.”