The Honourable Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit, has charged police officers who are in possession of Government vehicles to guard against improper use of Government’s resources.
The Honourable Prime Minister was speaking on Friday, October 21st, at a handing over ceremony of eight police vehicles costing the Government of Dominica just under EC $1m.
He charged the officers to be accountable for the vehicles in their possession.
“If any of you has an accident you must call yourself out to take a report on what transpired. Do not bring it in the so called grave yard and when the Chief believes he has a vehicle assigned to a police station or a department there is none. At the end of the day we all must recognize that will you may not have the ultimate responsibility to fetch the resources. If we do not use it properly we are denying ourselves, country and our children from a better way of life,” Hon Skerrit stated.
Dr. Skerrit affirmed that Government intends to ensure that the police are not left without the resources to carry out their duties.
“As the Prime Minister of this country I remain firmly committed to ensuring that our country is safe from all forms of threats, and that the requisite resources are made available to the police to carry out the legal mandate. That is to keep our country safe.”
The Honourable Prime Minister also spoke to the officers about proper maintenance and the possible repercussions if they are not accountable for the vehicles while in their care.
“You may very well have to force me to put tracking devices on every vehicle that you have. There is a proposal before me that I have not given much consideration to. I will decide how well you use it [the vehicles] before appending my signature to that proposal,” he said.
The departments to benefit from the vehicles are Marigot, the task force and the special service unit.
Eleven more vehicles are expected based on a protocol signed between the Ministry of National Security of Dominica and the Ministry of Defence of China.
Funds for the vehicles were provided by the Citizenship by Investment Programme.
