Crackdown in LNP

Several high ranking officers of the Liberian National Police or LNP have been placed under review simply because they are engage in a scheme to rob not only the police department but the state in receiving higher salaries by faking their ranks.

The rogue officers involved are bearing ranks on the LNP payroll which are in conflict with actual ranks found in the police database. Newly appointed Inspector General of Police Col. Gregory Coleman has mandated a review of the current payroll ranks.

In a “special bulletin”, which reads October 19, 2014,” instead of October 19, 2016, authorized by LNP’s Chief of Human Resource, Assistant Commissioner of Police Darlingston H. Williams, the affected officers are strictly warned to verify their ranks at the HR Section within one week or run the risk of being relieved of their post to be considered patrolman.

The actual database ranks published by the LNP Human Resource or HR Section for these affected officers include patrolman, corporal (cpl), inspector and sergeant. But their “current payroll ranks published by the HR Section revealed different ranks for the same officers like chief inspector, chief superintendent and cpl without any evidence of their elevation found in the LNP database.

The HR Section says such officers’ current ranks are being carried on the LNP payroll while the HR section has no evidence in its database confirming the veracity of such ranks. The New Dawn newspaper has obtained photographs of the bulletin carrying both a long list of the affected officers and the directive from the HR Section on the instruction of Col. Coleman.

The Police Spokesman DCP Sam Collins declined to comment, arguing that he would need to speak with the Inspector General of Police Col. Coleman before responding to a media inquiry when contacted by this paper Thursday evening, 20 October at the LNP Headquarters on Capitol Hill.

The special bulletin dated “19 October 2014” requesting affected officers to proceed to the Human Resource Section to “verify their respective ranks,”actually carries directives from “the Inspector General of Police Gregory O.W. Coleman, and not former IGP Chris Massaquoi.

It reads: “By directive of the Inspector General of Police Hon. Gregory O.W. Coleman, the below listed officers are hereby requested to proceed to the LNP Human Resource Section to verify their respective ranks which are currently being carried on the LNP payroll as the HR section has no evidence in its database confirming the [veracity] of said ranks,” the bulletin reads.

The bulletin says any officer who fails to adhere to the bulletin within the prescribed period of one week as of the date of the publication, runs the risk of being relieved of his or her post “and subsequently be considered as patrolman.”

Col. Coleman had earlier said this week that upon the formation of the LNP Promotion Board, officers will have to apply for the positions they desire, or forgo their current positions. He added that the new procedure will not only consider academic credentials, but will also look at discipline.

By Winston W. Parley-Edited by Othello B. Garblah