While the new Police Services Bill makes extensive allowances for pensions for police officers, the bill contains some very strict proscriptions, including a provision for the pension of a police officer “guilty of intemperance, negligence, irregularity or misconduct” to be “altogether withheld.”
And, under Section 90 of the proposed legislation, no police officer has an absolute right to a pension, or any other gratuity or allowance, and can be dismissed by the Governor General or the Commissioner of Police at any time and without compensation.
One of the billﾒs most controversial features, however, has been the compulsory retirement clause. Section 92 of the bill grants the Commissioner the power to require a police officer to retire from the Service (as the bill seeks to rename the Force) at any time after he attains the age of 50 or 45, though to retire an officer at 45 requires the Ministerﾒs approval.
Some, including representatives of the Police Staff Association, have concluded that this section conflicts with Section 19, which allows for an officer to be reengaged until the age of 60, or for up to 40 years of service.
Absent from the bill is any context for the compulsory retirement provision; there are no further clauses that suggest when this power may be used, no circumstances outlined that detail how it is to be implemented.
Another area of concern raised by some critics of the bill is Section 94 (1), which says the pension of an officer sentenced to death or imprisonment “by any competent court for any offence” may be stopped, if the Minister so directs.
Section 94 (2) allows for the Minister to prevent the payment of said pension should the sentence occur in circumstances where the officer has met the requirements but before the payments have begun.
This means that an officer who has qualified for a pension through length of “good and efficient service” may be stripped of that pension on the word of the Minister (of National Security) as a result of something that occurs after that officer has left the Service.
There is no list of actionable offences ﾖ simply the statement “of any offence.”
And Section 94 (3) allows the Minister to spend that money however the Minister sees fit.
Section 94 (4) provides that, should the officer receive a pardon at any time, the pension is to be restored retroactive to the time it was ceased.
Not all the billﾒs provisions are so dire, however. For the officer who has completed 30 years of service or who reaches the age of 50 and has been awarded a pension, and is reengaged ﾖ that officer is entitled to a full salary and pension.
Section 91 sets out the circumstances under which an officer may be granted a pension.
An officer may be granted a pension after reaching 50 years of age, on medical evidence of permanent physical or mental infirmity, or on retirement from the Police Service.
Section 87 of the bill provides that an officer under the rank of “Inspector” who has given 30 years of continuous “good and efficient service” “may” get a pension of one-half his salary, plus a gratuity equal to a yearﾒs salary.
For officers who reach the age of 50 without having completed 30 years, the pension is 1/600 of the officerﾒs salary at the time for each month the officer has served.
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
