Irish Police To Depart
Another of President Michel’s schemes falls through
Irish CID officer Sheehan, left, (with Bernard Georges) led the
illegal search at Regar offices
President Michel' s grand scheme to place retired Irish policemen in charge of the police force may soon come to an end, According to reliable sources inside Government, the Irish police officers are due to leave soon. Some of them may be replaced by Australian officers, the sources say.
The departure of the Irish will underline just how much a failure the policy of turning vital administrative and leadership responsibility to expatriate recruits has been. It will demonstrate that there is no substitute to training Seychellois and entrusting them with responsibility in a system that respects professionalism and performance.
The whole scheme has flunked. After a few months, the team of Australian officials in charge of the tax division has been disbanded and the French expert in charge of the Public Utilities Corporation has left.
The former Irish policemen in charge of the police force have not been a happy choice. One had to be fired for lying under oath to a commission of inquiry headed by Judge Antony Fernando. The Financial Intelligence Unit, which had a team of at least three Irish officers has proved singularly incompetent in handling the sensitive cases they tackled and ended up doing more harm than good. They have not been heard of for months and the public is wondering if we are still paying for them.
Other branches have not been much more efficient. The NDEA, under the command of an Irish officer, has adopted controversial measures which have implicated abuses of human rights. They have made some well-publicised arrests but it is doubtful that they have made a real difference in tackling drug trafficking. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) under John Sheehan conducted the illegal police searches in Regar offices and homes of its officials recently, certainly not showing a high standard of police conduct.
The Irish episode has been time lost that should have been spent in structuring the police force under sound Seychellois leadership.
The policy of turning to expatriates was a historical blunder which shows us how much damage the leadership of Mr. Michel and his party has caused to our civil service. They allowed corruption and political influence to undermine the professionalism of the service. When they were dissatisfied with the performance of our public servants and the lack of leadership, they refused to fix what was wrong with the system. Instead, they brought in expatriates to run the same system.
This episode is a confirmation of the failure of leadership by Mr. Michel. His next step will be decisive for the police force. It will be seen whether he has learned any lesson from his illjudged ventures.
Source: Regar 9-17-10