Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie has been in the news so much recently that his ears must ring every night at 6:30. But for all the talking about him – Whylie has done very little talking himself., Now, he's not known as a man of many words – but since the mandamus action in late February he's become a man of no words: zero, zilch, nada. We've tried to reach him by all means – and really the only thing left was smoke signals. While we were getting our fires ready for that one, today he saved us the trouble and made himself available for a press encounter. It was at the handing over of a fleet of new pickups from the US Government, so he must have been in good spirits when we asked him about the mandamus order. Issued in early March the order directed him to immediately commence a criminal investigation against Former Minister of State Elvin Penner for his role in the Citizen Kim passport scandal. Chief Justice Benjamin declared that Commissioner Whylie's decision not to investigate was quote, "irrational, unreasonable, and unlawful".
Strong words but Whylie was unfazed when we spoke to him today:
Jules Vasquez
"You are a career police officer. How did you feel about the fact that the chief justice basically scolded you and told you that you should do your job which you weren't doing? What was your reaction to that?"
Allen Whylie – Commissioner of Police
"Well I disagree with you Jules in terms of being scolded and saying I'm doing my job or not doing my job, you know. Those are legal issues and that matter is being addressed legally, as you know an appeal has been filed and we wait to see the outcome of that."
Hipolito Novelo – Love News
"Sir, do you feel that it should have arrived at that stage, that the Chief Justice should have ordered you to investigate?"
Allen Whylie
"Well, I can't say feel or not feeling; I don't deal with feelings. That was done and the investigation was done."
Hipolito Novelo
"How would you respond to the criticism that your application to appeal the Mandamus is an effort for you not to investigate, specifically Penner. Your critics are saying that you don't want to do your job; that's why you appealed the writ of Mandamus."
Allen Whylie
"Well, that's nonsense because the court ordered the investigation. The investigation was done, and the file was submitted to the DPP. So any critics who says that we did not investigate is talking nonsense."
Jules Vasquez
"Isn't there an indication that in fact, Mandamus was needed in order for your department to do its job because it appears to be substantial material that was gathered in the investigation?"
Allen Whylie
"I disagree with you, Jules, because we had never taken the position that we would not investigate. All we were saying is that we were awaiting an official complaint from the Director of Immigration or we were awaiting the results of the Auditor General's investigation. It is not unusual; when people believe that irregularities have been committed, the auditor general goes in, do their investigation, and they send their report to us along with the necessary evidence. That was done in the Southern Regional Hospital case."
He refers to the case of the Southern Regional Hospital – where Whylie told us that suspended administrator Nasley Sommerville had been charged "some time ago." He used that example because Sommerville was indicted in two reports by the Auditor General, the most recent concluding that she embezzled three hundred and sixty-six thousand dollars from a Ministry of Health account.
An instructive example, except that, according to our checks Nasley Sommerville has not been criminally charged. And that is even though the first report from the Auditor General went to Dangriga Police in mid-October.
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