Jagdeo blocks promotion of Camp Buxton commander
-recalls him from US training course
Stabroek News
May 11, 2003
President Jagdeo has taken the unprecedented action of blocking the promotion of an army officer, Captain David Clarke. Moreover, as Minister of Defence he directed that Clarke be recalled from a training course in the United States for which the Guyana Defence Force had selected him.
Captain Clarke was halfway through the course when he was ordered to return to Guyana. During the past year, Clarke had served as Commander of Camp Buxton, which the GDF established as part of the joint operations with the police to arrest the wave of criminal activity on the lower East Coast by criminals who operate out of the village.
The Information Liaison to the President, Robert Persaud refused to offer a comment on the issue and referred Stabroek News to the Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force, Brigadier Michael Atherly.
Stabroek News was unable to contact Atherly but a senior source in the GDF informed this newspaper that the final authority for promotions rested with the Defence Board. However, in the past the recommendations of the GDF have been accepted and the officer could not recall the rejection of any officer so recommended.
Other sources however have told Stabroek News that while no name had ever been rejected there was a recent case of a name of an officer attached to the Office of the President being added to the list.
Asked if there was a requirement for an explanation to be given where an officer's promotion was turned down, the senior source told Stabroek News that one would be expected save for some reason of national security.
The senior source also explained that in the case of training overseas, except for officers of the rank of Colonel and above, the convention is that the selection is made at the level of the GDF, but that the Minister of Defence, who is the President, has the final authority.
It is also not the practice for the GDF to submit a list of officers sent for training overseas to the Defence Board, and the source said it was still to ascertain how President Jagdeo knew that Clarke had been sent on a training course in the USA.
Capt David Clarke was recommended for promotion after a promotions panel chaired by the Chief of Staff, Brigadier Michael Atherly, approved the recommendation of Clarke's battalion commander. The battalion commander's recommendation was based on Clarke's attitude and performance in his substantive rank, his suitability for promotion to higher rank and authority as well as his suitability for retention in the army. This assessment was reached based on a recommendation of a promotion panel at the battalion level, which reviewed Clarke's annual confidential reports and assessed his suitability for promotion.
Senior army sources have told Stabroek News that nothing in Clarke's record indicated that he had behaved in an inappropriate manner either during his assignment in Buxton or in the other locations at which he was stationed.
Until now Clarke has not been told why he was turned down for promotion or why he was recalled from the training course he was attending.
Some observers feel that Clarke's recall will now force the authorities to inform him of the reasons for turning down his promotion as is the practice in the GDF.
