BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FOLLOWING the release of a letter cataloguing Commissioner of Police (COP) Austin William’s disapproval of accusations levelled at him and the High Command by the National Security Permanent Secretary Astona Browne, Prime Minister Dr. Denzil L. Douglas has called upon the ‘top cop’ to verify the authenticity of the document.
The letter, which bears the date June 29, 2011, entered the public domain shortly before August 5, and its contents were reported by the media.
During Tuesday’s (Aug. 9) edition of his weekly radio programme, ‘Ask the PM’, Dr. Douglas – responding to a caller – explained that he heard of the letter which was copied to him as well as to the Minister of National Security, Sam Condor, and others.
Dr. Douglas noted however, “I have not seen any letter copied to me.”
“As I said, I have not seen the letter. Someone said the letter was copied to me. I have not seen any letter copied to me. I understand that the letter has been circulated in the press…that was shown to me. My office received nothing of the kind.”
When this media house was made aware of the circulation of the letter, a successful attempt was made at contacting Commissioner Williams, who admitted that he was indeed the author of the missive.
Notwithstanding, Dr. Douglas questioned the document’s authenticity and called upon the COP to indicate whether or not he penned it.
“I do not know up to this moment the authenticity of the letter, and it is in very poor taste that a letter that could have been sent to me by way of copying finds itself in the media, in the press, before the Prime Minister can see it. And so I believe the Commissioner of Police needs to answer to that question, if the letter actually came from him.”
The country’s leader further expressed that the fact that the letter was the topic of a radio programme “…is part and parcel of the nonsense that we have going on in this country as people try as much as possible to sully the good name of public servants who have served with distinction, the interest of the people of St. Kitts and Nevis and the interest of the people of the Caribbean region, especially in the area of law enforcement. It is really a great pity that this is happening”.
Contacted by SKNVibes and asked if he has any response to the Prime Minister’s comments and also to his call for him validate the authenticity of the letter, Commissioner Williams indicated that he has “no comment”.
Just one week earlier, in an article written by SKNVibes' Editor-in-Chief Stanford Conway, headlined "Police Chief lashes out at National Security PS", Commissioner Williams admitted to penning the letter but questioned how its contents were made known to the media.
