Backdoor selection of police personnel for UN duty alleged

Minister denies allegation

By Saman Indrajith

Police officers and men allege that the Human Resource Division of the Police headquarters has selected a team of policemen and women to serve in the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan in violation of the established procedure.

The HR division is alleged to have selected 21 male and two female police personnel to serve at the UN mission in Sudan without conducting interviews and tests. When queries were raised, the division officers said they had made the selections on a list coming from the office of Public Security Minister Rear Admiral (Retd) Sarath Weerasekara.

Usually, the UN officials are present when tests are conducted to select Lankan police personnel to serve in the UN missions abroad.

The officers and men are usually required to pass tests in driving, shooting and language proficiency. They are also required to face an aptitude test.

Whenever there is a change in the process, the UN officials may conduct interviews over the phone from overseas, and the selections are made according to the test results.

Police sources, however, said the established process had been changed during the current selection for two reasons. The first reason was the urgency in selecting a team of police personnel. The opportunity for the Lankan police personnel to serve at the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan came when a foreign nation turned down that offer owing to a pandemic situation in that country and the UN wanted to expedite the process and entrusted the task of selection to the police headquarters. The second reason was circumstantial changes owing to the pandemic situation. When the mission was announced and applications had been called 197 police personnel applied. None of them had been called for any interview or tests but an announcement was made that a team of 23 police personnel was selected.

When contacted for comment Minister Sarath Weerasekera said that he was unaware of a list. “I have never in my service careers done something of this nature. I can assure you that no such list sent from my office,” the minister said, adding that he would look into the matter and hold an investigation if necessary to ascertain how the selections for the mission had been made.