Heads should roll for retiring and rehiring scandal – Gerry Kelly

Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly has called for heads to roll in the PSNI after a Policing Board meeting today heard the first PSNI response to the Audit Office report.

The Sinn Féin spokesperson on policing said:

“The Policing Board has powers to take action against individuals at the centre of the retiring and rehiring scandal.

“The Chief Constable admitted that information about rehiring of retired police officers over the last decade had not been given to the Policing Board when they requested it. However he declined to identify who was responsible for this scandal.

"The Policing Board called for the Audit Office and Criminal Justice Inspectorate to investigate this scandal. The Public Accounts Committee will also exercise its own responsibilities and the evidence gathering is far from finished.

“Ultimately the Policing Board has the ability to hire and fire members of the police. If evidence is uncovered about who is responsible, heads should roll.

"The Policing Board has also discovered that even while the Audit Office investigation was underway a plan was being drawn up, through a massive new contract, to continue with the rehiring of police officers who had retired with substantial severance packages. The police were asked to hand that plan over to the Policing Board today.

“Sinn Féin has consistently stated that the rehiring of Patten retirees must be discontinued. That outcome is in the interests of public confidence in the PSNI and consolidating the new beginning to policing. We await more of the truth emerging from the work of the Public Accounts Committee in the coming weeks.”