Contract
Fulfilment Failure?
If
one were to assume that the reports disseminated to the public
and the media are factual, then two years ago, the Government
of St. Lucia contracted a number of British officers to come
and assist the Royal St. Lucia Police Force by putting the
expertise they had amassed over their years of service in
Britain to training and advising the local officers, thereby
improving their skills and shaping them into more efficient,
professional lawmakers.
Regardless of which political party formed the Government
at the time – we all know it was the SLP – a contract
signed by the government remains binding even if the party
in power changes.
It would be interesting to discover whether the contracts
that required the Britons to train our officers still hold,
or whether the incoming government broke them and issued new
ones upon assuming office … if so, at what time did
they do so and why were citizens not made aware that the St.
Lucian Government had again gone back on a binding agreement
made in their name?
If however, we assume that no contracts were broken and that
the ones signed by the Kenny Anthony administration continue
to be the ones in force (no pun intended), then the Britons
who were contracted with the commitment to train and prepare
our locals with the aim of making them into efficient and
professional officers would have failed in the accomplishment
of the job they had been contracted to do and for which we
have been paying them such lavish emoluments, were they not
to succeed in moulding our people into officers capable of
assuming responsible positions within the hierarchy of the
organization.
Therefore, would it be safe to say that if – as is reported
– Mr. John Broughton has written to the Prime Minister
advising him that there is no local officer sufficiently trained
to assume the post of Commissioner (which his contract intimates
that he is being paid to deliver), he is stating/admitting
that he has failed to fulfil the conditions for which he was
employed and could be considered in breach?
What is the taxpayers’ legal redress, in such a case?

|