Gov­ern­ment has con­firmed that Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher will not re­turn as Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, opt­ing to buy out her 66 days of ac­cu­mu­lat­ed va­ca­tion leave and not re­new her con­tract. Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Cab­i­net made the de­ci­sion yes­ter­day, adding that Gov­ern­ment act­ed “with­in the law.”

Speak­ing at the post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie said the buy­out was aimed at en­sur­ing con­ti­nu­ity in the po­lice ser­vice.  How­ev­er, he was un­able to put a fig­ure on the amount to be paid.

“I’m not cer­tain, terms of dol­lars and cents, how much it would cost, I think she had some­thing like be­tween 66 and 70 days leave in­side. The Gov­ern­ment did not think that it made sense to have Miss Christo­pher re­port to du­ty for half of a day or one day, and then to re­vert to a po­si­tion if she was not ex­tend­ed. I don’t think that the mind of the Gov­ern­ment was to ex­tend her, that we would have an ac­count­ing of­fi­cer and not a po­lice com­mis­sion­er in charge of the po­lice ser­vice.”