Deputy Commissioner of Police, Frank Redhead is heading to the Grenada Ports Authority (GPA) as its new General Manager.
An authoritative source told THE NEW TODAY that Redhead will take up duties from the beginning of May as replacement for Carl Felix who has only a few days remaining on the job.
Felix is known to have told close aides that he will perform the job of GPA Manager until the end of the month and that he did not know his successor as he was kept out of a meeting of the Board of Directors when the selection was made.
According to the source, the Redhead appointment to take charge of the Port Authority is almost “a done deal” and will now have to be ratified by the Minister of Finance who is Deputy Prime Minister Gregory Bowen.
“I am told that this thing (the Redhead appointment) is at a very far and advanced stage and that it is now only left to the Minister of Finance to sign off on it,” he remarked.
Deputy Commissioner Redhead is known to have had an engagement with the GPA Board of Directors on Monday with respect to the job on the Port.
“I know he applied for the job as Port Manager and the Board met with him on Monday but I don’t know the outcome of the meeting,” one source told THE NEW TODAY.
The source pointed out that Redhead is no stranger to GPA as he served as a member of the governing Board when he was Commander of the Coastguard of the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF).
Speculation is rife that Redhead had become increasingly frustrated in recent years as a member of the High Command of the Police Force.
The holder of two Master’s degrees, the senior police officer is believed to have applied for police jobs in the region in recent years.
One official said that Redhead was offered a top job in Barbados with the Regional Security System (RSS) a few years ago but turned it down as his wife was reluctant to relocate to live on another island.
Felix was seconded to work on the Port from his substantive post of Comptroller of Customs, a division of the Ministry of Finance with the retirement of long-standing manager, Ambrose Phillip.
He had reached the mandatory retirement age of 60 as a public officer about three years ago and had applied for pre-retirement leave from the service.
An insider at GPA said that two persons were short-listed as Felix’s replacement about two years ago but the Board of Directors did not select anyone to fill the post.
The impending appointment of Redhead as new GPA boss has paved the way for the appointment of two new Deputy Commissioners of Police in RGPF.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP Michael Francois has been appointed to one of the positions already and the other is expected to be filled by ACP Jessmon Prince whose name is said to have been sent down to the Public Service Commission (PSC) for the appointment.