fp Turks and Caicos

A veteran U.K. police official has been appointed to be the Integrity Commission’s investigative officer to police the ranks of public officers in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Simon Baker joins the Integrity Commission following 33 years of policing experience in the U.K., of which the last five years have been spent with the Metropolitan Police in the Fraud Squad and Counter Terrorism Command. In the last two years he worked on attachment with the U.K.’s Serious Organised Crime Agency.

Baker will work for the commission and new commission Director Eugene Otuonye, whose appointment was recently announced. He was chairman of the Public Service Commission and a member of the governor’s Advisory Council, but he stepped down from both positions to take the post with the Integrity Commission.

Commission Chairman Sir David Simmons said both appointments came after strong competition and a rigorous assessment and selection process by the commission.

Otuonye, a Queen’s Counsel lawyer, has spent 26 years practicing law in the public and private sectors, including serving as attorney general of Montserrat and deputy attorney general of the TCI.

The Integrity Commission thanked Keith Sargent, the outgoing commission director, “who has worked tirelessly to lay the foundations of the executive arm of the commission,” Simmons said. “The Integrity Commission wishes him well in his future endeavours.”