The officer in charge of the Donegal division was told by a senior garda that he would receive a transfer application from a sergeant arrested by the Carty inquiry into corruption in the county, and he was to send it immediately to headquarters.
Former chief superintendent Denis Fitzpatrick said he received the telephone call on March 24th, 2000, from Chief Supt Dermot Jennings, now an assistant commissioner.
Det Sgt John White had been arrested on March 21st as a result of the Carty investigation into the "silver bullet" affair, and suspended for 72 hours. He was later acquitted of related charges in Letterkenny Circuit Court.
Mr Fitzpatrick said Mr Jennings told him: "You never got this phone call. You'll be getting an application in the next half hour. Send it up immediately."
Mr Fitzpatrick had already recommended that Det Sgt White's suspension should continue at the end of the 72-hour period.
He said Det Sgt White arrived shortly afterwards with an application to request a transfer.
"I contacted headquarters, spoke to [ Assistant Commissioner] Fachtna Murphy, told him I had this application, he said to send it up," Mr Fitzpatrick said.
"He asked me did I get a phone call, I said 'I did'. That was the limit of it. He didn't ask me from whom or where and I didn't say."
Mr Fitzpatrick said he felt the transfer would happen no matter what he did. "I was told the transfer application was coming in. The thing was probably decided before I ever got the application.
"Headquarters were going to do what they wanted anyway, it seemed to me it was a fait accompli." He felt "uncomfortable" with the transfer and that it "wasn't normal".
"It's not what I wanted, but at least he's out of my division," he said. "I felt I was just a cog in the whole transfer business."
Deputy Commissioner Fachtna Murphy, who was assistant commissioner in charge of human resources at the time, told the tribunal he received a telephone call from Mr Jennings on March 24th, 2000, in which they spoke about Det Sgt White.
He was told the sergeant would be applying for a transfer. He made the decision to transfer the detective to the Special Detective Unit.