UK cancels ₤4.9M Security Sector pact with Guyana

Oct 28, 2009 News

The BBC has published the decision of the UK Government to abandon the negotiations with the Government of Guyana on the ₤4.9M project on security sector reform.
In Guyana, Cabinet secretary Dr Roger Luncheon, in a statement, noted that the position of the Government of Guyana is that indeed the decision is regrettable.
“Guyanese would recall that the project itself attracted quite a bit of media attention and has indeed been characterized by ups and downs in the public engagements; however, the trend in the negotiation was what led to expectations that the project itself would be approved and implemented.”
As late as December 2008, the two parties, the Government of Guyana and the Government of the UK had agreed in Georgetown and had a design that was submitted to the principals in the UK for their blessings.
In April 2009, Guyanese were advised about the redesign that was unilaterally carried out by the UK when they submitted their response to our joint December 2008 submission. This design violated the sovereignty of Guyana, Dr Luncheon said.
“It was drawn to the attention of the British High Commission here in Guyana and after efforts it was agreed that the government would submit its revised version of the British design.
“The President was involved in that activity and ultimately the British High Commission was presented with a document that in great detail outlined what was the Guyanese version of the model to be used to design and ultimately to implement the Security Sector Reform project.
“Lo and behold the President was involved in the discussion surrounding the new design submitted by the Guyanese team when he was informed that the project itself had been halted and the UK Government had provided him with information saying that they were not interested in pursuing an agreement with the Government of Guyana.”
The Cabinet Secretary said that it is tempting to believe that this about face from the December 2008 joint agreement to what happened in the middle of 2009 might have been associated with some decision that the Guyanese Government made with request to training by the UK Special Forces, on a Western border location with live firing to which the government was unprepared to support.
“It could be that the UK Government did not fully appreciate how dearly held was our position on the non-violation of the sovereignty of Guyana.
(The British) insistence in installing in their design in April, features management features that seriously compromise Guyana’s ownership and when our new design re-established ownership that was more consistent with our notions of sovereignty, the plug was pulled.
“I started by saying it was regrettable; it’s unfortunate because our joint positions at the beginning was Security Sector Reform in its entirety was indeed in our best interest. “Security Sector Reform will continue in Guyana, maybe at a different pace and the scope and the design will be different, but the implementation of that will be from public funds from the Government of Guyana.”

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UK cancels ₤4.9M Security Sector pact with Guyana

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