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Chief of Staff vows strong disciplinary action

Sep 08, 2010 News


Ammo in GDF Officers’ quarters…

Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Commodore Gary Best has vowed to take strong disciplinary action against several of his ranks who breached regulations by having ammunition and other army items in their possession.
Speaking to journalists at Camp Ayanganna yesterday, the Commodore disclosed that during an audit “to ensure compliance mechanisms were adhered to”, the GDF found helmets, live and blank ammunition, magazines, pyrotechnics, fragmentation vests, weapon-cleaning kits and magazines, “which should have been returned to the stores, but were in the rooms of officers, Warrant Officers, and Non-Commissioned  Officers.”
He also disclosed that an army captain was among the over 20 ranks who were initially detained. Many of the ranks have since returned to duty.
The rooms of over a dozen officers and senior Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) were searched at the army’s main bases, including Camp Ayanganna, Timehri, Coast Guard headquarters, and Camp Soweyo.
According to Best, “ten to 15 percent” of the army’s officer corps, and the same percent of the army’s NCOs had ammunition in their rooms which they had failed to return to the store.
The ammunition consisted of 7.62x39mm and 9mm rounds.
“This represents a clear breach of regulations and as such strong disciplinary action will be exacted against the offending ranks.
He revealed that disciplinary action could range from court martial to summary dismissal to loss of seniority.
But he said that no guns were found in the rooms of the ranks during the recently conducted internal audit.
“No guns were discovered, no guns are missing.”  He also said that a grenade that was found in a rank’s possession was a grenade for training purposes, rather than a fragmentation grenade.
And while conceding that the issue was a “serious matter” Commodore Best also said that army intelligence indicated that the ranks were not involved in any conspiracy, but had failed to return the items to the army depot.
“No ammunition is missing…it was not returned in time. I have no information that there was complicity among the ranks to remove ammo from the arms store.”
The investigation is to be completed shortly.
Commodore Best said that the audit became necessary after an investigation was launched into a report of missing ammunition following the conclusion of the army’s force training exercise.
“The information relating to the ammunition that was apparently missing was 214 (rounds).”
He said that although the investigation revealed that no ammunition was missing, the probe revealed several breaches in the army’s Standard Operations Procedure.
The Chief of Staff explained that officers would uplift ammunition for training with their companies of platoons.
“After that, the unused ammunition is returned to the ammunition depot and there is a time within which they have to…hand it in.
“There are compliance mechanisms in the GDF but they are peopled by human beings, so obviously there was a breakdown in the supervisory mechanisms in the chain of command.”
Commodore Best opined that the investigation “would send a strong signal and “improve the management of the force.”
“I have taken steps to further strengthen the Standard Operation Procedures, but even before my strengthening they were very adequate to deal with the storage of ammunition…but like I said, people run systems. We have to keep working on our people and ensure that they are professional and where they fall short we have to take action.”

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