Rohee’s elaborate “security” plan has nothing new, govt. is desperate

Rohee’s elaborate “security” plan has nothing new, govt. is desperate – APNU

Jan 04, 2013 News

By Latoya Giles

“That elaborate security plan which was outlined in a statement by Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, on Old Year’s Day was something on the cards for about 21 months, it (statement) has nothing new. There is need to examine the cause of crime, drugs and gun smuggling. These serious issues are not being addressed by Rohee; instead he is talking

APNU’s Leader David Granger

about traffic accidents.”
This opinion was expressed yesterday by APNU Leader David Granger during the coalition’s first press briefing for the New Year.
Granger demanded that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration “stop misleading the public, fiddling with the police and playing with new labels”. He said that they should instead introduce with a matter of urgency, a serious security strategy to protect the country’s citizens from criminal violence.
According to Granger, Rohee deliberately avoided references at his December 31, 2012 Press Conference, to the high rate of armed robberies, contraband-smuggling, gun-running, money-laundering, narcotics-trafficking, people-trafficking, piracy and banditry plaguing the country. He said that the minister’s so-called ‘plan’ failed to provide assurances that human safety will be enhanced and police conduct and performance will be improved.
Granger further emphasised that his party demands that the Capita-Symonds Report – which was handed over to Mr. Rohee in March 2011, and now forms the basis of the new ‘plan’ – be laid before the National Assembly.
He said that the report should also be published in the various media so that the public could read its contents and assess its relevance to crime-fighting and the improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of the Guyana Police Force.
Granger pointed out that there has been no shortage of so-called plans for security sector reform by the PPP/C administration over the past 12 years. He said that these efforts, however, have been deliberately derailed, and not one of them has been fully implemented.
He said that back in 2000, the British Department for International Development had funded consultants from the Symonds Group Limited, who later released their report on the Guyana Police Force after reviewing it, between October and November 2000.
Then in 2002, Granger said, the then President Bharrat Jagdeo promulgated a “menu of measures” claiming that they would improve the police force’s crime-fighting capacity. The former president went to London to meet the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police to seek British assistance.
Granger continued that in 2003 there was a Defence Advisory Team to Georgetown which conducted a study of the security sector and produced a report which recommended ways in which the Police Force’s capability could be enhanced.
“It was in 2006 that British Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Baroness Valerie Amos, and President Jagdeo agreed to a Statement of Principles which formed the basis on which the British Department for International Development proceeded with a fresh consultancy.
A new British-funded security sector reform team visited, in October 2006, and integrated various local and foreign initiatives into a holistic strategy. The PPPC administration adopted a Citizen Security Programme which was to be funded by a US$19.8 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Then in 2011, the British consultancy firm Capita-Symonds presented the final draft of the strategic plan for the modernization of the Guyana Police Force to the Home Affairs Ministry, on Thursday 29th March 2011. Now in 2012, Mr. Clement Rohee made a statement to a Press Conference, on 31st December 2012, outlining recommendations contained in the same Capita-Symonds Report.”
APNU’s Deborah Backer said that the Symonds Report had called for the rebranding of the police force a long time ago. She added that “the government is desperate and is trying anything”. She said that it was the PNC who had recommended that the E and F divisions be separated.
She noted that back in 2008, when Rohee was confronted with the same report, he promised to implement it, but failed to do so. Backer said that if the recommendations were taken into consideration the crime situation would have been better.
“Rohee is coming like the Messiah and trying everything. It’s like he is clutching at straws.”