Home Affairs Minister stresses need for Reform in the Guyana Police Force

Apr 26, 2014 News

– As Police Officers’ Conference continues

By Latoya Giles

Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, has said that he has made a conscious decision to place significant emphasis on the issue of reform in the Guyana Police Force.
The Minister made the comment yesterday at the Annual Police Officers Conference which is currently underway.

Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee

“You are serving in the Force at a time when fundamental changes have been occurring in this country. Those changes must, as a consequence, have an effect on the way you police Guyana,” the Minister told officers.
According to Rohee, the force is steeped in traditions that have been developed over its 174 years of existence. However, he said that bureaucracies like the Guyana Police Force must go through reform processes if they are to remain relevant.
Rohee said that the world has been developing and Guyana, being a part of the world, has been undergoing rapid social and economic changes.
He said that these new realities have forced the government to review the way it governs, including the provision of safety and security to citizens.
“It is not uncommon now for Governments to submit information on the performance of their countries on crime and other issues to the United Nations and Regional Organizations,” Rohee told officers.
“We, as a country, have to provide information to International Organizations on issues relating to human rights, our fight against drugs and crime, human trafficking, domestic violence and a host of other issues relating to the safety and security of our citizens,” the Minister explained.
Further, on the local front, Rohee said that citizens have raising expectations and they yearn for the provision of better quality of services by the state. He said that one of the main demands of citizens is the need for the provision of a higher standard of policing by the Guyana Police Force.
“If at the international, hemispheric and regional levels, Governments, including the Guyana Government, have to account to those Organizations for their stewardship, it is only logical that locally, our law enforcement and other agencies have to be accountable for the mandates they have to carry out,” Rohee said.
Rohee said that it’s an accepted fact that the force has undergone many adjustments over its 174 years of history, but the time has come for fundamental reorganization to be undertaken to take the Force to a level where it is able to better serve societal needs.
The Minister noted that citizens have long recognized that an institutional reform is required to be undertaken in the Force. He said that the realization has resulted in a number of initiatives that are now in place and those that are to come on stream to move the Force forward.
The Minister said that the critical issue in this developmental thrust that is now ongoing in the Force is the question of acceptance by all and sundry in your organization of the Institutional Reform Process.
Rohee sought to make it clear that the objective of the Ministry was not to dismantle the organizational structure of the Guyana Police Force but to ensure that citizen security is improved by further developing the Force into an entity that could rise to the challenges posed by the demands of modern day policing.
The main aspects of the Institutional Modernization Programme when successfully accomplished will result in the realization of the undermentioned outcomes for the Guyana Police Force Technological development, Capacity building, Improved training and the Modernization of the Administrative Systems among several others.
Rohee noted that the process of reform of the force will not be undertaken without challenges because many persons are naturally apprehensive of change.