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Government revamping CANU – Dr Luncheon

Oct 25, 2014 News

By Latoya Giles
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon yesterday announced that the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU) is expected to undergo several major changes starting from Monday.
According to Luncheon, when Cabinet met on Tuesday last they came to a joint understanding of the changes which needed to be made to the entity. Luncheon told the media yesterday that the country’s main drug fighting unit is expected to have it human resources doubled as government moves to implement its latest security sector reform initiative.
Luncheon explained that the new reform process would be working on a revised chart – one that responds to the tasks, functions of investigations, prosecutions and international collaboration.
Moreover the Cabinet Secretary said that the reform initiative follows inter-current intervention and recognizes the many contributions made by CANU to law enforcement in Guyana and specifically its functioning in the field of investigations, prosecutions and international collaborations in anti-narco trafficking.
Further it was noted that the second aspect of the reform is the approval of job descriptions, job specifications that are applied. These will be applied to the inventory of authorized positions. The third aspect he said, would deal with tenure. He added that the issue of salary structure would also come under the reform.
“The impact of the restructuring and reforms of CANU we anticipate would be profound. CANU has made significant inroads into narco-trafficking and narco-traffickers in Guyana. This is an extremely incisive, timely intervention,” Luncheon noted.
Over the years CANU has come under much scrutiny. Within the last two years government had sought to introduce the use of polygraph testing to officers in the unit.
A polygraph, popularly referred to as a lie detector, measures and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions. The belief is that deceptive answers will produce physiological responses that can be differentiated from those associated with non-deceptive answers.
More than 60 law enforcement workers have been fired or not had their contracts renewed after failing or refusing to take the polygraph tests. These include employees of the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU) and Police Anti Narcotics Branch.
More than 20 employees of the Guyana Energy Authority (GEA), including fuel markers and inspectors, have also been let go recently because of the polygraphs.
The use of polygraph testing as a means to test an employee’s honesty is a controversial one with arguments by some that it is not conclusive enough to use as a basis for firing someone.
According to Wikipedia, US federal government agencies such as the FBI and the CIA and many police departments such as the LAPD use polygraph examinations to interrogate suspects and screen new employees.
There have been calls for the tests to also be administered to Government Ministers and Department Heads.

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