Latest update January 14th, 2025 3:35 AM
Latest News
- ‘Guyana could have received at least US$13B to date from oil’
- ExxonMobil preparing for oil production at 6th project
- Final draft of Gaza truce deal presented to sides after ‘breakthrough’, official says
- Venezuela detains tanker falsely flying Guyana’s flag
- ‘Pres. Ali made it clear no renegotiation of Exxon contract’ – Hess boss tells conference
CANU CoI Report unlikely to be made public – Harmon
With the full report of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into allegations made by alleged self-confessed
Minister of State
Joseph Harmon
drug trafficker, Barry Dataram, submitted, it is highly unlikely that this report will be made public because of sensitivity information it contains.
This was according to the Minister of State, Joseph Harmon this week.
Earlier this year, Dataram claimed that there was major drug network existing at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), which sees key officers of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) playing a key role in the smuggling and trafficking of illicit substances in and out of Guyana. A Commission of Inquiry (CoI) was set up to investigate these claims.
Minister Harmon was asked last Thursday, when the report was likely to be made public. He responded by saying, that that the report is with the Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, and it would therefore be his call when the report would be made public.
“I think it’s a matter of how you deal with it as it would affect reputations of persons who are in office and so on, because these are allegations that are made against public officials and the investigation would have actually dealt with the allegations already out there,” he stated.
He added, “Sometimes the public makes a judgment based on what has been put out there in the allegation, so now the inquiry has to deal with those allegations; it has to deal with public perceptions and it has to deal with the fact that there are people who are in public office who can be affected or damaged by these reports,” the Minister of State said.
Asked if a major shakeup is in the cards for CANU, Harmon stated that he does not know whether this will happen, however, he stated that ‘the architecture’ of the fight against drugs will undergo some changes with the establishment of the National Anti-narcotics Agency (NANA) which will result in ‘greater’ levels of coordination of the agencies that are involved in fight against illegal drugs.
“The drug dealers and so on out there can be assured that the Government is going to take a very firm stance on the matter, and that we’re going to increase the sort of coordination of these agencies because you know, at least three or four agencies are involved…So you need some coordination of the activities of these entities if we are to ensure that the fight against drugs is intensified as the President wants it to be.”
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
The PNCR and AFC are a blight on democratic politics
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) have forfeited... more
Clarifying misconceptions about the Panama Canal
Sir Ronald Sanders (Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the US and the OAS) By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News–... more
Weekend Cartoon
