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PPP-abandoned UK security programme to be resuscitated – Greenidge
Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge (Left) and Foreign Affairs Director General Audrey Waddell, during the media engagement yesterday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The once abandoned United Kingdom (UK)-offered Security Sector Reform Programme (SSRP), will be resuscitated with financing expected to be made available by the end of this year, Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge said yesterday.
The US$4.7B programme was scrapped in 2009 by the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Administration after the British Government had requested to have oversight of the programme, to ensure that there was ‘value for money’.
The former Government saw this request as a move to intrude upon Guyana’s sovereignty. However, the British Government had said that the then Government had submitted a different proposal — one which had focused on police modernisation rather than employing a holistic approach to reform, as was originally requested.
The intention of the British was to build a workable basis for improving national security, while reducing crime in Guyana by 2011.
Greenidge accompanied the Head of State, President David Granger to the UK last week which culminated in a series of engagements with UK representatives, policymakers and the Diaspora.
Stemming from these discussions between Granger and UK policymakers, the move to explore ways to reactivate the programme, made it on the agenda.
“That security arrangement is to be reactivated”, the Minister said, noting that there is currently an expert here in Guyana on a ‘scoping mission’ looking at the ways of getting the programme back up and running.
The expert will also be looking at ways to possibly tailor the programme so that it addressed priority areas in accordance with Guyana’s current crime situation.
The Minister’s revelation would come weeks after State Minister Joseph Harmon had assured of the new administration’s seriousness in seeing the programme come to fruition.
“Since we came into office, the President recognised the importance of this sector and all of the Government officials see it important to follow up on this exercise. We are looking for an architecture that goes beyond individual governments,” Minister Harmon said.
The Minister had noted also that the Government is optimistic that after the SSRP has been implemented, Guyana’s security sector will be significantly strengthened, allowing for enhanced crime-fighting capabilities and a safe and secured country.
Minister Harmon noted that once agencies such as the Police Force have been strengthened through the programme, law enforcement officials would be in a better position to effectively carry out their duties.
The plan to resuscitate the programme would come on the heels of utterances made by the British High Commissioner to Guyana, Gregory Quinn, who had already revealed the UK’s shift in priority areas to areas that speak to infrastructure and security.
The Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) would have also benefitted from aid in the person of Dr. Sam Sittlington, a world-renowned expert on crime.
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