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British security expert prepares action plan to tackle crime here
British security expert, Russell Combe is currently preparing an interim action plan that will be used to tackle crime in Guyana from a strategic vantage point. This document will also be utilized as a measuring tool to assist the United Kingdom High Commission in deciding where help is most needed and if it will dole out financial resources for that cause.
This is according to High Commissioner Greg Quinn.
Quinn told Kaieteur News that the UK is always willing to help Guyana “in as many meaningful and productive ways we can.” However, as per protocol, the UK employs a process to ensure that the money that is to be provided will be prudently and strategically utilized.
“On the basis of what is in the interim plan I will be able to look at possible areas of help for the next year.” He was keen to note that while the plan will be used as a guide, “that doesn’t mean the only help we would provide would be on the basis of the interim plan,” Quinn said.
Already, Quinn said that Guyana enjoys bilateral relations with UK’s National Crime Agency, which is a British body similar to America’s Drug Enforcement Agency. Quinn told Kaieteur News that this arrangement has been beneficial to both Guyana and the UK. He said that the partnership “will only grow stronger.”
UK High Commissioner, Greg Quinn
British security expert, Russell Combe
Combe is from the Olive Group, which was contracted by Engineering, Design, Construction, Management (AECOM), on behalf of the United Kingdom Government. He currently serves as an advisor to President David Granger and works out of the Ministry of the Presidency. He is spending one year in Guyana.
When Combe came to Guyana in January, Minister of State Joseph Harmon assured Government’s commitment to ensuring the crafting and implementation of the five-year strategic report.
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.
Nevertheless, Minister Harmon assured that the new administration is serious about seeing the programme come to fruition.
“We are looking for an architecture that goes beyond individual governments.”
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