Police to benefit from British funded security service training programme

Sep 05, 2017 News

Strategic planning high on agenda
Members of the Guyana Police Force, (GPF) are expected for the next two weeks, to benefit from a strategic management security service training programme.

From right, Acting Commissioner of Police, David Ramnarine; British High Commissioner Gregory Quinn, Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan and UK expert Russell Combe

The programme, launched yesterday, is a component of Britain Security Sector Reform Project.
Those present at the launch included British High Commissioner, Gregory Quinn, Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan and Acting Commissioner of Police, David Ramnarine, and British Security Adviser, Russell Combe.
In his address to the training programme, High Commissioner Quinn, said that Britain hopes that the training of the Strategic Planning Unit would help to improve the operational efficiency of the police and support and sustain relevant reform plans of the law enforcement agency.
“This training is the latest example of our commitment; it is directly linked to the interim recommendations that Russell Combe, the Security Sector Reform Adviser to the President, recently produced.”
Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan, noted that the training programme being conducted by two British experts was timely.
“Indeed, with all that has happened recently and highlighted in the news front-page and centre-page, concerning our police force, especially its upper echelons, there is need for strategic rethink.
But first that unit which provides the forces strategies and policies and plans must benefit from training especially from such a close and kindred ally- the UK (United Kingdom),”
The Minister said that the presence of UK experts in Guyana will assist with the professional strengthening, leadership and strategic planning of the GPF.
He noted that training in better intelligence gathering will lead to the establishment of sovereign authority that would assist to rid Guyana of serious criminals and crimes.
The training would be conducted during the next several months adding to assistance being provided to the Guyana Prison Service, Guyana Defence Force and the Police Force’s Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).
Ranks of the Suriname Police Force are also set to benefit from the project. Two of them are in Guyana attending this programme.
Earlier this year the British High Commissioner had indicated that a team would have looked at the Guyana Police Force to see what is lacking, identified the gaps, and then strategized as to what could be done to address those gaps.
Security Sector Reform was seen as a critical component for the attainment of good and democratic governance and was twinned with the Commonwealth Secretariat’s sponsorship of the needs assessment of the National Assembly conducted by Sir Michael Davies, and the recommendations which flowed there from 2005.
The original plan was developed in 2006 and was to be implemented in 2009; together with a three-year capacity building plan for a National Security Committee in the National Assembly between 2007 and 2009.
Parliamentary Oversight was described by the plan as being at the core of democratic governance and management of the security sector, and key to the success of the programme.
The link between governance and security was recognized, assessed and addressed through the recommendations made.
The SSRAP had highlighted that “Guyana remains dangerously close to tipping point. The consequences of failure – of the various stakeholders to seize the moment, to engage and initiate decisive action – may well be the transformation of Guyana into a failed state and/or haven for international criminality, with all the regional and international implications that this may entail.
“This is a development that should be avoided at all costs and will entail some give and take and flexibility on all sides, in the interests of the long suffering people of Guyana.”

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