Foreigner gets private security service licence in 25 days

Jul 19, 2021 News

– Locals made to wait months, years

Kaieteur News – A local mining company has raised concerns after it discovered that another mining conglomerate headed by a Belgium national got approval for a private security service licence in 25 days, yet locals have to wait for longer periods, sometimes years to receive such documents.
Kaieteur News understands that it did not take much time either for the foreign operated company to receive permission to carry firearms as well.
The representatives of the local company said they were surprised when they heard of this, because it took the Guyana Police Force (GPF) more than a year to grant them approval.
Permission for a private security services licence is granted by the Commissioner of Police.
According to Section Eight of the Private Security Services Act of 2009, the controlling authority (Commissioner of Police) can grant or refuse to grant the licence in 60 days.
The Act states, “On receipt of an application under Section Seven and after making the inquiries as he considers necessary, the Controlling Authority may, subject to the conditions and limitations as may be specified in the licence, either grant a licence on Form II in the Schedule within a period of sixty days from the date of receipt of the application complete in all respects or refuse to grant a licence”.
The local company revealed that they had applied for the licence in 2015 and only got their approval in 2017.
A year later, on January 16, 2018, a Belgium National registered a company licenced to trade diamonds, gold and other precious minerals. He received his certificate of incorporation on January 18, 2018 and three months later, on April 2, 2018 his company was granted a Private Security Services licence.
Twenty-Five days later on April 27, 2018, the foreign owned company received a signed letter of approval for the licence by the then Acting Commissioner of Police, David Ramnarine.
Kaieteur News is also in receipt of copies of legal documents which show that the foreigner was granted his licence in 25 days, while the local company got its approval more than a year after applying.
This newspaper also made a few calls to other local companies with private security services licences to ascertain how long it took for them to get approval.
The companies, who wished not to be named, disclosed that they did not receive their licences in such a fast time frame. One person said his approval took seven months to be granted while another had to wait after a year.
After getting their approval, the companies revealed that getting permission to use firearms was just a formality and only took an additional few months.
The Giftland Mall in an invited comment stated, that it had applied in 2015 and got approval a few months later in that same year. However, it was a long wait before permission was granted for the Security Service of the Giftland Mall to carry firearms. After receiving its licence to operate a private security service, the Gifland Mall had applied for the permission to carry arms but had never received approval.
In 2017, the company reapplied again after it made changes in the structure of its security service but again, approval was never granted. In February of 2020 armed bandits stormed into the mall, fired shots in the air and caused mayhem in the establishment. Hundreds of customers had scattered looking for cover.
The Proprietor of Giftland Mall, Roy Beepat, had told the media that his security service was unable to properly protect the establishment because they were unarmed. The reason for this he had stated, was because of the constant delays and long wait for his security service to obtain permission to carry weapons.
In November 2020, according to the Proprietor of Giftland Mall, he decided to reapply for a third time. This time, permission was granted seven months later in June, 2021.
The company said that it was quite grateful for the recent approval to carry firearms after the long wait.
Reliable sources at GPF were contacted by this media house for some clarity on the time it takes to grant the Private Security Services Licences, and permission to use firearms.
Those sources revealed that process is not a lengthy one but sometimes, the list of applicants is very long.
Sometimes, they continued, some applicants are at the bottom of the list and those companies are made to wait longer than others.

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Foreigner gets private security service licence in 25 days

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