DPP's operations continue despite fire

DPP’s operations continue despite fire

Nov 24, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – The work of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) will continue despite the recent fire, which destroyed a section of the building that housed its offices.
Speaking with Kaieteur News on the progress made to have the office restored to its regular state of operations, the DPP’s communication Officer, Liz Rahaman, explained it is already back to operating at an optimum level, despite the fire.

Police ranks assisted with removing important documents from the DPP’s Chambers.

“As you are aware, we recovered all files so nothing was lost in that regard; the fire destroyed the OPR [the police’s Office of Responsibility] section. So we were not affected as they were. We are currently cleaning the office of any debris and reassembling the documents to continue our work,” Rahaman said.
Emphasizing that the fire had little to no effect on the functions of the DPP’s office, the communications officer noted that work of the prosecutors engaged in the criminal assizes will continue unabated, since the documents were in the possession of the respective prosecutors when the fire scorched the building.
In the meantime, Rahaman said that the DPP office has taken steps to have the documents filed for safekeeping.
The fire, which started at the Guyana Police Force’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) Eve Leary, Georgetown over the weekend has completely gutted that building, before destroying sections of the facility that accommodates the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The fire, which started around 15:00hrs on Saturday, quickly moved through the old wooden structures.
Police officers had rushed to the assistance of the DPP Chambers by helping to remove massive amounts of files from the office, while firefighters, who arrived 45 minutes after the blaze started, tried desperately to save the building. Prior to the fire tenders ‘arrival, ranks were also seen throwing files out of the windows of the upper flat of the DPP’s office into the compound. The files contain information on police cases and serious matters, which are before the courts.
The firefighters were successful in putting out the blaze around 17:00hrs. This was after several persons, including Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn, Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, SC, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, Minister of Public Service, Sonia Parag, DPP Shalimar Ali-Hack, SC, and staffers of the Chambers turned up at the scene and attempted to assist in saving documents. While it is unclear at this point what caused the blaze, the incident sparked renewed interest and calls by several members of society to implement a digital system to help preserve important records.

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