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Gov’t. spends $17M on computer systems, AC units for police –says investment is to stop hand written statements
Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Legal Affairs used part of a US$8M Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan to equip the Guyana Police Force (GPF) with 38 pieces of computer systems, printers, scanners and Air Condition (AC) units.
AG Anil Nandlall handing over the computer system to Deputy Commissioner of Police, Calvin Brutus.
In a release sent out by GPF, it is stated that the items cost some GYD$17M and were handed over to the force on Tuesday by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall SC. According to GPF, the AG said that one of the reasons behind the move is to enable police to stop using the hand written method of taking statements. “We have decided to move from that manual handwritten process to typed and computer-generated and stored statements and it is in that initiative that we are partnering with the Guyana Police Force in attempting to provide as much resources as possible to enable the police to stop using the handwritten method of statement taking and to have statements typed, printed on computers and also stored,” Nandlall reportedly told ranks at the handing over ceremony.
For many the years, victims would have to sit hours just for a rank to write down his statement accurately. Apart from the long wait, the AG pointed out that hand-written statements also pose a problem of “legibility”. “Historically, these statements have been hand-written and that by itself presents a problem of legibility – they can’t be read easily and then of course with the passage of time, they become distorted and their ink sometimes fails over a period of time in which they are written,” Nandlall explained.
The AG reportedly reminded GPF too that his ministry was able to provide them with the equipment to boost its statement taking capability-via a project funded by the IDB called “Support for Criminal Justice Project”. According to him, one of the significant components of the project is to assist and enhance the capability of GPF. “A significant component of the project has to do with assisting and enhancing the capability of the Guyana Police Force, in particular, in its prosecutorial and investigative duties because those duties are intimately connected with the administration of criminal justice in the country,” Nandlall had reportedly said.
The computer systems and AC units are expected to be distributed to the various Court Superintendent Offices throughout the Force. Receiving them on behalf of the Force was Deputy Commissioner of Police, Calvin Brutus and he promised that the equipment will be used to serve its purpose and modernise the Force. Funding for the “Support for Criminal Justice Project” was approved by the IDB in 2017 under the President David Granger led administration and the Ministry of Legal Affairs was tasked with managing it.
However, in 2020 Kaieteur News had reported that the US$8M loan was never utilized by the previous government and the AG after taking office with current administration had to remind staff at Legal Affairs that government will still have to repay the debt at the end of the day and it should be put into use. One of the main objectives of the project is to reduce high concentrations of prison population in Guyana.
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