What’s going on in Home Affairs?

Jul 27, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Home Affairs is the umbrella over several vital agencies of the state. This ministry is responsible for security, safety, sensitive information gathering, and more. But at the ministry level itself, then in the Guyana Police Force (GPF), the news has been less than comforting. In fact, in a steady trickle, it has been one embarrassing development after another, developments that leave a stain on the ministry and, when taken to its logical extension, the government too.

Just last week, there was an announcement in the media of a shuffling to different positions of senior officers at the highest level of the GPF. A top officer claimed that all was in order, but doubt ran rampant. Events turned out not to be so sweet, with the previously claimed neatness collapsing into an untidy heap. Starting from the most recent eye-popping development, a deputy commissioner went on leave to give the freest rein for a comprehensive investigation to be initiated into what took place at the Police Credit Union, especially concerning deposit(s). There is some uncertainty as to whether the assistant commissioner proceeded on leave as a preemptive step, or circumstances forced the hand of the police brass to dispatch him with almost overnight haste. Regardless of which it is, this is not to the credit of the image or the reputation of the nation’s leading law enforcement institution. The already low esteem in which the GPF is held cannot help but take a hard hit. If it was the only situation of its kind, citizens would not have much ground for alarm, simply go on with their routines, and let the GPF sort its troubles out. Concern mounts because there were other worrying instances where both another senior GPF officer, and a high-ranking public servant from the Ministry of Home Affairs were subject to what can only be described as humiliating conditions at the hands of their counterparts overseas.

The head of the Major Crimes Unit of the GPF was detained and questioned by US authorities at the John F. Kennedy Airport, which caused some raised eyebrows in Guyana. It is unclear whether that official pause was for purposes of some friendly consultation, or not so friendly interrogation and fact finding. The incident could be as innocent as Caesar’s wife, and with nothing of substance, especially the illicit kind, capable of sticking to it. Because the local environment, however, is so saturated with suspicions of law-breaking, endless reports about wrongdoing in high places, and covering up of serious malfeasances in still higher places, Guyanese cannot find it in themselves to look upon most developments with an unjaundiced eye. The worst is concluded in the quickest time. The result is some damage is done, and the more that the GPF, or the government, endeavors to put the smoothest lip gloss on what looks bad and smells bad, the more that the disbelief of citizens broadens.

Before either of the two developments involving senior GPF officers occurred, there was the matter of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs subject to detaining and questioning at John F. Kennedy Airport. To make matters worse, her cellphone was seized. The usual patterns followed, which was a blanket of silence first, and when public curiosity did not wane, there were belated assertions that all is well, no one should make a mountain out of a molehill, of what was a negligible, passing moment. The unfortunate reality is that what was claimed not to be of concern has turned out to be a full-blown crisis for the government. The PS has resigned after being blacklisted, and the US Government has identified what it has called a corruption network entangling government officials. A pall is cast on both the GPF and Home Affairs when public servants of such high ranks are probed, pushed, and pulled to the carpet in a most unceremonious manner. Security suffers and so does the country’s reputation, while the confidence of law-abiding citizens drops still further.

The question on the minds of many citizens is how wide, deep, and high the corruption network in Guyana is. Most Guyanese want to know the answer, while they dread learning the worst.

Commissioner, Government, Guyana Police Force (GPF), Ministry of Home Affairs, positions

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What’s going on in Home Affairs?

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