Can the GPF heal itself?

Sep 15, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Police Force (GPF) is seemingly in a race with itself to outdo what it has done before, sink to still lower depths. It is taken for granted these days that the GPF is suffering from a pathological sickness. The sum of individual corruption is dragging down an institution that can now struggle to carry its weight. This should be worrying for every citizen, for as diseased and as weakened as the GPF is, almost in the throes of life support, the plug cannot be pulled. As in any society that has some inclination to law and order, a limping police force is better than having none to maintain the line between law and chaos. This is the unhappy dilemma that Guyanese face: in quick succession, several developments, none on the comforting and lawful side, has wounded the GPF and reduced it to a shadow of itself. The irony is that the government maintains the façade that all is well, and that what has come to light is nothing over which to lose sleep. President Ali himself has been part of this unconvincing charade, which only makes matters worse, as events are showing the GPF in a poorer light.

We zero in on one issue that has stirred a mini storm inside the GPF. It involves the handling of millions of dollars and has touched a senior officer in a less than healthy manner. To put this bluntly, the odor is of rank uncleanliness and unprofessionalism, if not much worse. The usual high-level bureaucratic maneuvers have followed with the officer being allowed to proceed on leave. Why was that so and how could that be possible are the first questions, given the severity of the circumstances, the appearance of the matter. It is one that has no resemblance to any routine, so outlandish it was, and so unacceptable it would be to any law enforcement group with any self-respect about it. Another question is who did not draw the line and stood by while that leave decision or arrangement took wing. Though it is sure to fall on stony ground, there is the suggestion of invisible and powerful political hands behind the decision. Whatever it is worth, politics is too closely intertwined with the operations of the GPF, and it has not been for the better. The GPF has enough issues of its own making, and the last thing that it needs is the sinister shadow of Guyana’s politics intruding into its management, its workings.

Now the latest twist in this matter of alleged wrongdoing involving over a hundred million dollars in the GPF is that $50M was already withdrawn from an account when a move was made by the Special Organized Crime Unit to freeze it at a local bank. These funds were already declared to be “suspicious” several weeks ago, with a key player fingered as being an aider and abettor to a higher up in the GPF. He was the foot soldier and bagman. To round off the circle of corruption inside this nest, this now suspected tainted rank usually found himself the delighted recipient of another police promotion. From all appearances, he had to be doing something well, only for developments to point out that his involvement was in matters that are allegedly beyond the pale of what is lawful.

What is it that Guyanese have in their police force, what are they left to expect? What new bombshell is likely to explode out of the GPF quarters? To describe this as a nest of corruption or a web of police deception does not begin to come close to what is happening inside this most vital of national institutions. It would be the height of understatement. We say this for the solid reason that the sum of what has been coming out of the GPF indicates that it has its own institutional epidemic that drains it of vitality and exposes every citizen to danger. It would be of enormous help if the government would tell a straight story and the whole of it to the public relative to the true state of the GPF. At least. Guyanese could be forewarned, brace themselves and secure themselves.

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corruption, Editorial, Guyana Police Force (GPF), individual, sickness

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