Two local private sector businessmen have joined the debate on crime, security and the economy sparked by public comments made by former Guyana Defence Force Commander Brigadier (retd) David Granger and Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon in the media earlier this week.
In an invited comment made during a telephone interview on Wednesday one of the city’s major retailers told Stabroek Business that while the immediate physical dangers posed by criminal attacks against the business community had to be addressed by “more aggressive policing” the point made by Mr Granger in his recent interview published in the Stabroek News on Monday November 12 about the impact of narcotics and fuel smuggling on the country was entirely valid. “Those of us who are in business can attest to the various ways in which both the illegal trade in fuel and the narcotics trade distort the economy and make life difficult for legitimate businesses,” the businessman said.
In last Monday’s Stabroek News report Granger was reported as saying that a higher level of public safety could be realized in an environment of greater political will on the part of the government and a higher level of integrity on the part of law enforcement officers. Granger was also reported in the Stabroek News as saying that the efficiency of security measures was being hampered by a lack of adequate intelligence.
However, in a sharp response on Tuesday Dr Luncheon, who is also Chairman of the Central Intelligence Committee and Secretary to the Defence Board, described Mr Granger’s remarks as “deceitful.” Luncheon was reported in the state-run Guyana Chronicle of Wednesday November 14 as saying that the government had demonstrated its commitment to addressing the security situation through several interventions and that it would continue to do so.
The businessman told Stabroek Business that “the essence of the issue” had to do with theeffectiveness of the anti-crime measures put in place by government rather than the measures themselves.
“One need only look at the extent to which the business community remains vulnerable to understand that Brigadier Granger has a point,” the businessman said.
In recent years the government has taken several institutional initiatives to address the local crime situation including the establishment in 2000 of a National Security Strategy Committee under former Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj, the establishment of a Border and National Security Committee in 2001 and the establishment of the Disciplined Forces Commission in 2004.
Government has also unveiled a National Security Strategy Master Plan while President Bharrat Jagdeo is on record as promising to shore up the crime-fighting capacity of the Guyana Police Force by providing, among other things, a helicopter for the service.
Asked to comment on these initiatives the businessman said that what is of relevance is not the number of committees set up and the studies done but the degree to which those committees have been functioning and the extent to which the recommendations of the studies have been implemented.
“The safety of the business community cannot be built around committees and studies but on effective implementation,” the businessman said.
Another businessman in the mining sector blamed the local media, “including the privately-owned media” for what he described as their “obvious failure to monitor and follow up issues pertaining to crime and security.”
He said that the media appeared to be concerned primarily with providing publicity for the setting up of committees and paid little attention to the ongoing work of these committees “or whether or not any ongoing work takes place at all,” the businessman said.”
According to the businessman it was the failure of the media to “track” the extent to which the various initiatives undertaken in the security sector have had any serious or lasting impact that gives rise to controversy over “the value of those initiatives.
The mining sector businessman cited the failure so far to provide the Guyana Police Force with a helicopter as “probably one of the main reasons for certain types of crime against the business community.” He pointed out that Guyana was a vast country and that the law enforcement agencies did not exercise “effective security jurisdiction” over much of the country.
“What we have, in effect, is a situation in which bandits can plan attacks on the mining sector, taking advantage of the fact that their plans are unlikely to be discovered, far less foiled, by the police.”
The mining sector businessman also told Stabroek Business that the point made by Mr Granger in his Stabroek News interview about the movement of guns and narcotics across the border was ‘entirely valid” and that it was one of the more serious concerns of the mining community since illegal trans-border activity had implications for the security of the mining sector.
Asked to comment on remarks attributed to Mr Granger about the political will of the government to arrest the crime situation the businessman said that while he had no reason to question the political will of the government, the fact that its efforts in the crime and security area did not appear to be bearing “corresponding fruit” was a problem that could not be ignored.
The businessman told Stabroek Business that the business sector was concerned with both the strength and the efficiency of the Guyana Police Force since both issues had implications for the effectiveness of policing strategy.
He said that given the current strength of the force there could be ‘no reasonable expectation” that the country’s interior and border areas would be effectively policed. Stabroek Business understands that the Guyana Police Force is approximately 15 per cent below strength.
A GINA release published in the Guyana Chronicle disclosed that government has expended $3,5 billion on security in 2007.
