The Report cites minimal cooperation among law enforcement agencies, weak border controls and limited resources for law enforcement as being among the primary reasons for the country’s failure to achieve most of the original goals of its 2005-2009 National Drug Strategy Master Plan (NDSMP).
However, the Report notes that a recent major “personnel transition” in the Customs Anti- Narcotics Unit may offer some promise of improvement in the country’s anti-narcotics coordination and interdiction efforts.
The report alludes to the passage in the National Assembly of legislation allowing for plea bargaining, wiretapping and accessing cell phone ownership data in order to “modernize the country’s legal system and augment the tools available to law-enforcement authorities.”
The Report also points to instances of local cooperation with the counter-narcotics efforts of the US authorities including Guyana’s implementation of the 1997 Caribbean US Summit Justice and Security Action Plan and its 2001 signing of a Maritime Law Enforcement Agreement (MLEA) with the US. However, the report notes that while legislation aimed at giving effect to the MLEA has been passed in the National Assembly since 2003 that legislation is yet to be implemented.
According to the report Guyana is a transit point for cocaine destined for North America, Europe, West Africa and the Caribbean but not in quantities sufficient to impact the US market.
Meanwhile, the Report notes that the government has met with “mixed success” in its efforts to prosecute state officials for corrupt practices. It declares that despite initiatives which have included legislation requiring public officials to disclose their assets to an Integrity Commission prior to assuming office, Guyana was still ranked as the seventh most corrupt country in the Western Hemisphere by Transparency International in its 2008 Corruption Perception Index.
