Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee yesterday said that Thursday’s $20 million cut of the Custom Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) budgetary allocation by the joint opposition sends the wrong message to drug traffickers and the international community.
Speaking at a press briefing at Freedom House held along with Ministers Pauline Sukhai and Irfaan Ali, Rohee said it was a bad move by the opposition. The press conference came one day after the opposition slashed $20.8 billion more from the national budget before it was approved.
The CANU cut fell under a $224.4 million allocation under the Ministry of Finance, covering subsidies and contributions to local organisations.
Rohee told reporters that the cut “sends a wrong signal to the international community.” He questioned how someone could be against drug trafficking and at the same time not release the funds to effectively fight it. “Whose side are you on? You can’t claim to be supportive of the fight against drug trafficking and at the same time removing or cutting the CANU budget by $20 million. I would like to publicly ask: whose side are the opposition on?”
He said the cut is also sending the wrong signal to the persons involved in drug trafficking.
Rohee reported that the cut will disable the entity from effectively performing its function. “I think that a stronger signal would have been sent to persons involved in narco-trafficking if you had given the money to CANU,” he stressed, while noting that the agency has intercepted drugs worth more than the $20 million that is being denied.
He said that despite this setback, CANU will continue its fight against drug trafficking. He said that he did not believe the move would demoralise the unit.
He noted that he has spoken to several ranks and also the head James Singh and he was assured that they will press on with their work.
