Several rounds of ammunition, consistent with what was missing from the Guard Room of the Colonel John Clarke Military School at Tacama, Upper Berbice River, were recently found.
Chief of Staff Brigadier Mark Phillips, who confirmed that ten rounds of ammunition were found, told Stabroek News that the army cannot definitively say at this point if those were the same ten rounds that went missing. The GDF had announced that it was checking for 10 7.62 x 39mm rounds that went missing from the Tacama base and that a separate Board of Inquiry was established to report on any breaches of the Standing Operating Procedures for the handling and accounting for ammunition at the training location.
The GDF had said that it had since conducted checks that accounted for all other ammunition held at that base.
Brigadier Phillips told Stabroek News yesterday he was shocked when it was reported in another section of the media that 425 rounds were missing. He said the first thing that was done was a verification of the number missing.
He said no one has been arrested and that investigations continue.
The GDF’s securing of ammo and weaponry has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years and most notably after 30 AK-47s along with five pistols vanished from the GDF’s armoury at Base Camp Ayanganna in February 2006. Around 17 of the weapons which disappeared were later found in the possession of criminals during the bloody crime spree that the country experienced during that period. A number of others were recovered.
