A team of 10 civilians set up to oversee police reforms is continuing its work despite three resignations and it has completed an analysis of the weaknesses and strength of the force.
Reporting to the public on Friday about security developments, Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee noted that the Strategic Management Department (SMD) was established at the Guyana Police Force in May 2013 with the employment of ten professionals to oversee the implementation of the force’s Strategic Plan. “Unfortunately, three of those persons have since resigned for reasons, I understand that were not directly related to their task of implementing their aspect of the plan”, Rohee said.
He added that the departures have not seriously affected the progress of implementation of the Plan as the remaining members have multi-tasked.
Steps have however been taken to replace those three persons as a matter of priority, he said.
Thus far, he said its accomplishments include:
1. the conduct of a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis aimed at getting clearer insights into the internal and external factors that can impact on the modernization process;
2. the development of a Change Management Stra-tegy to catalyze the transformation process;
3. the development of a communications strategy to ensure that knowledge and awareness of the modernization process facilitate concomitant changes in behaviour in the Force;
4. the design of a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework that is expected to improve organizational performance; and
5. a review of and the development of vehicle acquisition, deployment and maintenance strategies so that the Guyana Police Force could acquire the appropriate types of vehicles to suit its needs and which are maintained as per schedule.
Since its establishment, the SMD has not interfaced with the public. Critics have also said that it appears not to have had an impact on the police’s behaviour as the same excesses that the police have been accused of continued last year.
The SMD is headed by a former policeman Patrick Mentore who had been employed with the US embassy at the height of a local visa scam here. Mentore’s name had surfaced in connection with the matter in a book by an American, David Casavis. Mentore however told Stabroek News in June last year that the allegations about him in the book about the US visa scam were raised since 2001 and he had dealt with them. He told Stabroek News that no attention should be paid to the allegations and the focus should instead be on whether he could perform the role to which he was appointed. “My position as the head of the Strategic Management Department has nothing to do with any allegation or speculations in any book by anyone. I think that the important thing is whether I can perform my function in the role I have been appointed,” Mentore said when contacted.
