Although government wants DNA testing to be a feature of the Guyana Forensic Laboratory, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan says it first needs to ensure the lab meets the required standards.
“We got to get the integrity of the system that is the most important. The integrity of the officials inside, the integrity of the systems, the writing up of the documentation…” he said during an interview at his Brickdam office on Monday.
He said the lab, which was officially commissioned in July, 2014, is outfitted with highly qualified staff but they are not “yet qualified enough to reach the stage of DNA [testing]; that is because the integrity of the specimen… they have to graduate to that high integrity of maintaining the specimen.”
Observers have said that given Guyana’s high crime rate and the value of DNA testing in criminal investigations, the laboratory should have been equipped to conduct such analyses.
Ramjattan told Stabroek News that the lab needs to acquire equipment that is not going to be damaged by electrical shortages. He said that the issues affecting the electrical installation at the facility are still to be resolved and to do so will require a lot of money.
He said that while he wants DNA testing to be done at the lab as soon as possible his main concern is ensuring that the office space, electrical installation and equipment meet the required standard. He said too that the history of the lab does not graduate it into a lab for purposes of DNA testing by “virtue of the integrity of the samples.
The system of bringing it in, then doing the necessary annotations as to where it will go and all of that because good lawyers in a court could say things and ask questions that could do damage if the credibility is not in the whole process 100%.”
Ramjattan said the training of persons to do DNA testing is not that big of an issue as this can be done “by the bright people that we have and we can contract their services.” Putting this aside, he stressed that the integrity of those employed there as well as the work done have to be focused on.
“I am very much concerned about the integrity and I want us to graduate there,” he said, while noting that Guyana has to prove to international and regional partners that it has reached this stage.
“We have not in my opinion as yet and it will take some time,” he said.
Ramjattan added that currently toxicology tests are being conducted and forged documents are being examined.
He said that a lot of evidence can now be given in High Court proceedings in connection with video/picture analysis as staff from the lab are receiving training through an ongoing Canada-funded Justice Education Society (JES) project.
The lab, which was built through funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is located at the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen campus as it is expected to serve as a training ground for young scientists in the field of forensics.
During his address at the commissioning ceremony, then Minister Clement Rohee had said that the lab would aim to use scientific techniques that the country had never seen before to solve crimes.
He said that the lab would specialise in testing toxic substances, narcotic drugs, pharmaceutical drugs, alcohol, and biological fluids.
Rohee had also stated that the lab would not be another white elephant and said there had been discussions on the question of the clientele of the laboratory in order to formulate a business plan to ensure that at every stage of its development it was active.
The facility, he said, was outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment.
