Cabinet has given its nod of approval for the establishment of a National Border Institute, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said yesterday.
During a post-Cabinet press briefing, he explained that the institute will enable research to ensure the maintenance of Guyana’s territorial integrity as well as to address issues relating to its airspace and the continental shelf.
Harmon said that Cabinet agreed that the institute should be a semi-autonomous agency under the management of a Board of Directors, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs being the initial chairman. He said that the directors will be drawn from key agencies relevant to the objectives of the institute, such as the Attorney General’s Chambers, the Guyana Defence Force, the Maritime Administration Department, the National Archives, the University of Guyana, the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority and the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission.
Harmon informed that it was also agreed that the assistance of former ambassadors and academics with relevant experience on border matters will be solicited.
He said that while Cabinet approved the proposals for the institute, the final details, including the cost to set it up, are still to be worked out. He acknowledged that this will result in a cost to government and therefore the National Assembly will have to be approached for funds to be allocated.
Responding to questions, he said that the institute is a very important one as it will be the “repository” of all documents, maps and charts which have to do with the territorial integrity issues. He said that the minister pointed to the condition under which these records were kept and the fact that it was really “in a deplorable state and that we were basically having to rely on institutional memory of some persons who were involved in previous negotiations.” He said that the idea is that all of these matters will be placed under one institute and displayed in a proper way.
“We want to ensure that the institute becomes what it is meant to be because years going forward, when many of us would have passed away, there must be some clear record there as to what happened in the past, 2016 and the years going forward,” he said.
