The National Assembly’s Committee of Supply yesterday approved the $131 million allocated in the 2019 national budget for the Ministry of the Presidency’s Defence and National Security Programme and included in this sum is funding for the improvement of the National Intelligence Centre (NIC) and the procurement of data backup equipment.
In responding to questions posed by former home affairs minister Clement Rohee, State minister Joseph Harmon informed committee members that $12.5 million will be used to improve the capacity of the NIC to enable it to store information and provide better coverage for the national intelligence and security system.
“We are purchasing equipment to create an offline backup system for the storage of critical data for closed circuit television [CCTV] sites,” he said.