In an effort to restore and preserve law and order at all levels of society, the Government has allocated $47.9 billion towards public safety and security in the 2022 budget.
This announcement was by Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh during his 2022 national budget presentation at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre yesterday.
Singh told the National Assembly that the sum of $4.9 billion would be allocated towards strengthening the assets of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), $400 million of which would go towards the construction of a multi-storey Brickdam Police Station which was gutted by fire in October last year.
During his presentation, Singh said that the role of ICT in security and crime fighting capabilities cannot be overemphasized. As such, he said $2.5 billion has been allocated towards the expansion of the Safe City programme beyond the boundaries of Georgetown.
“This programme will see the entire country being connected to CCTV cameras monitored centrally as well as at the regional command centres to be established across the country,” Singh said.
He added that satellite phones and body cameras will also be acquired to boost operational efficiency across all regional divisions.
A further $120 million, Singh said would be spent on training of ranks in areas such as crime and traffic management.
Additionally, he said $99 million will be assigned to further resuscitate the community policing programme. “In 2021, we promised to resuscitate community policing groups nationally. At the end of 2021, 176 of those groups were active. In 2022, we are targeting to resuscitate another 175….These groups who have proven to be extremely effective across many rural and hinterland communities,” Singh told the House.
As it relates to the Guyana Prison Service, he said a sum of $2.3 billion has been budgeted towards the enhancement of prison infrastructure. “Works will continue on the Lusignan prison which will be transformed into a modern facility to house both male and female prisoners including a vocational school, an infirmary annex, prison headquarters and command centre,” Singh said.
At the Mazaruni prison, a “second block” will be constructed.
Additionally, Singh said a sum of $88.9 million would be spent to train 1400 inmates in areas such as anger management, literacy and numeracy and tailoring.
Meanwhile, on the Guyana Fire Service (GFS), Singh told the House that Government is proposing to spend $255 million to procure a hydraulic platform to boost the firefighting capability.
Water bowsers, ambulances and an all-terrain firefighting vehicle would also be procured while an additional $100 million would be spent on the installation of more fire hydrants in an effort to ensure there is adequate water supply in the event of a fire.
