The Ministry of Legal Affairs is seeking a consultant to assess the progression of the Criminal Justice Programme, with the aim of monitoring and evaluating its success.
In an advertisement, the procuring agency said it was seeking a firm that can provide, among other things, general support, inclusive of planning and development, research, monitoring and development. The chosen firm would be expected to increase the effectiveness of the programme’s results through systematic gathering of information over the remaining life of the programme. This is to allow a determination of the project risks, constraints, timely decision-making, and mitigating actions in order to keep the project on track and maximize project resources. In addition, the firm would have to facilitate evaluations by providing robust information regarding the progression of indicators from before the project to various junctures during its execution.
Consulting firms, the ministry said, must illustrate the completion of three successful projects in planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation of foreign-funded or government projects within the past five years, have at least three years of specific knowledge and experience working with specific planning tools such as logical frame-work analysis and results-based framework; and knowledge and experience in planning and development of strategic partnership and management and programme coordination. The firms bidding must also have knowledge and working experience in the use of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, Agile and test driven development models; and research skills in at least five academic or policy research projects.
The Support for the Criminal Justice System programme is a partnership between the Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Legal Affairs and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The programme addresses the challenge of overcrowding conditions in prisons by focusing on two specific problems: (i) the over-reliance by the criminal justice system on custodial sentences; and (ii) the over-use of pre-trial detention.
According to the advertisement, bidding will be done through the national competitive bidding procedures specified in the IDB’s policies for the selection and contracting of consultants financed by the IDB and is open to all eligible bidders as defined in the policy.
Participants shall submit documents that would include letter of intention, profile, number and summary of main projects of the last ten years and support information regarding activities described in the ad. Consultants may associate with other firms by way of a joint venture or a sub-consultancy to ensure their qualifications.
Expression of interest must be delivered by email to the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Support for the Criminal Justice System Attn: Procurement Officer 341 East Street, South Cummingsburg, George-town Guyana. Email: rabindra.kandhi@scjs.gy
Since its inception, the programme has employed several measures and embarked on numerous activities, culminating in addressing the general problem of overcrowding conditions in Guyana’s penitentiaries.
However, issues in the criminal justice system have been on the front burner in recent days. Attorneys-at-law Ralph Ramkarran and Ronald Burch-Smith have weighed in on the matter and during a public discourse hosted by the Caribbean Court of Justice, Judge Jacob Wit made a presentation on `Rethinking Criminal Justice.’
Ramkarran, in his blog, Conversation Tree, posited that the criminal justice system and the appeal system were in a state of collapse.
In an invited comment, Burch-Smith, who is President of the Guyana Bar Association, but clarified that he was sharing his personal view, agreed that Ramkarran’s description of the justice system “being on the verge of collapse” was no exaggeration; and credited the deficiencies to the absence of the Judicial Service Commission.
Justice Wit in his presentation had stated that in rethinking the criminal justice system, the establishment of a pre-trial chamber held great opportunities in clearing backlogs and reducing the prison population.
He recommended that accused should have access to swift trials. Those who are imprisoned, he said, should be tried within a year to six months while accused freed of pre-trial imprisonment via bail should be tried within 18 months to two years.
On the front of eliminating preliminary inquiries entirely, one of the recommendations made by Justice Wit, the Legal Affairs Ministry announced that plans are afoot to abolish the time-consuming practice.
The Attorney General’s Chambers has released the draft Criminal Law Procedure (Paper Committals) Bill 2023.
A statement from the Attorney General’s Chambers said that the Bill provides for the abolition of preliminary inquiries and their substitution with paper committals, which involve reviewing the evidence and arguments presented by both the prosecution and defence in written form, rather than conducting an in-person hearing.
The statement said that under the new system, the magistrate would review the written submissions and make a determination based on the available evidence.
