President Irfaan Ali has highlighted the government’s plans to enhance the Joint Services including a new Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) headquarters and fire-fighting training at Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) across the country.
During the feature address at Monday’s sod-turning exercise for the new Brickdam Police Station, Ali voiced the need for results-based security and the conversion of these security organizations into results-based entities. He also emphasized the importance of linking performance to the welfare and well-being of those responsible for national security.
The President also discussed the government’s commitment to ensuring that members of the police force retire with dignity. On this note, he mentioned exploring methods used in other countries, where retirement is based on the number of cases prosecuted, arrests made, convictions obtained, and overall service quality, rather than just the number of years served.
“We have gotten too accustomed to service being a numbering system how many years you served and not the quality that is inherent in the service… And that is the difference between quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis. And that is the direction [in] which we want to go,” Ali emphasized.
The Head of State further outlined specific developments within the Guyana Police Force (GPF). The construction of a Marine Division, he said for instance, will enable the utilization of river assets in crime positioning, fighting, and proactive intelligence work.
Additionally, he noted that the government is investing in air, land, and sea craft capacity and capability for both the police force and the Guyana Defence Force. These investments include state-of-the-art marine assets, a new hangar at Ogle, a chopper, and drone capabilities, all aimed at enhancing crime fighting.
“Of course, in the land capability we’re already investing heavily in bikes, in the motor vehicles, in buses, and ATVs,” he added.
Ali further pointed out that digitization and automation are critical aspects of the government’s security architecture plans. The aim is to remove human bias and improve accountability through a fully automated digital platform. The prison service, he noted is one of the institutions that will benefit from severe modernization in terms of technological capability.
Referring to his observation and discovery of varying levels of inefficiency in the immigration proceedings during a recent spot check at the airport, Ali stressed the importance of attitude-matching capability within the force. He further emphasized on the need for support, reliance and integration among officers to deliver better service.
“So digitisation, automation, infrastructure, service, and people are the forefront of what we’re doing in building into the future today”.
Overall, these investments and developments are part of the government’s commitment to building a robust national security architecture in line with Guyana’s future needs, the president stated.
“We’re building, at CANU, a regional integrated system that will allow CANU not only to function effectively out of the city but to function in every single region with the same efficiency, same capability, and with the same ability to proactively work against those who try to destroy our society with drugs. An important part of what we’re doing with CANU also is to build its capacity to integrate with other regional structures in the Caribbean, in Latin America, and of course, with our partners in the Western Hemisphere. That is why the structure of CANU will reflect this new approach to the work that they do. In the fire service, we’re building our capability and capacity, enhancing our infrastructure, building our human resource capacity,” he explained.
“So this year, I’m using this opportunity to give you an insight into the type of investment that will be made this year in building out this national security architecture”.
According to Ali, there will soon be another sod-turning for the new CANU headquarters. The proposed new edifice of the Brickdam Police Station, for which the sod was turned on Monday, will be 12 storeys tall and will also house most of the Eve Leary police operations.
