-vendors selling alcohol to minors not being prosecuted

VENDORS who sell alcohol to minors and those who employ them to sell the substance are getting away with it although both acts are illegal in Guyana.
According to Senior Superintendent Royston Andries-Junor, because the Guyana Police Force (GPF) focuses much of its attention on robbery and drug-related crimes, alcohol vendors have been able to get away with the act without being prosecuted.
“We focus mostly on crime and less attention is given to the sale of alcohol. As such, the vendors are not arrested and prosecuted as should be in keeping with the law” he said.
The Senior Officer made this disclosure during a meeting of the Social Services Sector Committee at Public Building on Friday. Andries-Junor was accompanied by Crime Chief, Wendell Blanhum and ‘A’ Division Commander, Assistant Police Commissioner, Marlon Chapman.

The trio was being quizzed by the committee on the general status of alcohol procurement by minors across the country. In a short power-point presentation, the Senior Superintendent said that findings of the GPF pointed to the fact that elders were using children to purchase alcohol and shop owners who were found to have been allowing it, were asked to desist. He added that shop owners have been complying with this request.
However, Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), Dr Vishwa Mahadeo disagrees with the officer that shop owners are complying after being asked to stop. “The law is there and we have to find a way to prevent it. I disagree that shopowners’ stop. It happens in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne ,” Dr. Mahadeo, who is the Region Six geographical MP, said.
He recommended that for this practice to stop, shop owners ought to be given two warnings after which their licence be taken away. “We are talking about the lives of children and it is a matter we need to take serious. So we need them to understand how serious an issue this is” he said, while calling for greater public awareness about this illegal practice.

Supporting Dr. Mahadeo’s call was fellow opposition MP, Indra Chandarpal, who also advocated for mandatory placement of notices on shops to inform the public that the sale of alcohol to minors is illegal. She said that upon granting a licence, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) should issue the notice which shop owners are to publicly display at their place of business.
However, one of major concerns raised at the meeting was the fact that the force does not have data about this issue. Andries-Junor was keen to note that this deficiency was not as a result of limited capacity to prosecute, but because of the fact that the force has placed greater emphasis on “serious crimes” which includes robberies and murders among others.
But this did not sit well with Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes. She reminded the gentlemen that the importance of data cannot be emphasized enough because it helps to provide an analytic consideration of an issue. She said that such data would have informed the force about which areas had high concentrations of minors accessing alcohol and it would have helped the force to have a targeted and strategic approach in dealing with the issue.

The Crime Chief interjected and made mention of several cases where persons were prosecuted in 2015, 2016, and 2017, even while he admitted that there are countless cases which have not been documented. He noted too that many of the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) campaigns in the hinterlands also examined underage drinking and minors accessing alcohol. Blanhum shared with the Committee members that the force supports reform and what is currently being worked on now, is a strategy to eliminate entirely, alcoholic beverages being available at schools’ sporting events.
“…we have to ensure we do not have cases where minors or school children are purchasing alcohol. We can do that immediately” he said, adding that there are many sporting events planned which the force will monitor.
Bringing the curtains down on the meeting was Chairperson of the Committee, Dr Vindhya Persaud who touted re-examination of the legislation which protects children against this form of exploitation.
She added that not only does the legislation needs to be amended, if there is a need, but enforcement officers, including the police, need to be trained and be informed about the laws to be able to enforce them effectively. Dr. Persaud also encouraged the senior officers to build a database with the data they have so it would be easier for them to compare statistics and measure progress.
The next time the officers meet the committee, they are expected to provide an update on what has been achieved.