…President says PPP attempts at security reform were insincere
…receives final report from British expert

PRESIDENT David Granger, on receiving the report on the Security Sector Reform Programme (SSRP) from British Senior Security Sector Reform Advisor, Lt Col (ret’d) Russell Combe, said attempts under the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Administration to reform the country’s security sector were “insincere.” In fact, he said it was “all a bluff.”

Minutes after receiving the report in the presence of high ranking officials from the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Defence Force at State House on Thursday, President Granger said though brief, the ceremony was a significant one, noting that it forms part of a process that started nearly 20 years ago when the then government embarked on Security Sector Reform.

“This came about because of the escalation in narcotics trafficking which brought with it a horrific spate of violence…The linkages were there – with the rise in narcotics trafficking there was a surge in violence, surge in execution killings, surge of corruption of the security forces and the failure to deal with the narco trafficking,” the President said.

He said the Administration at the time was attempting to deal with the “symptoms” and not the “disease” – narcotics trafficking. “So many of the attempts at security reform were insincere, they wanted to deal with the murders but they didn’t want to deal with the cause of the murders,” the President posited.

The earliest attempts at initiating reforms started back in 1999 when United Kingdom Regional Advisor, Paul Matthias, visited Guyana to discuss security assistance from Britain. This was followed by the Symonds Report and the establishment of the National Security Strategy Organising Committee in 2000. In 2002, the Border and National Security committee, the National Consultation on Crime and the National Steering Committee on Crime were established. It was recalled that in subsequent years, legislation was passed, more crime fighting bodies were established and the initial version of the SSRP was signed, but was later scrapped by the then Government. According to President Granger, many of the initiatives did not succeed because they were not intended to succeed. In his words, “it was all a bluff.”

“We passed through nearly 20 years of woulda, coulda and shoulda without any attempt to seriously deal with the security problems of this country and ,like a disease,we cannot pretend to treat it, you can’t promise to treat it, you can’t threaten to treat it, you can’t talk about treating it without actually getting down to the root cause,” he told those present.

President Granger recalled that upon entering office in May 2015, he met with the then British High Commissioner and subsequently the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, during which assistance was sought in the area of security reform.

Turning his attention to Colonel Combe, the President said that the British Security Expert has been on the ground and is fully aware of the scale of the problem, positing that it is a national problem. With the Security Sector Report submitted, President Granger said the country could now get on with the programme. “We can now get away from the pretense and insincerity of the last two decades and make Guyana safe,” the President said while thanking Colonel Combe for the work done so far.

The British Security Expert, in delivering brief remarks, said the report builds on the interim report he had submitted last June. Noting that the submission of the report does not signal the beginning or the ending, he said activities supported by the United Kingdom, under the programme, have already commenced.

In September 2017, a number of officers had undergone training in the area of Strategic Planning, while in November there was a consultancy on maritime capabilities. “So this is not the beginning nor is it the end,” the retired Colonel assured.

“The report also has taken into account earlier consultations that have taken place, particularly with the police. These are reflected inside the report. It does focus on the police but it is not exclusive,” he further explained while adding that the report also takes into account the Guyana Prison Service and the Coast Guard. “The next activity that the UK is funding is some leadership training of the Guyana Prison Service,” he added. Colonel Combe is likely to return to Guyana to continue his work at the Ministry of the Presidency from March to April 2019.