– Crime Chief

PERSONS were questioned soon after the November 9, 2013 theft of IT equipment from a storage area at the Citizen Security Programme (CSP) office, Ogle, East Coast Demerara, but Crime Chief Seelall Persaud reported, yesterday, that police made no progress with the probe.
The missing items included computers and related software, some of which were earmarked for the Forensic Laboratory.
In September 2010, the sod was turned for that facility which is located within the precincts of the University of Guyana on Dennis Street, Sophia.

That followed an agreement signed between the Government of Guyana and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), as part of the institutional strengthening component of the CSP.
Over the years, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) has been at a disadvantage in carrying out effective investigations as it relates to criminal matters, resulting in unsolved cases.
However, the completion of this laboratory will, significantly, improve local forensic capabilities, thereby enhancing the security sector.
Government is cognisant of the need for more advanced technology to enhance the crime fighting capacity of the GPF and, consequently, several groundbreaking initiatives have been taken to ensure that the security sector is geared to its capacity to deal with emerging challenges.

NEARING COMPLETION
So far, the Ministry of Home Affairs has pumped $60M into the construction and equipping of the laboratory which is nearing completion.
The Ministry stated, that using the National Competitive Bidding (NCB) Process, the supplier, International Pharmaceutical Agency (Guy) Limited, of Lot 22 ‘B’ Camp Street, Georgetown, was awarded the contract to supply and deliver items to the Forensic Laboratory as follows:

* Lot 1 – Small Apparatus and Glassware (150 items) in the sum of $39,616,509. These items include beakers, test tubes, pipettes and storage containers.

* Lot 2 – Consumable and Chemicals (248 items) in the sum of $10,174,812. Those include chemicals, reagents, acids and solutions.
Those supplies are needed to perform daily analysis, testing and sampling.
Additionally, the supplier, Pressy Enterprise, of Cowan and Parade Streets, Kingston, Georgetown, was awarded the contract, in the sum of $15,024,000 for the procurement of photographic and forensic equipment for the GPF.

(By Michel Outridge)