THE National Assembly last night adopted a Motion on the report of the Special Select Committee as it relates to consideration of the 2004 report of the Disciplined Forces Commission, presented in the National Assembly on June 3, after more than a few months of consideration.
Chairman of the Special Select Committee in the present Parliament examining the report, Prime Minister Sam Hinds, said the report is a very short one and he is glad the work is now over. He told the National Assembly of Government’s position on many of the recommendations and said many of them have become overtaken with time or have been implemented or are in the process of being implemented.
For recommendation 21, which stated that numerical strength of the Force should be augmented, the Prime Minister said this would require resources currently not available, but nevertheless, the Committee accepted the recommendation.
Hinds said that recommendations 23 `to 25 did not have the agreement of the Committee. These deal with the training of private security personnel being taken from the Guyana Police Force and that members of the Special Constabulary should be relieved of guard duties and allowed to function as true GPF reserves.
Recommendations 62 to 66 deal with the matter of firearm licenses in terms of bolstering supervisory control of divisional commanders, the GPF adhering strictly to criteria for the granting of firearms and the Minister of Home Affairs using his statutory powers to make standard and uniform regulations for issuing firearm licenses.
Prime Minister Hinds said these recommendations were dealt with in the firearm legislation passed in the National Assembly.
Hinds said too that the Committee, in its deliberations, did not agree with recommendations 101 to 103 which sought to reduce the demand on members of the Guyana Defense Force.
Speaking on the Motion, PNCR member Deborah Backer said the Minister of Home Affairs had a bad attendance record at the meeting of the Special Select Committee. She said that, as the subject Minister, he should have been more interested in the goings on at the level of the committee.
But speaking later during the debate, Minister Clement Rohee defended his absence from the Committee, saying his duties in service to the people of Guyana are what gave him a low score on the attendance sheet.
Backer went on to say that one of the most important areas concerning the deliberations of the DFC was that of extra-judicial killing.
She said what is needed to address this is the political will. Backer said that had some of the recommendations of the DFC being put into place, the killing of 16 year-old Kelvin Fraser might not have happened. She said Government needs to deal with the issue of extra-judicial killing in a frontal way.
Backer believes there is more to the modernization of the Guyana Police Force than the acquisition of equipment.
Speaking on the Motion, Minister of Transport and Hydraulics Robeson Benn said the work of the Committee in examining the recommendations of the DFC is an effort to ensure that “we have a safe and secure country through the disciplined forces. He said some of the recommendations are being implemented while others have been overtaken by time.
Speaking on behalf of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Raphael Trotman said that had the Committee dealt with the recommendations with alacrity, then there would have been an earlier report presented to the House.
He said that it is an indictment against the National Assembly that it took more than six years for the recommendations to be signed off. Trotman said that, for him, the debate on the Motion was nothing more than a requiem. Trotman is not convinced that the recommendations in the report will reach very far in terms of their implementation.
During his contribution to the debate on the Motion, Minister Rohee said he regretted all the “doom and gloom” that the Opposition speakers were sounding in their presentations.
He said the Police bashing will not “get this country anywhere.” He noted that people are choosing to ignore the positive developments and are focusing only on the negative ones.
The Minister said the Citizens’ Security Programme, funded in part by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), has incorporated some of the recommendations. He said the transformation and modernization of the Police Force is already taking place.
On July 26, 2007, the National Assembly, under the Ninth Parliament, passed Resolution No. 33 which resolved to have the National Assembly approve a Special Select Committee to conclude examination of the Report and recommendations of the Disciplined Forces Commission and report to the National Assembly six months from the date of establishment.
That new committee was mandated by the Resolution to take cognizance of the work of the Special Select Committee in the Eighth Parliament.
On May 16, 2003, the National Assembly under the Eighth Parliament passed Resolution No. 21 approving the establishment and terms of reference of a Disciplined Forces Commission – that is, the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Prison Service and the Guyana Fire Service and all their branches, departments and units, focusing on making recommendations for their reform, sustained professional development and structure.
The DFC on December 11, 2003 submitted its Interim Report on the Guyana Police Force in the National Assembly. The Final Report of the DFC was delivered to the Speaker of the National Assembly on May 6, 2004 and presented in the National Assembly on May 17, 2004.
By Resolution No. 48, passed on July 8, 2004, the National Assembly referred the Report of the DFC to a Special Select Committee for review within a period of four months, and thereafter to report to the National Assembly on the manner in which the recommendations ought to be implemented.
On November 4, 2004, the Special Select Committee was established and commenced its deliberations on the Report by inviting heads of the Disciplined Forces to share their views on the recommendations pertaining to their agency. The Committee first examined the recommendations pertaining to the Guyana Police Force and completed a draft preliminary report in April 2006. It was, however, unable, owing to the dissolution of the Eighth Parliament on May 2, 2006 to present that interim report.
Also passed at yesterday’s sitting is the Persons with Disabilities Act, after the House considered a Report of a Special Select Committee to deliberate on the clauses. That Bill will be aimed at providing certain rights to persons with disabilities, to provide for the promotion and protection, and full and equal enjoyment of the rights and to facilitate the enforcement of rights and to eliminate discrimination on the basis of disability.
The legislation will also provide for the welfare and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities and to provide for the registration of persons with disabilities and to establish the National Commission on Disabilities.