EXECUTIVE member of the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, has taken a swipe at the combined opposition parliamentary parties with regard to their $20M cut in the budget allocated to the Customs Anti- Narcotics Unit (CANU). Speaking to the media on Friday at a press conference at the party’s Robb Street Headquarters, Rohee questioned the stance those parties had taken in cutting the money allocated to fight the drug trade.
He accused those parties of stymieing government’s efforts to stamp out the drug issue in Guyana. “If someone is saying that they are against drug trafficking, but at the same time (they are) not giving you the money to fight drug trafficking, my question is: ‘Whose side are you on?’”
He explained that one cannot claim to be supporting the fight against drug trafficking and at the same time go about cutting the budget to execute the programmes involved in fighting the issue.
Minister Rohee, moreover, contended that the opposition parties’ action in cutting $20M from the CANU budget was tantamount to sending a signal to the people involved in narcotics trafficking that they would no longer be under pressure. He opined that the action was also sending a message to the international community with regard to Guyana’s master plan to fight narco trafficking.
“If I know that you are giving money to fight drugs, I know that you are on the side of those who are fighting drugs; if I know that you are taking away money from an organisation that is fighting drugs, I would say that you are against that organization, and you are in favour of those who are pushing drugs,” the minister opined.
Rohee was adamant that it was a bad move by the opposition parties to involve politics in the good fight against drug trafficking.
The cut in the CANU budget comes at a time when governments are struggling to find money to equip their drug enforcement agencies, and the Guyana Government has found the money to do so, Minister Rohee added.
He referred to the numerous questions posed to him time and again regarding government’s plans to equip CANU to increase its human resources to make it more effective. According to him, those resources were snatched by the opposition through their political grandstanding and bullyism.
“While we’re saying no to drugs, they are saying yes to drugs,” Rohee added.
He reflected on the past four years since the present head of CANU, James Singh, took over the agency, and opined that there has been a vast improvement in CANU’s operation. He noted that there are now some twenty-six officers, whereas there had been thirty-six; and he attributed the decrease in staff to the polygraph exercise and the thorough house cleaning that had been done in the agency, which has made it now more effective.
“Only yesterday, at the Airport, a significant seizure of about 4 to 6 kilogrammes of cocaine was intercepted by CANU. These (CANU) people are doing a wonderful job, and I compliment them,” Minister Rohee boasted.
Minister Rohee disclosed, he had pointed out in the National Assembly that, over the last four years, 1200 kilogrammes of marijuana, with a street value of US$1.2M; and 305 kilogrammes of cocaine, with a street value of US$7M, had been intercepted.
He said the opposition parties had asked for value for money, and the progress made in CANU over the last four years were a perfect example of that. Yet, despite the CANU success, the opposition parties had sent CANU officers a negative message with their budget cuts. Nevertheless, despite the challenges, CANU would continue to fight drug trafficking and the officers would show that they are not demoralized.
“In any organization, if you decide that you will take away the money from that organization, it will demoralise the ranks and tell them that they are not doing a good job. But I have spoken to some of the ranks and the head of CANU since then, and they have assured me that they are not going to be demoralised as a result of this act…but will make them stronger in their fight against the drug trade,” Minister Rohee added.