A NUMBER of new institutional mechanisms were put in place at the Ministry of Home Affairs during the 2006-2011 period.

They include task forces on fuel smuggling and contraband, narcotics and illicit weapons, trafficking in persons, as well as new institutional arrangements at the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) and the Guyana Fire Service (GFS), the Minister, Mr. Clement Rohee told a press briefing on Monday.
Speaking at the Police Officers’ Training College, Kingston, Georgetown, he said, in addition, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Security Committee was established in December 2007, while the Security Monitoring Committee for Ogle Airport was named in January 2012.
Rohee said, during the same 2006-2011 period, the ministry initiated certain organisational and leadership changes at the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) and greater focus and a more robust pro-active approach was adopted.
According to him, in the end, those changes bore fruit so much so that CANU is scoring more and more successes in the fight against trafficking and possession of drugs.
The minister said an inception report, which will help inform the consultative process and the design for a successor 2013-2018 National Drug Strategy Master Plan has been completed. It would be sent to Cabinet, shortly, for consideration and, once approved; the ministry will move swiftly to advance the procedure with a view to completion within six months.
Meantime, the ministry and law enforcement agencies are guided by those aspects of the current master plan which can be deemed as work in progress as well as the collective understandings reached at the level of the Central Intelligence Committee and the Task Force on Narcotics and Illicit Weapons, he said.

Bold initiative
“We are pleased that the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has taken the bold initiative to establish a Drug Enforcement Unit and a Port Control Unit under the GoG/UNODC Container Control Programme. These initiatives will help considerably in strengthening the efforts of the Guyana Police Force’s Anti-Narcotics Branch and the CANU. There is now, more than even before, greater coordination and collaboration between the law enforcement agencies engaged in the fight against drug trafficking,” Rohee pointed out.
He said that certain new and innovative approaches to crime fighting have been introduced, including the Electronic Crime Reporting System using BBM, Facebook and the Internet.
Rohee disclosed that messages have reached more than 260,000 cell phone users throughout Guyana, making them aware of the new innovations and encouraging them to take advantage of them.
Additionally, the ministry has introduced the ‘I paid a Bribe’ website which encourages persons, on the basis of anonymity, to provide information on payment of a bribe for a public service rendered at any of the agencies under its purview, he noted.
Rohee  said the ministry has launched a 24×7 hotline, resulting in heavy traffic with calls for assistance from members of the public and, over the past five years, worked hard to build mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation relations with its counterparts in the neighbouring countries as well as others with which Guyana enjoys friendly relations.
He said, by participating in numerous international fora, the ministry has gained a deeper and broader appreciation of regional, hemispheric and global developments and trends in respect to the fight against crime, trafficking in narcotics and firearms and the collective efforts that are required to cooperate in countering such criminal enterprises.
Rohee said the past five years was a very productive period for the ministry insofar as policy formulation, implementation and fulfillment of its oversight role is concerned and the announcements made should certainly not be a matter of “too late! too late! is the cry!” Rather it should be “better late than never”.
He said: “I must point out that, during that period, I spent most of my time and efforts acquainting myself with the sometimes complex institutional and organisational arrangements as well as other critical aspects of the functioning of those agencies that fall under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs.”