Government last evening secured budgetary allocations for the nation’s security sector under the Ministry of Home Affairs, when the Alliance for Change (AFC) abstained from voting.

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) on the first vote on Capital Expenditure rejected it in its entirety.

The House last evening while in Committee of Supply, firstly considered the estimates for the Ministry’s Secretariat Services, the agency under whose capital budget was allocated some $643M for Citizen Security Programme.
APNU members refused to pose any questions to Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee and following a number of queries by AFC Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan, Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman put the expenditure to the vote.
Ramjattan indicated that he was no longer willing to proceed with his motion to cut the expenditures.
The AFC Leader had submitted a motion proposing to slash the entire allocation of the Citizen Security Programme but withdrew.
Speaker Trotman at this point put the vote to the Committee at which point in time there was a resounding NO from the APNU benches, forcing government to call for a division of votes.
Only recently Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh had called for a ‘conscience vote’ on the proposed cuts.
AFC abstained from voting while 25 members of APNU had a resounding no with 30 government MPs placing an affirmative vote on the expenditure.
Leader of the Opposition, Brigadier (rtd) David Granger, subsequently lamented the fact that the AFC “did not support its own motion.”
Granger told media operatives that APNU has adopted a  rigid position in relation to the Home Affairs Ministry that it will not budge from.
Under the expenditure for the Ministry’s Secretariat Services, Ramjattan sought further information on the increase in the number and allocation for contracted employees.
Rohee aided by his support technical team, indicated that among the positions catered for under the expenditure is the Coordinator of Hinterland and Border Security, the Head of the Immigration Support Services, the Coordinator of the Ministry’s Stray Catcher Programme and Head of the Juvenile Holding Centre at Sophia along with Permanent Secretary, among others.
Ramjattan also queried the increase in allocations for dietary supplies under the agency.
Rohee informed the House that the monies catered for the more than 40 inmates of the Holding Centre for juveniles’ in Sophia.
The House was also told that earmarked under the Ministry’s expenditure was money for the Computer Incident Response Team that the Ministry has established.
Rohee said that this unit of the Ministry will be tasked with addressing incidence of the hacking of computer and other related issues.
The AFC Leader also queried the Ministry’s $134M set to be utilised under the subsidies it would pay out.
According to Minister Rohee, the monies included provisions for the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), the Gaming Authority and Parole Board among other entities.
Rohee was asked to clarify the increases for CANU.
The minister reminded the House that there had been objections raised over the manner with which CANU had been previously funded and as such government adjusted its practice.
He said that CANU’s allocations would now be provided for under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Rohee told the House also that while there had been successes in relation to the operations of CANU, this has been outnumbered by its challenges.
He did point out, however, that challenges will always outnumber successes in the fight against trafficking in narcotics.
The minister was also made to respond to the almost 50 per cent increase in the allocations for the training of ranks of the Guyana Police Force.
The minister said that the increase will cater for the 115 ranks that will be sent on mandatory overseas training, along with another 300 that will receive internal training while another 546 will be benefiting from special internal seminars.
Rohee was also grilled in relation to a $200M allocation earmarked for the repairs of a number of buildings under the purview of the Guyana Police Force.
He said among the structures to be rehabilitated are the administrative building of the Felix Austin Police College along with its Mess Hall, the living quarters for ranks of the Criminal Investigation Department as well as living quarters attached to a number of police precincts across the county
AFC’s Eula Marcellos, utilised the opportunity to inquire of Rohee whether any of the vehicles earmarked to be purchased using the more that 245M set aside for the police would be dispatched to Mahdia.
Rohee said that the money would be used to purchase a number of trucks, canters, All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), and siren equipped motor vehicles, among others, he could not pronounce on where they would be dispatched, as this was the function of the Commissioner of Police.
He said that based upon requests by the various Divisional Commanders this would be determined.
Each of the subsequent remaining agencies falling under the Ministry of Home Affairs were approved unopposed.
These include the Guyana Prisons Services, the Police Complaints Authority, the Guyana Fire Service and the General Register’s Office.
Within minutes the several hundred million dollars allocated to these agencies were approved unopposed and unquestioned.