POLICE Commissioner Seelall Persaud is convinced that transportation constraints remain the main bugbear to the operations of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the results of its work.

Responding to questions from this publication on Friday regarding budgetary allocations to the GPF, Persaud said he was as yet unaware of what portion of the $21B allocated to the Security sector would be channelled to the GPF, but he hoped that the sum would be significant enough to address police transportation challenges in a very meaningful way.

The Government has already re-assigned vehicles from Community Policing Groups (CPGs) to the GPF, having recognised the GPF’s huge problem with regard to availability of transportation, mainly for patrolling, as was indicated to Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan by the Police Commissioner during discussion.

Persaud told the Chronicle that among the areas of concern which were represented in the GPF budget proposals to the Ministry of Public Security were resources to cover the daily cost of running the organisation; resources such as funds for electricity, telephones, transportation, fuel, meals, recruitment and training.

“We would have budgeted for transportation, since that is one of our weak areas; and you know we have the expansion in our manpower that was granted last year. So we are doing recruitment for that, and training,” Commissioner Persaud explained.

He, however, could not say how much ammunition was requested by the GPF for this budget year, as he explained that he would have to check his documents, which he did not have with him at the time.

Acknowledging that crime is the most depressing problem facing the Guyanese people today, Finance Minister Winston Jordan, in his maiden budget presentation of 2015 on Monday afternoon, announced that the Government was allocating $21B for the security sector. Of that amount, $11.9B will support operations of the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Prison Service, Guyana Fire Service, and Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU); while $9.1B has been budgeted for the Guyana Defence Force.

The Finance Minister said it remains Government’s firm view that radical action is needed to reform the criminal justice system. He pointed to the need for a Guyana Police Force that is more accountable to the public, and is better able to deal with crime and anti-social behaviours — which are a curse to the good life.

Against that front, the National Assembly — and the nation, by extension — was told that the Administration is presently fine-tuning a comprehensive Public Security Plan in which emphasis is to be placed on combating crime, restoring the trustworthiness of the Guyana Police Force, improving police investigative capabilities, and rebuilding an efficient and effective criminal intelligence system and Criminal Investigation Department.

Under the Citizens Security Programme, the Government will commence implementation of several activities to support the security sector; and one key aspect of that programme involves implementing evidence-based interventions associated with interpersonal violence; those include parenting, gender, norms and conflict resolution.

The Administration also seeks to implement another aspect of the Citizen Security Programme, which speaks to the training of selected community members to support economic inclusion through vocational and remedial training, literacy programmes, job readiness, job seeking, and job-replacement action.

By Leroy Smith