Assistant Commissioner Paul Williams appointed acting Crime Chief amidst shake-up
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Crime Chief Paul Williams
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Crime Chief Paul Williams

Assistant Commissioner of Police Paul Williams who was Commander of “B” Division (Berbice) will from today serve as the country’s acting Crime Chief while Superintendent Michael Kingston will serve as his deputy .

Commander of ‘F’ Division Ravindradat Budhram

This comes two days after Senior Superintendent and Commander of ‘F’ Division (Lethem and other Interior Locations) Ravindradat Budhram was appointed acting Crime Chief.
Budhram was appointed to the post after Superintendent Wendell Blanhum proceeded on his annual leave.

The substantive Deputy Crime Chief, Senior Superintendent Reshi Das, who is on sick leave reportedly requested to be removed from the Criminal Investigation Department.
Reports are that Budhram was recalled after it was taken into consideration that an illegal jet and airstrip was found on August 14, 2017 in Lethem under his jurisdiction.

Last month, Superintendent Michael Sutton was transferred to Lethem in the aftermath of an illegal aircraft landing on a prohibited airstrip in the Rupununi. Sutton’s transferal is aimed at enhancing the Guyana Police Force’s operational focus in Region Nine. He will serve as the officer-in-charge and joins Deputy Superintendent of Police Rudolph Banwarie.
President David Granger recently indicated that the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the alleged assassination plot against him has exposed serious deficiencies and weaknesses in the force, and these will be corrected.

Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum

He had noted that the COI was not meant to be a witch-hunt but work has to be done to ensure that the law enforcement agency is more professional and efficient in the execution of its duties and responsibilities,
“[The Commission] made some very strong recommendations. Even persons who have been following the day-to-day reports would have realised that there has been a significant lapse in professionalism at the high levels of the Guyana Police Force, so these are matters of concern.

It has brought to light some serious deficiencies and I am very confident that the work that Mr. Russell Combe is doing will point to ways in which we can correct the deficiencies.
The important thing is to ensure that we get information so that we can correct faults. It is not a witch-hunt. We are trying to make the law enforcement agencies more efficient,” he said.

Combe is a British security expert, who is an Advisor to President Granger as part of the United Kingdom’s US$4.7B Security Sector Reform (SSR) Programme, which had been scrapped by the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Administration in 2009.
He is expected to produce an initial interim report shortly.

President Granger, in November 2016, on the Ministry of the Presidency’s television programme, “The Public Interest”, had said that while the GPF had not received the attention it deserved in the past, his administration would work to make it a sound, professional organisation.

Granger, a former army chief, has promised to make changes in the security sector and the government has been zeroing in on the public service and the army as well.

He had noted during the programme that the Government will act as is deemed necessary.

 

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