MINISTER of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan has projected a reduction in the food bill for the prisons this year with ramped up poultry and agricultural production.

He made the comment during the consideration of the estimates for his ministry at the level of the Committee of Supply of the National Assembly Thursday evening. The committee approved in excess of $18B to fund capital and current expenditure for the ministry and its related agencies in 2018.

Only recently Ramjattan had revealed that it costs the State $150 million to just feed the prison population annually. He said too that there are also additional costs associated with incarceration of those inmates. Meanwhile, under its capital projects, more than $3B will be expended while current expenditure will be valued in excess of $15B. Of the allocated sums the $1,175,314 will be expended for the purposes of policy Development and Administration under Public Security Ministry. This will see donations to several associated agencies, among them the Guyana Road Safety Council and the Parole Board.

According to Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, the approved sums will also allow for increased intelligence capacity through the Crime and Security Intelligence funding, establishment of a wider intelligence network and the employment of five security analysts in the Planning Unit of the Guyana Police Force.

More than $13M will be paid to various organisations to which the Guyana Police Force are associated, among them INTERPOL and the Association of Caribbean Police Commissioners.
Capital expenditures will see the acquisition and installation of a new surveillance system, acquisition of land and water transport equipment, coupled with the completion, rehabilitation and construction of several Police stations. Meanwhile there will be the continued construction of a modern state-of-the-art prison at Mazaruni to house an additional 400 prisoners and the Guyana Fire Service will be the recipient of New ambulances and tenders.

Further, in keeping with government’s commitment to reduce the number of contracted workers by migrating them to the fixed pensionable establishment, Minister Ramjattan informed the Committee of Supply that there has been a steady effort to achieve the said goal. To this end contracted employees at the Ministry are projected to be reduced, from 244 currently to 160, in 2018.