SINCE my column last week more people have been trailed, ambushed and robbed after making bank withdrawals. I remain convinced that the nation’s top banking executives are backward, primitive and repressive in their approach to banking.

There are two banking associations–one for all banks, including foreign owned and one exclusively for locally owned banks. They operate a cartel, they spend more time introducing exploitative fee structures and restrictions for access to service than they do finding real solutions. Because banking policies are so restrictive and repressive, people are incentivized to use cash and end up being seriously maimed or killed.

On the political front, we know that the PPP is also responsible for the current cash culture in Guyana. Guyana was allowed to flourish as a narco-state where movement of large sums of cash is an enabling factor. Ultimately, the buck for the entire financial sector stops at the Finance Minister. Three years may not be enough to settle in and dismantle a decades-old broken system, but it is sufficient time for tangible and concrete policy reforms to begin to manifest; if anything is being done it is a closely guarded secret. The Minister must act swiftly to bring the banks to the table and hammer out practical solutions.

Understandably, this type of crime presents a formidable challenge for law enforcement, but hard questions should be asked of the security apparatus. The Minister of Public Security and the Commissioner of Police (COP) should give assurances that concrete measures are being implemented to thwart the spate of trail and rob.

I now shift my attention to police reform. At the recent police conference, President Granger was almost lyrical about Police reforms. I don’t doubt that there are reforms going on, but the wheels of change seem to be grinding painfully slow. For example, it has been over two years since the President announced plans for introducing a regional command structure and possible sub-regional commanders in Region #4; no movement has been seen, we do not know if there is an executive change of heart.

In a recent letter to the press, former Prime Minister Sam Hinds admitted that when the PPP had executive control, the security sector was practically left for dead to the point where a crime fighting “counter force” was employed. It is no longer a secret that the head of the infamous “counter force” was notorious drug kingpin Roger Khan.

Open confessions recorded by HGPTV’s Travis Chase and available on YouTube, allegedly shows Sean Hinds confessing that he was part of a “counter force” which reported directly to then Minister of Home Affairs, Ronald Gajraj, and guns were obtained from the police to undertake “death squad” operations. Policemen are currently before the courts for every crime in the book including murder, gun-running, drug-trafficking and bank robbery.

After such penetrating compromise of the security apparatus, one would have expected a more radical police reform process. Serving officers should face a presidential tribunal or Integrity Commission to account for their wealth accumulation. The whole structure, regular strength and training regime of the force should be reviewed.

All non-policing elements should be staffed by civilians. The executive may even want to consider whether the immigration section should be delinked from the Force. The whole system of police prosecutors should be brought to an end; it should be the exclusive domain of the DPP whose structure and operation should be tweaked to accommodate field offices in every police division. The University of Guyana may want to consider adding specialist courses in modern policing.

The system of promotions begs for serious review, some of the unbridled and arbitrary powers of the COP should be tempered by process. At some levels, officers should be required to take standardized examinations for promotions. These exams should be administered by a civilian-staffed exams division. All officers who desire to be promoted up to the rank of senior superintendent should apply for promotion, having met an eligibility requirement. Annual police promotions should be shelved in favour of more regular promotion cycles.

There are many recommendations for reforms from several CoIs and reports from several overseas experts; there is serious institutional resistance from police top-brass. While working as a senior MoPS officer, I observed firsthand, less than subtle resistance from the leadership of the Force to implement a crime reporting software intended to significantly reduce police inefficiencies and improve accountability and transparency.

Similar observation must have reached the desk of the president who took obvious aim at police leadership when he stated that he will “resist any effort to derail police reform.” The reform process may include the restart of the British funded Security Sector Reform Plan which was shelved by the PPP Administration.

Finally, the toothless Police Complains Authority(PCA) should be upgraded from an opinion-giving agency to a full-fledged investigative and prosecutorial agency. As it currently stands, the police investigate complaints, the PAC merely review complaints and make comments. If the PCA is allowed to continue in its current form, it is useless and should be scrapped.