MINISTER of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan on Wednesday shut down Opposition claims that the government is inefficient in its management of the Public Security Sector.
He did so by presenting to the House a detailed account on the improvements that have been done to the sector in the last three years.

He also invited the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) to work along with the Government in the fight against crime by engaging in bilateral talks and providing additional strategies for consideration.

At Wednesday’s sitting of the National Assembly, Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira put forward to the House that although more money is being injected into fighting crime, there is “serious underperformance” within the security sector.

She went on to accuse the government of “total incompetence in dealing with the public security sector”, stating that Guyanese are no safer today than they were in the past.
She was roundly supported by her PPP colleague, Clement Rohee, who stated that there is “a lot of talk” about Guyana’s crime situation without the results to justify the amount of resources being utilised to fight crime.

They were at the time debating a Motion put forward by the PPP on crime, and the need for the government to do more in this area.

In his rebuttal to the foregoing arguments, Minister Ramjattan had at hand the statistics from the Guyana Police Force (GPF) on serious crimes for the years 2013 to 2017, which showed a gradual decline of 4,024; 3,688; 3,925; 3,300 and 3,036 respectively.
On the murder front, he also proved that the rate between the years 2013 to 2015 fell by 155 and 115 respectively, and that robbery-under-arms also saw a decline over the years, from 823 in 2014, to 774 in 2016, and finally 673 in 2017.
“We are catching more of these criminals,” he said, adding: “Indeed, it is still bad; too many robberies, too many burglaries, too many rapes and sexual assaults, too many murders…

“But it is important to understand that they are less; and that is what we are doing with the resources. We are training policemen, we have more patrol vehicles and we are ensuring that the patrols be done to the extent that there is decline and reduction.”
Even the dogs and horses, he said, are being utilised for patrol in certain areas.
As to Mr Rohee’s query about the role of civilians in addressing crime and security, and the effectiveness of the neighbourhood policing and community policing units, Minister Ramjattan said that despite the impression otherwise, the agencies have been working in collaboration with the central policing body.

NO EASY TASK
He was the first to admit, however, that managing crime is “an extremely difficult situation”, which is why there is need for additional support from community and religious leaders.

“It is absolutely not true that we have not been collaborating with all the units and all the agencies dealing with national security and public security,” the minister said. “Every Tuesday morning there is a meeting of the National Security Committee that has the head of CANU and the Police Commissioner, the Crime Chief, and a whole host of people who deal with this crime situation.

“Many of the police stations have management committees made up of civilians; the community policing groups are also getting lectures on anger management. Within the communities, we are talking to a lot of people; all of these are the methods of the police to deal with civilians.”

In closing, Minister Ramjattan said that like it or not, it’s an indisputable fact that the present government has been doing more to fight crime than the previous administration.
He advised that the PPP take up the president’s offer to have bilateral talks on the issues of oil and gas, and the environment and crime, as these subjects may very well prove to be beneficial to addressing age-old issues in the country.

Voice dripping sarcasm, Minister Ramjattan said: “I want to urge that we act together; that the PPP opposition listens to what the president has to say.

“Come and speak to him on those two other issues plus crime and security; you might help because indeed you were there for 23 years; you can now recognise what were mistakes done so that you can probably ensure that it doesn’t reoccur, and to that extent you could be of some help.

“We are not going to be critical to that extent, but we would like you to know that as far as we’re concerned, we have moved forward; crime has been on the decline and we feel that we have taken the urgent measures…
“And if you can give us some more measures that we ought to take, we certainly will take [them]. But provide it.”