– Smart country programme moving ahead
– PPP General Secretary says
IN an effort to build out a modern and smart country, Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo on Wednesday said that all agencies under the Ministry of Home Affairs are expected to be automated as he added that the smart country programme is moving ahead.
Dr Jagdeo made this disclosure during his weekly press conference, where he noted that the automation of all functions of the agencies under the Home Affairs Ministry will cut down on corruption and make things easier to process.
He said, “So the next project is to automate all the functions of agencies that come under home affairs. So, this will also cut down on corruption but also make things easier to process and when verified against other databases, will ensure that we have greater scrutiny… but we would be able to solve crime faster.”
Speaking on some of the specific things to be automated, he noted that this starts from the General Register Office to have births, deaths and marriages in a single database, among other things.
In the police stations, he said this could be accessed and aid in better case management across the country.
Further, it extends to records for firearm licences, tint permits and many other things that he noted with the automation the police force will be able to cross reference the same.
“Almost all the functions under the police force now where you have to interact with police, you’ll be able to have an easier system to work [with] there,” he added.
Additionally, as it relates to the Guyana Prison Service, the same thing will happen there with the development of the database of persons which will account for example how many persons are on remand, and the time spent among other things to ensure better case management.
This, Dr Jagdeo noted, will make it easier for the authorities to keep track of persons easier if they have a criminal record.
“That’s being worked on now, we’re developing that and that hopefully by August next year a lot of those modules will start coming on stream,” he said, which will bring more modern management.
Concerning security, the Vice President stated that before the end of the year, border security is expected to be enhanced with moves underway to enhance the scrutiny of people who come into Guyana at the airport through a paperless system.
Against this backdrop, he indicated that once the system is fully functional and citizens receive the secure national identification, they will be able to swipe same at the airport kiosk and enter the country.
Instead of receiving a passport stamp, that information for Guyanese will go to a database managed by the immigration authorities.
However, foreigners may have to go through an enhanced arrangement where they can go to a kiosk or online to fill up the immigration form, but will still have to present their passports.
“So, it’s strengthening border security here, and you can assess people who are moving out, coming in, their track record,” he said.
This, he said is being done to ensure that the experience at the airport is easier and added that this will all be in sync with new electronic identification cards that are in the works.
Meanwhile, Dr Jagdeo also told members of the media that the smart country programme is moving ahead with over 600 cameras already mounted and command centres established in Regions Three, Four and Six.
“These are the most populus regions, we started with these in the country and we intend to expand to other regions,” he said.
He went on to note that as it is currently there are persons looking at the feed from the cameras observing what’s going on around the country.
Further, this improvement and expansion will equip the police with better capability to fight crime.