President blasts PPP over security sector reform

By: Bibi Khatoon

President David Granger has chastised the former People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration over their lack of reform of the security sector and described their attempts as “all bluff.”

The Head of State made the remarks on Thursday as he received the report on the Security Sector Reform Project from British Security Expert, Lt. Col (Rtd) Russell Combe.

The President, in his speech at the handing over ceremony at State House, pointed out that the UK government was engaged over 20 years ago following the escalation in narcotics trafficking and the accompanying surge in violence, to begin works in the security sector. However, he said all the attempts were insincere as he went on to outline the engagements hosted by the UK government from 1999 and how they fell short.

“What I am trying to say is that we’ve passed through nearly 20 years of ‘woulda, coulda and shoulda’ without any attempt to seriously deal with security problems of this country. And like a disease, you can’t pretend to treat it, you can’t promise to treat it, you can’t threaten to treat it, you can’t talk about treating it without actually getting down to the root cause,” the President said.

President Granger added that “nothing was being done to address the root cause of crime which started to corrupt the security forces…the (former) Government established the National Security Organizing Committee which was not meant to succeed, it was all a bluff.”

The President said his administration is now trying to correct the errors of over 2 decades of mismanagement of the security sector.

British Security Expert, Lt. Col (Rtd) Russell Combe, during his remarks, explained that the report builds on the interim report submitted in June 2017 on the preliminary findings of the Security Sector Reform Programme.

As it relates to tackling the root cause of crime which the President expressed hope for the document to include, Combe noted that the onus is on the Government to work on its strategies.

He said “Security Sector Reform includes the criminal justice system…what you’re saying (the root causes of crime) is driven really by economics, and whilst that is important to tackle, that is not an area where I would be in a position to offer advice to the president, he needs to look at that himself of course, with his other government strategies and hopefully there will be resources to improve in that area with the oil and gas exploration taking place in Guyanese waters.”

He confirmed that he is likely to return in April and continue working with the Government to achieve its objectives.