Canadian consultant to help build Guyana’s traffic offender database

The government has hired a Canadian consultant to develop a comprehensive database of traffic offenders, a move aimed at tackling what he described as a growing national problem.

Speaking at the opening of the Partnership of the Caribbean and the European Union on Justice (PACE Justice) Regional Programme Judicial Training on Criminal Trials and Appeals, Attorney General Anil Nandlall on Monday said the consultant is already working closely with the Guyana Police Force to build out the system.

“Road traffic is a major problem in this country so we have hired a consultation from Canada who is working with the Guyana Police Force to input all the data of traffic offenders as far as we can go and that data will be accessible to the judiciary more particularly the magistracy,” Nandall said.

According to the Attorney General, the consultant’s role is to ensure that as much data as possible is captured and organised into a single, accessible registry. This will allow for a more complete record of drivers and their offences.

The database will play a critical role in strengthening enforcement by giving magistrates direct access to offenders’ histories. Nandlall explained that this will support the existing licensing system, which “allows for a regime that suspend and eventually revoke drivers licenses for repeated offences of a particular type.”

By digitising and centralising traffic records, authorities are aiming to remove gaps in information that can hinder decision making in court, particularly in cases involving repeat offenders.

The initiative forms part of a wider government push toward digitisation.

Additionally, Nandall revealed that legal reforms are in progress, including amendments to the Sexual Offences Act.

“We have in the pipeline amendments to the sexual offences act which we will take to parliament very shortly and that has in it a sex offenders registry and we are moving in that direction now in creating registries,” Nandlall said.

Also, he said a new evidence law is being developed to modernise court proceedings.

“There is a new comprehensive evidence bill that will embrace all the modern technological advances that have been made, it will allow for the easy admission into evidence of computer generated documents, films and all the apparatus and equipment that we use now….will be embranced in this new legaislative framework,” Nandlall added.

Currently, Guyana operates under an Evidence Act dating back to 1893.