Ministry announces panel of 10 to oversee police reforms
Posted By Stabroek editor On May 11, 2013 In Local News
Amid shocking murders and other crimes continuing without pause, the Ministry of Home Affairs pushed ahead with planned major reforms when it today announced the names of 10 civilians to oversee the implementation of the police service’s strategic plan.
The 10 persons are Patrick Mentore, Rosanne Purnwasie, Mona Bynoe, Kenneth Bentinck, Hermanetta Andrews, Richard Francois, Trovanna Azez, Enid Thom-Alleyne, Ian James and Shameza David.
The announcement was made in the form of a press release carried as a newspaper advertisement in today’s state-owned Guyana Chronicle. This press release carried the date of May 3rd but has not been released to other media houses. The Ministry of Home Affairs only places ads with the state-owned paper.
According to the release, the 10 persons began work on May 2nd. The private sector was part of the panel that selected them. It is unclear whether some of the 10 would be seen to be independent and removed sufficiently from the police force or the ministry. Mentore who is the head of the team and holds a BSc in political science was once a part of the police force and was at one time its public relations officer. Purnwasie, who is the team leader and has a Master of Arts in Humanities and a Masters in Theological Studies, was previously responsible for implementing the Community Action Component of the Citizens’ Security Programme which was run by the Ministry of Home Affairs and funded by the Inter-American Development Bank.
Bynoe has a BSc in Economics; Bentinck, a Masters in Business Administration; Andrews, a BSc in nursing; Francois, a MA in marketing and communications; Azeez, a BSc in Communications Studies; Thom-Alleyne, a BSc in Business Management; James, a BSc in Economics and David, a BSc in Economics.
On December 31, 2012, under enormous public pressure over his performance and long overdue changes, Rohee announced sweeping reforms which would see a role for UK consultants who had long recommended such a shake-up.
Rohee had said then that changes to the police force will be ushered in with the implementation of the 2013 to 2017 police Strategic Plan, for which 10 “high-level civilian professionals in non-line positions” will be hired within the force to ensure “a high degree of professional, technical and efficient inputs to guarantee implementation of the plan.”
The plan, he noted, was drawn up by the UK-based Capita Symonds Consultancy in 2010, while the Implementation Plan was drawn up and commenced by the US-based Julian Laite Consultancy in February, 2012. He said implementation of the strategic plan is pegged at an annual cost of $35 million.
Side by side with the implementation of the strategic plan, he added, the UK based Capita-Symonds Consultancy will be contracted to focus on the critical areas of “Administration,” “Succession planning,” “Integrity/ Probity” and “Public Relations/Communications” in the GPF.
On this point, Rohee said that implementation of these areas may see the involvement of international police officers as consultants, though he added that the contractual agreement will primarily see the hiring of highly-qualified specialists.
The first phase of the consultancy was to last for a period of four to six weeks, beginning January and was pegged at a cost of US$129,750.00 or $25 million.
Critics have said that the reforms announced by Rohee did not go deep enough and fail to address weaknesses such as ingrained corruption.
