–  as govt still “fine-tuning” anti crime strategy As the Government of Guyana “fine-tunes” its public security plan – which is more of a strategic macro perspective – aimed at

Finance Minister Winston Jordan

addressing the crime situation in Guyana, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) on Friday disclosed that there has been an increase of 10 per cent in serious crimes at the end of July 2015, compared to the same period last year. Among the “serious crimes” listed by the Force are murder, robbery under arms, robbery with violence, robbery with aggravation, larceny from the person, break and enter and larceny, burglary, rape, and kidnapping. The Force stated that a total of 94 murders were recorded at the end of July 2015 in comparison to 80 at the end of July 2014, which saw an increase of 18 per cent.  Four more murders were recorded up to August 13 taking the toll to 98 for the year thus far. Of these, 35 murders were committed in A Division (Georgetown/East Bank Demerara) followed by 17 in C Division (East Coast Demerara) and 16 in B Division (Berbice). In addition, 12 were committed in F Division (Interior locations) and four each in D (West Bank Demerara/East Bank Essequibo) and E (Linden/Kwakwani) while six were recorded in G Division (Essequibo Coast/Islands). The Police further disclosed that 37 of the 94 murders committed were disorderly, 15 were committed during robberies and six were execution-style killings; 11 were as a result of domestic disputes, 23 were from unknown causes and two by other means. In addition, the Police recorded a two per cent decrease in robbery under arms as well as a four per cent decrease in the number of armed robberies involving the use of firearm. However, a three per cent increase was recorded in armed robberies where instruments other than firearms were used. Further, there has been an increase of 68 per cent in the number of reports of rape, with 243 cases being reported at the end of July compared to 145 for the same period last year. Break and enter and larceny and burglary have shown an overall increase of nine per cent. The Police also seized a total of 74 illegal firearms –one sub-machine gun, 43 pistols, 18 revolvers, five shotguns, six rifles and one

Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan

pen-gun. A whopping 28 more illegal firearms were seized when compared to the same period last year.

“Pressing and most depressing” During his maiden budget presentation on Monday, Finance Minister Winston Jordan admitted  that the crime situation was the most “pressing and most depressing” problem Guyana was facing, highlighting the need to address it. “The Government is fine-tuning a comprehensive public security plan, in which emphasis is to be placed on combating crime; regaining trust of the Police Force; improving Police investigative capabilities, by rebuilding an efficient and effective criminal intelligence system and the Criminal Investigations Department; improving recruitment standards and training by revitalising the Cadetship Scheme; counteracting human, drugs and arms trafficking; and acquiring vehicles and equipment for modern policing to fight banditry, piracy, terrorism and other violent crimes,” the Minister remarked. As such, the Government  allocated $21 billion to strengthen and improve the country’s various national security services in the National Budget presented to the National Assembly on Monday. The Finance Minister noted some $11.9 billion will be plugged into supporting the operations of the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Prison Service, Guyana Fire Service, and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit. Meanwhile, he added that the remaining $9.1 billion will be directed towards the operations of the Guyana Defence Force. According to Jordan, these allocations will be injected into improving the physical infrastructure, upgrade of the security fleet, and acquisition of tools and equipment within these security services. The money will also be used to upgrade the security features of the machine readable passports, while another $9.7 million was budgeted for the acquisition of specialised equipment for the production of machine readable passports. However numerous reports in the press stress that citizens have grown tired of promised to “fix”‘the crime situation even as the Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan appears stunned into silence by the upsurge in crimes. Ramjattan had been one of the most vociferous critic of his predecessor Clement Rohee but has been unable to come up with a viable response even after he was summoned to meet the President and his phalanx of Security Advisors at 4:am in the morning.