Plans are in the pipeline for the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to decentralise its construction section, which is responsible for the maintenance of all its facilities across the country, as part of its modernisation thrust.
Officer-in-Charge of the Construction Section, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mahendra Singh, during a recent interview on the programme “Police and You”, said the department was established in the 1970s to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate current and capital infrastructure projects of the Police Force. It currently has a staff of 45 ranks who are skilled in plumbing, masonry, carpentry, painting, and architecture, and the planned decentralisation would require a doubling or even tripling of the current quota of ranks.
Officer-in-Charge of the Construction Section, Assistant Superintendent Mahendra Singh
Meanwhile, ASP Singh commended the ranks for the outstanding work they have been doing to upkeep Police buildings across the country, revealing that the dedicated ranks would sometimes work from Sunday to Sunday and even on holidays to ensure that projects are completed on time. And with the Force looking to decentralise the department, he is encouraging ranks to get certified in their respective fields.
Noting that the majority of ranks working in carpentry and masonry had acquired certification from the various technical institutes, Singh said others have on-the-job experience while others joined the GPF with experience in the fields. Even though these ranks are not certified, he said, they do exceptional work.
Further, ranks are given opportunities to qualify themselves. “Up to last week, one of the plumbers came … and asked … for time to go back to TI [Government Technical Institute] to finish off some courses. We have a process that you write and admin usually gives the permission. That is not an issue, once they want to do it, once the opportunity is there, they can…,” the Assistant Superintendent added.
He further explained that his department does a lot of refurbishing and rehabilitation work. For example, he said if it was minor work like a lock, window, or a plumbing fitting needing repairs, ranks from the department, headquartered at Eve Leary, would travel to get them done. When it comes to major work, he said that the Officer-in-Charge of the Police Station would submit a report to him and ranks would be assigned to assess the scope of work needed. The ranks would then prepare an estimate since the department has to abide by the Procurement Act in carrying out its functions.
The projects include but are not limited to the maintenance and rehabilitation of buildings, fences, bridges, and other infrastructure through the Force’s ‘self-help’ programme and/or contractual agreements with private contractors through the national tendering process.
Added to these functions, the Construction Section has responsibility for coordination with engineers within the Public Works and Home Affairs Ministries and other external agencies for the construction/rehabilitation of Police buildings in accordance with the building codes and layouts required by the Police Force.
The GPF has been in existence for more than a century, and as such, has a lot of wooden buildings, so as ASP Singh noted “it is a lot of work”, highlighting that the department has evolved over the years. And, with the Police Force moving towards modernisation, many of these buildings are being replaced with concrete structures. According to him, there are many ongoing infrastructural projects including the construction of a Zara Computer Centre at the Cove and John Police Station, East Coast Demerara (ECD) which is also the headquarters for Police Division 4C. He said rehabilitation works were also ongoing at the Police Training Centres, since recruitment would resume shortly.
The Senior Police rank revealed that one of his priorities for this year is to assess works to be done on Police buildings throughout the country, so that they can be budgeted for next year. Importantly, he said, the department also plans on doing community work in an effort to improve the relationship between citizens and the Police.
