Security Sector Reform report still being reviewed

7 months later

Some seven months after the Security Sector Reform (SSR) report was handed over to Government, President David Granger said the report is very detailed and is still being reviewed.
“Security Sector Reform is being pursued, it’s expected that future appointees [in the Police Force] will vigorously carry out the approved reforms which aim at restoring public trust in the Force and reinforcing the Force’s capability to fight crime; and promote men and women of the highest calibre to become officers,” the Head of State told reporters on Thursday.
President Granger went on to say the need for these reforms is necessary now more than ever, given the current security situation in the country, especially as it

relates to public trust in the armed forces.
However, even as the President commits to ensuring security reform, he is yet to establish the office – which he had announced last November – would be tasked with the implementation of the reforms.
Nevertheless, Minister of State Joseph Harmon told reporters last month that the SSR report was also being reviewed by the National Security Committee (NSC) which is comprised of local security stakeholder agencies.
The US$4.7 million Security Sector Reform programme was initially launched in 2007 but was scrapped two years later after major disagreements between the then Administration and the United Kingdom Government over some of the conditions of the plan.
However, during a meeting with then British Prime Minister David Cameron back in 2016, President David Granger had requested that the multimillion-dollar security sector pact be revived.
As such, British security expert, Colonel Russel Combe, was brought in to conduct an assessment of the local security sector and compiled a report with steps to be taken to improve services.
While the report focuses primarily on reforms within the Guyana Police Force, there are also measures included to address issues plaguing the prisons and the fire services as well as the Guyana Defence Force’s (GDF’s) Coast Guard.
At the handing over of the report back in January, Combe had said the presentation of the report is not just the beginning or end of efforts to reform the local security sector.
“The report is dynamic; it’s not to represent just the beginning. Activities supported by the United Kingdom have already commenced: the training of (Police’s) Strategic Planning Unit last year and then in November there was consultancy on the marine capability of the Police Force and indeed engaged with the coast guards as well… So this is not the beginning, nor is it the end,” he had noted.
The UK expert had further stated that his Government does not want to see the report sitting on the shelf, gathering dust. In fact, he noted that the report was compiled in such a way that it can be broken up and separated into parts to be dealt with by different groupings.
Colonel Combe is expected to oversee the implementation of his recommendations until March 2019 when his tenure comes to an end.