Speaking at his residence in Georgetown on Wednesday, British High Commissioner Greg Quinn has disclosed that a half-year report will be submitted by United Kingdom expert Russell Combe, who was hired to assist with the implementation of the Security Sector Reform Action Plan (SSRAP).
A retired top military officer, Combe came to Guyana in January to conduct assessments and implement recommendations to improve the local security sector.
High Commissioner Quinn informed media operatives that Combe will compile a 6-month report to assess what was done between January and June, and to implement measures to move the project forward.
British High Commissioner Greg Quinn
“[The report] will be a first look at the big picture of the strategic side and (determine) where things need to go in the longer term. It will also look at some of the immediate steps which could be taken now, which could start us down the road,” he explained.
Quinn expressed the expectation that the overall assessment and report would not turn out to be a document which would be placed on a shelf after the expert’s 12-month contract expires.
“What we want is a living document, which we have started to put in place already; and we are looking to do some activity in the second half of this calendar year as a result of what [Combe] has seen,” the High Commissioner explained.
The UK has also slashed the amount of money it would have provided to a revised SSRAP to Guyana, because priority of the SSRAP has been shifted from security to infrastructure. The project began in 2007, but was scrapped in 2009 after the British Government requested to have oversight of the programme, to ensure that there was ‘value for money’.
The former Administration, however, disagreed with the manner in which the British had wanted the programme to be run, claiming that Britain had sought to intrude upon Guyana’s sovereignty.
However, the UK has said that the then Government of Guyana had submitted a different proposal, which had focused on Police modernisation rather than a holistic approach to reform.
The programme was re-established in 2015, and Government is of the view that, once implemented, Guyana’s security sector would be significantly strengthened and, hopefully, this would lend to reducing the number of criminal activities that occur.
President David Granger, also, has said there is need for a stronger Police Force, one that is better equipped with all tools necessary to function adequately.
