Chairman Gerald Gouveia
Chairman of governance and security within the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Gerald Gouveia has reiterated the call for the passage of the Firearm Amendment Bill as one of the many efforts needed to curb the recent upsurge in crime.
Speaking to Guyana Times International during an exclusive interview, Gouveia acknowledged that there have been a number of gun-related crimes, which he believes stem from a lack of adequate policies in place to address these events.
“That is vitally important because you could have people importing guns into Guyana in pieces and nobody can do them anything, but when they get into Guyana, they put the pieces together. So we need the laws, we need the new firearm bill to be passed in Parliament,” he said.
This move, he said, would allow authorities to regulate and police such activities. The Firearm Amendment Bill, which was taken to the House by government, would have seen tougher penalties for gunrunners. However, it was voted down by the combined opposition merely because the legislation was tabled by Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee.
Meanwhile, he also highlighted the need for the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to be equipped with the requisite tools to investigate and solve crimes. This, he said was discussed during a recent meeting the PSC had with Minister Rohee, the newly-appointed police commissioner and other members of the GPF.
Strengthening efforts
He said they also looked at what is being done at the level of the Security Sector Reform Programme, with the view of strengthening efforts.
“In the private sector, we don’t reward you for efforts, we reward you for results. We want to see the police harness and control the surge that seems to be happening.”
He noted that “issues of gathering intelligence and people feeding the police with information” need to be taken into consideration. “The police must also have the legal parameters to do the kind of information gathering they want, whether it’s through wiretapping or through using information from people and so on.”
In light of this, Gouveia urged the general public to support the work of the police by providing information when available, since this is usually a challenge for ranks.
Gouveia reiterated that there is need for much more action and results, noting that the apparent upsurge in crime is “frightening” to the business community and the population as a whole.
Police statistics indicate that there has been a five percent increase in serious crimes, with 98 murders being recorded at the ending of September. The total number of serious crimes recorded between January 1 and September 31 was 2927 compared to 2832 for the same period last year.
