Following a report appearing in Sunday’s edition of the Guyana Times, highlighting a cover-up of sexual activities between staffers and female inmates at the New Opportunity Corps, the Social Protection Ministry (MSP) has launched an investigation to determine the veracity of the accusations.
According to MSP Deputy Director of Social Services, Abike Benjamin-Samuels, a letter has been written to the Permanent Secretary recommending an investigative team be assembled and dispatched to the NOC.
“I saw it yesterday (Sunday) online, so we will be starting an investigation into the matter. It will be up to the investigators to deal with the issues of what needs to be done to prevent that,” Benjamin-Samuels told this publication on Monday.
Asked about systems to be put in place to deal with allegations of this nature, this official explained that this is the first time she is dealing with an issue of this nature, and that measures would have to be put in place to prevent a recurrence of incidents of this nature.
However, this is the third time such allegations have been made in regard to this juvenile facility.
A staff member at Guyana’s largest juvenile detention centre — the New Opportunity Corps at Onderneeming on the Essequibo Coast — has accused a certain senior official of orchestrating the cover-up to protect his friends.
The inside source told this newspaper that more than six female inmates have reported instances of having been forced to participate in sexual activities, and of being subjected to inappropriate behaviours from two particular staff members; but those complaints have fallen on deaf ears.
The source further stated that the senior official would even make sexual advances towards the female staff members, and when they refuse his advances, they would be subjected to undue pressure and other acts of victimisation.
The source added that there currently are two other members of staff — a driver and the agriculture instructor — who are in active relationships with female minors, but no action is being taken against them.
The New Opportunity Corps houses youths between the ages of 10 and 18 who have been sentenced by the courts to participate in this correctional facility’s programmes, lasting up to three years.
Most of them are sentenced there for petty offences, such as wandering, minor assault and theft. More than 50 percent of the more than 100 inmates are at the NOC for wandering.
Since the Coalition Government came into power, responsibility for the NOC has been assigned to the Social Protection Ministry.
Ministerial denial
However, even as the MSP’s Deputy Director of Social Services has committed to launching an investigation into the allegations, subject Minister Amna Ally immediately shot down the claims.
“I don’t know of any sex allegations (going on there), because I have found out and there is no such thing going on there. It is not true!” Ally said in an invited comment.
Despite the gravity of the allegations, the minister repeatedly reiterated that an investigation is not necessary since the MSP had never received such reports. However, this newspaper was told that an administrative staff from the minister’s office called NOC Administrator Mark Dover in regard to the allegations, and he denied that any report was made to him.
Several accusations of rape have in the past been levelled against both MSP officials and NOC staffers. This is the third reported allegation of incidents of this kind ongoing at the NOC.
In 2014, the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) was asked to investigate an allegation of sexual molestation of females at the NOC, after a senior Government official from the then Culture, Youth and Sport Ministry had been accused of being a participant in this transgression.
One year earlier, authorities had launched a major investigation into the circumstances that had led to at least three female NOC inmates becoming pregnant.
