Georgetown : The 2016 National Budget has proposed an allocation of $24.6B for the security sector towards its developmental and modernisation programme.
Minister of Finance Winston Jordan, during his presentation of the $230B budget in the National Assembly, yesterday noted that government recognised that the sector needed boosting in order to fend off internal and external aggression. The Finance Minister explained that security is close to the Coalition Government’s heart. “We committed unreservedly to implement policies to secure our citizens from the threat of national and transnational crime, violence and disorder,” said Minister Jordan.
The Minister mentioned the US$15M Citizen Security Strengthening Programme which was recently launched as one of the initiatives that will aid in the crime fight. The CSSP is expected to reduce crime through preventive strategies with institutional strengthening activities.
The programme will be focusing specifically on boosting the effectiveness of the police force, the level of repeat offenders and violence among youths in communities. “The CSSP activities will focus on skills training to improve community engagement, as well as systems strengthening in order to more pro-actively prevent and investigate crime and violence,” Minister Jordan stated.
With the CSSP, crime prevention actions will target 20 communities. Minister Jordan noted that government will be placing emphasis on curbing the bad habits in the identified communities. High on the prevention list are homicide, burglary, robbery and domestic violence.
In addition, emphasis will be placed on rebuilding citizens’ trust in Guyana’s law enforcement officers.
