His Excellency President David Granger, declared open the annual Guyana Police Force Officers Conference on January 30, 2020.
The Head of State utilized the opportunity to outline several reforms key in order for the Guyana Police Force to be efficient and effective
“Security sector reform is a high priority of the government’s public security policy. It involves measures to promote greater probity in the work of the police and to ensure greater integrity among its members. The Force has been implementing institutional restructuring.”
Additionally, the Head of State highlighted other reforms with regards to infrastructural improvements. These have seen 15 new police stations and outposts constructed over the past five years and 18 rehabilitated. Also established were Divisional-based Management Information Units, preparations for the introduction of a National Intelligence Model, linking of 46 police stations to the Integrated Crime Information System, Forensic and Science Laboratory upgrades and implementation of an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS).
Referring to the Decade of Development the Head of State noted that the GPF’s personnel strength of about 4,600 members is being augmented along with salaries and benefits.
“The Force’s personnel have increased by 37.6 percent from 3,610 in 2014 to 4,956 at as December 2019. It is now being supported by a 1,990-member Constabulary. Policemen and policewomen are now enjoying improved wages and salaries. The average pay of a constable has increased from G$55,889 in 2014 to G$88,237 in 2019.”
In closing the Head of State restated that GPF officers “are expected to be forward-looking and not retrospective… must commit to leading the Force into a new era of modernization and greater professionalization and to accelerate the reforms taking place. Officers, ultimately, are the guarantors of human safety and public security all the time, to everyone, everywhere in Guyana.”
