Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 17, 2021 News
– says already procured crime fighting vehicles delayed
By Shervin Belgrave
Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, told the National Assembly on Monday that $5.4M had to be spent from the Contingency Fund to buy 12 additional motorcycles for the Guyana Police Force (GPF). The reason for the urgent purchase, according to Benn, is because vehicles procured to aid in the fighting of crime are yet to arrive.
The Minister made this disclosure after Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) questioned him about the urgent need to spend the monies from the Contingency Fund for motorcycles.
In response Benn said, “We had a situation where we had a deficit of pickups for the Police Force and we are still awaiting the delivery of those pickups, so the quickest resort was to purchase more motorcycles.”
A sum of $300M was set aside in the 2021 budget to acquire land and water transportation for the Force, and this would have facilitated the purchase of the vehicles.
The Government had argued during the budget debate, that with the purchase of the new vehicles and boats, the Force would be better equipped to fight crime.
Benn on Monday stated that the vehicles had not arrived in Guyana as yet, due to factory delays.
In making his case, he said that a lot of crimes are being committed by persons using XR motorbikes and in order to respond swiftly to these, the purchase of the extra motorcycles was necessary.
The Minister also boasted that the purchase of the bikes has contributed to a 26 percent reduction in crime, and promised to support his argument with statistics to the House during today’s sitting of Parliament.
Benn detailed that the extra motorcycles are all Hondas and their engine power are 150 CC. The 12 Honda bikes are in addition to nine other motorcycles that were purchased for some $3.9M. The $3.9M was funded by GPF’s capital budget.
All bikes bought for the GPF, were sole sourced from a local supplier, Marics and Company Limited.
Benn defended the move to sole source the motorcycles from the company by stating that a number of bikes used by the Force are Honda, and Marics is the only company in Guyana that supplies that brand.
The Minister also told the House that the Georgetown police division benefitted from a majority of the motorcycles.
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