Address by H.E Fraser Wheeler,
British High Commissioner to Guyana
on the occasion of the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding Between the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of Guyana
10 August 2007

I am delighted and excited to be here today to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of the British Government with the Government of Guyana, to signify agreement to implement a far-reaching Security Sector Reform Action Plan.

I have no doubt that the full implementation of this Action Plan will deliver very significant positive change to Guyana:

•        it will provide substantial additional security to the people of this country;
•        by so doing, it will increase the confidence of foreign and domestic businesses to invest in this economy;
•        and through strengthened transparency and accountability it will enhance open governance here.

Perhaps above all, the combination of these effects will contribute to reversing the brain-drain from this country, and would therefore help to allow Guyana to develop to its full potential.

How did we get to this point?  

The two governments have worked very hard and closely for the past year to make it happen.  It began with a discussion between the President and a British Minister you all know well Valerie Amos, in May 2006. A statement of principles was subsequently agreed with the government and others on how this process would move forward.  In October last year a team of experts in Security Sector Reform, drawn from Ghana, India, Sierra Leone and South Africa, visited Guyana.  They came with a mandate to draw up ideas for an action plan, based on previous studies of the sector, current activities here, and their engagement with a range of stakeholders.  They fulfilled their mandate, and the end product we are agreeing to today is the result of intensive discussions between the two governments on how to turn those ideas into a fully fledged action plan for implementation.

So, what is this action plan?  It comprises of 5 elements:

1)      Building the operational capacity of the Guyana Police Force, from the provision of a uniformed response to serious crime, to forensics, crime intelligence and traffic policing;

2)      Strengthening policy-making across the security sector to make it more transparent, effective, and better co-ordinated;

3)      Mainstreaming financial management in the security sector into public sector financial management reform;

4)      Creating substantial parliamentary and other oversight of the security sector;

5)      Building greater public participation and inclusiveness on security sector issues

This wide-ranging approach is very deliberate.  The plan is specifically designed to build on and complement other current activity here, particularly the Citizen Security and Justice reform programmes.  Today only such a holistic approach can tackle the complexities of crime and security.

The plan will be implemented over 4 years, and is estimated to cost approximately 3  million pounds sterling.  The next steps are that the Guyana Government will table in Parliament by 31 October this year  the Summary of the Security Sector reform Action Plan, and motions to set up Special Select Committees on the Disciplined Forces Commission Report and to review the implementation of the action plan.  The UK Government will now identify and deploy technical expertise here to start to strengthen the crime intelligence capability of the GPF, and  build a uniformed rapid response to serious crime.  We will also be bringing out experts to do some further detailed work on how the action plan will be implemented and funded.

This is a very exciting development, and I fully congratulate the Guyana government and particularly the President for making this bold and innovative move, which the British Government is delighted to support financially and otherwise.  I firmly believe that this close partnership on security sector reform can make a real difference to the future of Guyana.

Thank you.