Government yesterday confirmed the sacking of several employees of law enforcement agencies who have failed polygraph tests, saying it has encouraged them to handle the failures the same way as  when several Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) employees were fired last year.

The tests cost government between US$200 and US$300 per person.

Government spokesman Dr Roger Luncheon told reporters that  the commitment to institutionalize integrity testing within the state and government  sectors has been solidified. He noted specifically that government  has moved to add polygraph testing to the other tools used to implement the system in the services.

Early last year  CANU’s 32 staff members were tested and nine of them failed the test. All nine of those employees were paid what was due to them and were sent home.

This year the new staff members were tested and the old ones retested and according to Luncheon, none of them failed.

He said this year the commitment to have the exercise done annually led to the  additional agencies being brought on board. There were the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri, the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) and the Police Narcotics Branch employees employed at the airport.

Four officers attached to the latter unit failed the evaluation out of 25 persons. Ten GEA fuel markers were tested and four failed while five failed of 13 CJIA employees who were tested.

Luncheon said the services were encouraged to treat with the failures in a manner consistent with how the CANU failures were dealt with.

Government has backed its decision to implement the tests in the agencies, saying it had to ensure that the individuals working in certain departments were of high and sound integrity.

Yesterday Luncheon said government’s commitment to annual evaluation and re-evaluation does not stop there.

He added that the intention is to extend polygraph testing, particularly  in the operational arms of the state and government agencies, as the administration  moves to strengthen integrity  testing.