– govt acquires equipment
Soon the Government of Guyana would no longer have to fly in experts to administer polygraph tests as there are plans to train two persons here to conduct such tests, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon said yesterday.
Luncheon at his weekly press briefing said the government had purchased the equipment and two persons would be trained to operate it.
The government had announced that certain state employees would be routinely tested and should they fail then they would be let go.
Earlier this year it had confirmed the sacking of several employees of law enforcement agencies, who had failed polygraph tests and stated that it had encouraged the bosses of those who failed to handle them 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.
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.
Luncheon had previously said that the commitment to have the exercise done annually led to additional agencies being brought on board — the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri, the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) and the officers of the Police Narcotics Branch stationed at the airport.
Four officers of the Narcotics Branch failed the evaluation out of the 25 persons who were tested. Of the ten GEA fuel markers tested, four failed while five of 13 CJIA employees who were tested failed.
This move by the government has been criticised by certain section of society. However, government 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.
Luncheon said 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.
