The Ministry of Public Security is currently in consultation with mobile phone service provider, Digicel as it prepares to develop a command centre to effectively handle emergency calls, GINA said yesterday
It said that the “defunct” 911 emergency line remains a troubling problem for the APNU+AFC government and reported Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan as saying that the establishment of the command centre will better streamline calls to the 911 (Guyana Police Force) and 912 (Guyana Fire Service) emergency lines.
For a number of years, the former PPP/C government and the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GTT) had been criticised for problems related to the line and citizens being unable to make emergency calls. The previous government had blamed GTT for these lapses while the utility company had denied that it was blameworthy.
GINA yesterday said that Ramjattan explained that scouting of a location to house the command centre is currently ongoing.
“We will need a compound and we will have to set up a building for purposes of the command centre in which calls for the police will come in and then be redirected to the police all over the country,” Ramjattan said.
Establishing the new system will come under the Smart City project which is currently being evaluated for implementation and funding, Ramjattan said, according to GINA. The system that will be established will also make provisions for the 912 emergency line. “The technicians and the experts know how to split the system into a 912,” the Minister said.
The 912 emergency line will be essential to the Emergency Medical Service which seeks to improve the medical response services time.
Additionally, Fire Chief Marlon Gentle assured that the 912 emergency line functions adequately. “Of course we will be doing some PR (Public Relations) and so on so that persons will be so notified that the 912 number could be used both for fire and medical emergencies,” Gentle told GINA.
In April 2014 when PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee had blamed the problem on GTT, the phone company issued a statement saying that the unresponsiveness of the 911 personnel had nothing to do with the company.
“Our checks have revealed that the following occur with great frequency (a) the disappearance of handsets from the termination points of 911 lines at various Police Stations; (b) the removal of the handset off the hook; (c) no answer by personnel during standard working hours,” GTT had noted.
“For simplicity, it is not within our control who answers the 911 phone. GT&T’s responsibility begins and ends with ensuring access by all subscribers to the assigned 911 fixed service lines and ensuring maintenance of this access as a priority,” GTT said.
Rohee, who was Minister of Home Affairs at the time, had also revealed that a US$20,000 consultancy contract was signed to review the 911 service because of the numerous complaints. There was no word about the outcome of this consultancy.
