Dear Editor,
In SN of July 18, I read with awe and shock the work of arsonist(s) which razed the offices of the Ministry of Health on Brickdam early Friday morning.
This senseless destruction of government property hurts all Guyanese since in the coming days and months it will be increasingly difficult to conduct business with the MoH while the loss of invaluable medical and other records will impact its work and sevice to the public significantly.
Some time ago a similar mysterious fire destroyed the Region 4 office at Paradise on the East Coast of Demerara. It was expected that this incident would have been a ‘wake-up call’ for the government to review its lax security system in relation to its properties and equipment countrywide. In the circumstances, the government should have developed and implemented security policies and procedures to prevent such occurrences. Sadly, no such development on a comprehensive basis as a matter of policy was ever implemented.
To secure its property the government should have had in place the following:
1. a fully lighted security fence constructed around the property;
2. security recording cameras with intrusion alarm systems working 24/7;
3. security guards to monitor, check and record all movements in and out of the property.
Questions will be asked, no doubt, as to where the security guards were and what they were doing when the fire started. The circumstances suggest that they are likely to be fired for dereliction of duty and poor performance in the execution of their responsibilities, or lack thereof, if satisfactory account of their whereabouts is not forthcoming.
Given the political turmoil of Guyanese society, the security of property and life should have been the No 1 priority of the government; it needed to ensure that disagreements with its policies did not manifest themselves with the citizenry taking the law into their own hands by destroying public properties to the detriment of all. Therefore, security measures have to be in place to capture the activities of the perpetrators of these heinous crimes. A case in point was given a few days ago in Florida, USA, when eight murder suspects were apprehended because of evidence captured on security cameras.
The government might argue that funding is short to carry out security imperatives on its properties now or in the immediate future, but if it could find the resources so quickly for a reward of $25M for information leading to the capture of the arsonist(s) who committed this heinous crime then it certainly could find the means to protect public properties and its citizens from those bent on causing destruction and chaos in the society.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
