The employment contracts for Patrick Mentore and the other civilian professionals of the Strategic Management Department (SMD) will not be renewed as government intends to scrap the unit.
Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan provided confirmation yesterday and said that the unit which was established in May 2013 by the then PPP/C government to oversee the implementation of the Guyana Police Force’s 2013-2017 Strategic Plan has “outlived its usefulness.”
Since 2014 there have been no public updates on the unit’s progress. However, there have been continuous allegations of the unit’s members being subjected to hostility at the hands of senior members of the force.
Despite efforts yesterday Stabroek News was unable to make contact with Mentore for a comment. Mentore is a former policeman.
Ramjattan said in a comment that there are plans in place under the Citizen Security Programme in relation to policing and in this regard he feels “it [SMD] is not necessary at this point…”
The minister told Stabroek News that the contracts of the unit’s members will be coming to an end soon and will not be renewed. The work of the unit, he informed, will end upon the completion of the contracts.
He pointed out that the SMD was not to be a unit within the Guyana Police Force.
“It has done its job basically but it was not to be a permanent body. There is need to phase it out… I indicated that their contracts should not be renewed,” he charged.
In January 2014, then Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee who had oversight for the unit had said that accomplishments had been made.
He had informed that the unit was able to accomplish the conduct of a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis aimed at getting clearer insights into the internal and external factors that can impact on the force’s modernization process.
There was also the development of a Change Management Strategy to catalyze the transformation process; the development of a communications strategy to ensure that knowledge and awareness of the modernization process facilitate concomitant changes in behaviour in the force; the design of a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework that is expected to improve organizational performance and a review of and the development of vehicle acquisition, deployment and maintenance strategies so that the Guyana Police Force could acquire the appropriate types of vehicles to suit its needs and which are maintained as per schedule.
The SMD was one of a raft of reforms that Rohee had announced at the end of 2013.
The strategic plan was drawn up by the UK-based Capita Symonds Consultancy in 2010, while the Implementation Plan was drawn up and embarked on by the US-based Julian Laite Consultancy in February, 2012. The implementation of the strategic plan was pegged at an annual cost of $35 million.
Minister of Citizenship Winston Felix, a former police commissioner, had told Stabroek News months after the team was appointed that its members were facing difficulties.
He said the team had encountered a barrier because of the non-cooperation of senior officers and described what was happening as “a state of confusion.”
The unit was expected to work alongside members of the force in addressing the key strategic priorities laid out in the plan. It was also expected to help optimise the collective performance of the force guiding it towards significant organizational renewal and change.
According to Felix, information reaching him was that a very senior officer in the force had snubbed the team when he was asked for some information. The officer was asked for the operational plan for his area but instead of providing it he responded in a rude manner, stating that he did “not think he should report” to the team.
Felix, who had racked up over 30 years of experience in the force, had said too that the intention of the project was good but it lacked the proper structure to produce positive results.
