Canadian expert hired to build digital driver offence registry

The government has hired a Canadian consultant to support the development of the digital registry of drivers’ records and traffic history, a move aimed at strengthening road safety, law enforcement, and judicial efficiency.

The announcement was made by Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall on Monday during his remarks at the opening ceremony of the Partnership of the Caribbean and the European Union on Justice (PACE JUSTICE) Regional Programme Judicial Training on Criminal Trials and Appeals, held at Cara Lodge Hotel.

“At the level of the traffic department… we have hired a consultant from Canada, who is working with the Guyana Police Force to input all the data of traffic offenders as far as we can go, and that data will be accessed or be accessible to the judiciary or particularly the magistracy,” Nandlall noted.

The registry is expected to see the consolidation of key data on motorists, including licensing details and prior traffic violations, which are currently stored manually across various agencies.

Nandlall explained that efforts are already underway to digitise existing records, many of which are housed in physical files across various locations. He noted that the current manual system limits magistrates’ ability to make fully informed decisions, as they often lack access to a defendant’s complete traffic history.

“We have the licensing system which allows for suspending and eventually revoking driver’s license for repeated offenses for a particular time. But right now, if a person appears before the magistrate and has three prior offenses, the magistrate doesn’t have that information. Now with the construction of this registry with the input of the data and access being granted to the magistrate that will no longer be so. The type the magistrate will be able to type in the name, and the antecedent will pull up on a more informed decision will be made in accordance. And that is just one example of what we are doing across the government system,” Nandlall noted.

The initiative is part of the government’s wider Safe Country Initiative, conceptualized by President Dr Irfaan Ali.

The registry for the traffic offences is part of a wider initiative by the government to modernise Guyana’s justice system. It is among several training and reform activities planned for 2026 under the PACE Justice Project. Nandlall had previously announced that government was working on the registry earlier this month where he had outlined plans for the Attorney General’s Chambers to lead the establishment of a comprehensive digital registry of motorists.

Once implemented, the system will allow key institutions such as the judiciary, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Prison Service, the Probation Department, and the Guyana Revenue Authority to access real-time information.