Despite a promise being made to have the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) brief Members of Parliament (MPs) on the heightened security threat on the border; this is yet to be done.
During his weekly press conference on Friday, Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo informed the media that President David Granger is yet to deliver on his promise to inform Parliament.
The parliamentary Opposition has access to the Oversight Committee on the Security Sector through four of its MPs.
“We’ve received nothing from Granger,” Jagdeo related. “He’s gone silent. He just said that in passing after being pressured as to why he is not treating this as a national issue, addressing the people of Guyana or the Parliament.”
Jagdeo also called out the Government for failing to avail itself of the opportunity to do so at Thursday’s sitting of the National Assembly; while noting that the next sitting is scheduled for April 26. However, he posited that there is nothing on the order paper pertaining to such a brief.
On February 27, ahead of his visit to Baramita, Region One (Barima-Waini), President Granger had announced that he had instructed the GDF to brief the parliamentary committee on the steps being taken to secure communities located along the 800-kilometre border with Venezuela as a result of the unstable situation in that country. They were also supposed to be briefed in general on the ongoing border controversy.
The Head of State had also indicated that he expected even as Government continued to work at the central and regional levels to ensure security in the border regions, that civil society will continue to be fully briefed.
