Senior Reporter
akash.samaroo@cnc3.co.tt
While the Minister of National Security is heartened by the United States’ financial donation to help curb gun crimes in the Caribbean, there are calls for the public to be told how that money is being spent and what value they will get from it.
Ahead of the high-level meeting between Caricom leaders and the US Vice President Kamala Harris in The Bahamas on Thursday, the White House, via a media release, announced that the US is investing more than $100 million in the Caribbean region to crack down on weapons trafficking, help alleviate Haiti’s humanitarian crisis and support climate change initiatives.
A media release from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) later that day explained that a portion of that money will go towards strengthening the recently established Crime Gun Intelligence Unit (CGIU), as well as providing training and mentorship to aid with prosecuting offenders.
Speaking with Guardian Media yesterday, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said this should show the Opposition United National Congress that the recent regional symposium, which declared violence as a public health issue, is yielding results.
“The shortsighted Opposition had deemed the conference we had in April with the region as a waste of time, but that conference not only coalesced the entire Caribbean in response to transnational crime and firearm proliferation in the region and the murders and mayhem that they cause but it has, of course, attracted the attention of our international partners in this case the United States.”
In addition to the support the CGIU will be receiving, Hinds is also anticipating the assistance that will be offered in the courts.
“And of course, the US has appointed an experienced prosecutor to act as co-ordinator for Caribbean firearms prosecution. You will see in the United States, several of their citizens have been prosecuted for purchasing guns, legal as it might be in the US, to export to Trinidad and Tobago in other countries. That summit in April revealed we are all suffering the same fate in this regard and in other ways, so a special prosecutor has been appointed to pay attention to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of the US as it relates to criminal offences and prosecuting persons for trafficking firearms into the region and we are most happy about that.”
However, criminologist, Professor Ramesh Deosaran, hopes attention is also being paid to the supply side of the gun trade.
“Which means the United States, especially the eastern border of the US, must improve their control and prevention mechanisms, because the $100M grant, if it only deals with the outcome side, that is sentencing and prosecution, then they need to control their border both in the US and related areas and also in our own porous borders, so if the money is to be valuable then we need to strengthen our Coast Guard because what we need are long term solutions.”
Professor Deosaran also said the money should not be spent without accountability.
“We have to put in timelines, in what period do you expect results? We have had Caribbean basin and financially backed initiatives before, and we are still waiting on the positive results.”
Economist Dr Marlene Attzs is also of a similar view. She told Guardian Media that while funding is important, the public needs to see a return on investment.
“If you set up an institutional framework to address a particular set of issues there needs to be what we call monitoring and evaluation so that you are sure the financial investment you are making in that institution is yielding the kind of results that you want. So, in the case of crime fighting, the issue is not so much the budgetary allocation that the ministry of National Security gets but we need to identify some clear metrics.”
Dr Attzs believes the public is no longer concerned about the finances. Rather, she said they are hungering for results.
“We want to see improved detection rates, clearance rates, improved response times etc. and that we are also working towards building the level of public trust in the police service. And then there is also, time and effort to be spent diagnosing the changing face of crime so that the benchmarks and the metrics that we use to monitor and evaluate the police service really are aligned to the nature of the crime,” she said.