Georgetown: A number of senior officers from the Special Operations Crime Unit (SOCU); Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU); the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) last Friday participated in a one-day Financial Intelligence Training course, facilitated by the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Public Security Ministry said on Monday.
In a statement, the Ministry said that the training, held at the Police Training Academy, forms part of the ongoing exercises by the Guyana Police Force to enhance the capacity and skills of its members.
Apart from the Guyanese, officers from Trinidad and Tobago attended and, through tele-conferencing facilities, officers from St Kitts and Jamaica.
“Four senior officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the USA tutored the participants on a number of topics, including money laundering schemes, terror financing, illicit trade-based transfer systems, charting financial data and financial profiles investigation methods,” the Public Security Ministry said of the course, which was fully sponsored by the US Government.
Speaking to the participants, US Ambassador Perry Holloway emphasised the need for capacity building in these areas in Guyana and Caricom, and restated the United States’ continued support in these efforts.
Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan spoke of the timeliness of the training, stating that there was an emergence of a variety of financial crimes in Guyana to which attention must be paid.
“Crimes of all types do damage to the society at large. Crimes against the person and property instil fear. We are doing the best we possibly can to reduce those. But financial and economic crimes too can damage our economy and even our democracy. These, too, we must do all in our power to halt. This training programme is an ongoing process in that regard,” Ramjattan stated.
He expressed gratitude to the US Government for its support.
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