MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS OUT OF LOOP ON KERIK ISSUE

C O N F I D E N T I A L GEORGETOWN 001148 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/02/2016 TAGS: PGOV GY SUBJECT: MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS OUT OF LOOP ON KERIK ISSUE Classified By: DCM MICHAEL THOMAS FOR REASON 1.4(d) ¶1. (C) On November 1, Legal Attach Kevin Currier, Assistant Legal Attach Marvin Freeman, and DCM paid a friendly and productive introductory courtesy call on newly appointed Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee. The FBI thanked Rohee for assistance in several cases, to include the 2005 Thomson murder at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel. The FBI offered general police assistance to the Minister as well as police training for the Guyana Police Force (GPF). The FBI advised that they would provide the Ministry with a list of training courses available but added that they could gear training for the specific needs of the country. The FBI advised that the courses were usually from one to two weeks for about 35 officers, depending on the course. The FBI also offered to send GPF candidates to the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. ¶2. (C) Rohee advised that he was new to the position and was still learning about the job. He stated that he considered training in the area of police corruption and ethics to be of importance since there is a general perception of corruption within the population. Rohee provided a few examples of ethics questions and asked the opinion of the FBI in these cases. He advised that he was reading several books on policing and ethics. ¶3. (C) When asked about the government's plans to hire former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to help implement security sector reforms, Rohee replied that this is the president's personal initiative and until he sees a press release to the contrary, he will assume that the policy is the same. In the context of the conversation it was clear that rather than emphasizing his solidarity with the president's intentions, Rohee was admitting that he was out of the loop on the issue. ¶4. (C) Comment: During his last administration, Jagdeo earned a reputation as a micromanager who responds to citizen complaints by publicly berating the incompetence of government officials he himself appointed. It does not bode well for the government's capacity to implement reform that the new Minister of Home Affairs, six weeks into his job, freely admits to being out of the loop on his ministry's highest-profile issue. End Comment. ROBINSON