Young: PP spent $80m on a fence

NATIONAL Security Minister Stuart Young yesterday cited expenditure on an $80 million fence as part of the squandermania that was rife under the former PP government.

In his contribution to the budget debate in the Senate, Young said this fence was built outside the Maximum Security Prison at Golden Grove in Arouca.

“All that is contained there is grass,” he told senators.

He added that had the PP used that money properly, the prison would be in a far better state today.

Young said he was upset about a decision taken between 2011 and 2014 by the PP to pay “over $230 million in cash” to buy a warehouse to use as the Eastern Correctional Facility. Even when it was bought, Young said, the facility was grossly underutilised. He explained that Government has corrected that situation with the construction of a second immigration detention centre.

Young also said 250 handguns have been acquired for prison officers and efforts are under way to procure another batch. He explained that prison officers are provided with guns on the basis of an individual threat assessment.

He was optimistic that a probation service and the electronic monitoring system for prisoners on parole would be launched soon. On the latter, he said the equipment has been procured and everything is ready to go on the ministry’s side, adding that the Judiciary has to amend some rules on its side to help with the roll-out of this initiative.

Young thanked the US Transport Security Administration (TSA) for working with the Airports Authority to ensure Piarco Airport is not downgraded.

He also thanked immigration officers for helping to register 16,532 Venezuelans in June and reiterated that 10,000 of them have since been approved and some 8,000 registration cards prepared to date.