HGP Nightly News – The Government is moving to tighten how traffic offences are tracked and handled in Guyana, with Attorney General Anil Nandlall announcing that a Canadian consultant has been hired to help build a comprehensive database of traffic offenders that will eventually be accessible to the courts.
Rather than framing the issue only as a technology upgrade, Nandlall presented the initiative as part of a broader response to what he described as a serious national problem on the roads. Speaking at the opening of the PACE Justice Regional Programme Judicial Training on Criminal Trials and Appeals, he said road traffic has become a major concern and that the new system is intended to give the judiciary, especially magistrates, a clearer picture of offenders and their histories.
“Road traffic is a major problem in this country,” Nandlall said, explaining that the consultant is already working with the Guyana Police Force to input as much data as possible on traffic offenders. He said the information will be organised into a database that will be accessible to the magistracy, allowing courts to see fuller records when dealing with matters involving drivers.
The move is expected to strengthen enforcement by closing information gaps that can make it harder to identify repeat offenders. According to Nandlall, the aim is to support the existing licensing framework, which already provides for the suspension and eventual revocation of licences for repeated offences of a particular kind. With a centralised record system in place, magistrates would be in a stronger position to make decisions based on an offender’s track record rather than on a single appearance before the court.
The initiative also fits into a wider government push to digitise key parts of the justice system. Nandlall said the traffic offenders registry is one example of the direction the Government is taking as it works to modernise legal and administrative systems and create more reliable records for law enforcement and the courts.
He used the same occasion to signal other reforms now in the pipeline. Among them are amendments to the Sexual Offences Act, which he said will include the creation of a sex offenders registry. “We have in the pipeline amendments to the sexual offences act which we will take to parliament very shortly and that has in it a sex offenders registry,” Nandlall said, adding that the country is moving in the direction of building more formal registries.
The Attorney General also announced that a new evidence law is being developed to modernise court proceedings. He said the proposed legislation is intended to replace outdated provisions with a framework that better reflects present-day technology and would make it easier for courts to admit computer-generated documents, films and other modern forms of evidence.
