Hallihan

CANADIAN HIGH Commissioner Stephen Hallihan says his country is willing to do more to assist Jamaica in improving national security management.

Canada has already assisted Jamaica in the introduction and application of polygraph tech-niques, as well as in financing a study to reform the justice system.

"I don't think that we are doing enough to help Jamaica with her considerable challenge in respect of crime, and we will be looking at ways of increasing that," Hallihan, who took up his new post in Jamaica less than three months ago, told The Gleaner on Monday.

He said that Canada's contribution to Jamaica's national security sector would "be informed by the strategic reform of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and will be oriented towards any specific target or priority identified by the commissioner of police".

Get rid of corruption

The strategic review of the JCF, among other things, points to the need to rid the police force of corruption, and to promote the implementation of modern management practices.

Hallihan said although policing is a broad sector, Canada is looking to assist Jamaica law enforcement in niche areas where it has special expertise, like white-collar crime or investigating financial irregularities, as well as other technical areas of policing.

In addition to assisting Jamaica in the area of national security, the new Canadian high commissioner said his country was willing to support the slew of reforms announced by Prime Minister Bruce Golding. The reforms, which are tied to Golding's medium-term economic framework, speak to tax reform, public-sector reform, oversight and accountability, and central treasury management.

"These are all very important issues for the public sector and issues which Canada happens to have a lot of experience in," Hallihan noted.

"That's one area that I would like to focus on in the coming year, to try and bring Canadian assistance and knowledge and lessons learned to the reform agenda."

Read the full interview with High Commissioner Hallihan in The Sunday Gleaner.