Security breaches at CJIA

Last Saturday, in close proximity to news that we may be in the midst of another rash of smuggling of Towa Towa birds into New York, the Irfaan Ali administration made public the installation of $400 million worth of new baggage and body scanning equipment at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri. Part of the ceremony associated with the installation of the new equipment was a message published in a section of the media and delivered by Public Works Minister Juan Edghill to the effect that countering the trafficking of narcotics and other illegal items through the airport is “a priority” of the incumbent administration.

One assumes, of course, that in the post 9/11 era, when airport security has become a global axiom, that the same would automatically apply here in Guyana. That notwithstanding, Minister Edghill evidently appeared to feel that it was necessary to make the point…..explicitly.

Frankly, the significance of the timing of the Minister’s remark may be much more closely linked to what would appear to be a concern on the part of President Ali’s administration that it send such reassuring signals as it can to Washington that it is moving towards sealing the cracks in local airport security, as reflected, most recently, in the ‘export’ of our singing Towa Towas.

9/11 being a sort of global high water mark for concern over the security of airports, the recent report of a courier being apprehended with a consignment of the birds destined for New York would not have escaped the attention of authorities in the United States. Indeed, if the export of the birds does not, in itself, provide sufficient reason for excessive alarm in Washington, the administration there may well be wondering what else is escaping the attention of the CJIA security apparatus.

The particular problem that Guyana faces in this regard is that its periodic immersing in PRdriven gestures that focus mostly on the commissioning of high-priced airport security equipment and training programmes for airport staff continue to be hopelessly undermined by the reality that the more telling security weaknesses appear to repose in an integrity deficit to be found in some of its functionaries whose job it is to help secure the airport. The fallacy of a nexus between sophisticated and costly baggagescanning and other equipment and enhanced security (that takes little or no account of the integrity factor associated with the security operatives themselves) fools no one and will change little, if anything.

The fact of the matter is that probes of breaches of airport security at CJIA, over time, have thrown up evidence that in many cases security transgressions occur with the complicity of ‘insiders’ who are familiar with the system and how it might be circumvented. More than that, neither the media nor the public is ever allowed to properly follow the trail of these probes into security breaches and their outcomes and, most importantly, the measures that are put in place to stop the gaps. Transgression of airport security has become an entrenched ‘hustle.’

Now that we appear to be in the midst of yet another bird-smuggling season, the authorities are again making one of their customary after-the-fact responses. We are told that both the Guyana Police Force and the airport security authorities are to mount separate investigations into the bird-smuggling. Quite what this means in real terms, however, and whether or not these will not be more of the ‘cold fish’ probes that have been undertaken previously, is hard to tell. We are none the wiser, for example, on the Terms of Reference for the recently announced probes or whether they will include concrete and immediately implementable recommendations designed to raise the bar insofar as arresting this and other types of breaches of airport security are concerned.

Given what, since 9/11, has been the United States’ significantly stepped up attention to airport security, the promised probe into the trafficking of the birds may well be linked to concerns expressed by Washington that the smuggling of the birds between Georgetown and New York may be a microcosm of more worrying breaches of airport security here that could pose a much greater potential threat level for the US. This is not a consideration which, in these times, can be ruled out. Truth be told, the various incidents of breaches of airport security here, particularly in relation to the movement of narcotics have occurred with sufficient regularity to provide reason for diminished confidence in the security regime that obtains at CJIA. One recalls a 2014 statement attributed to the then Public Works Minister Robeson Benn, that both the CJIA and the then Ogle International Airport were “not meeting the minimum standard” on aviation security (Stabroek News August 27th). The statement was made on the previous day at an Airport Risk Mitigation Workshop, though it was officially withdrawn the next day seemingly out of concern that the remark might have repercussions for the country’s international aviation safety profile.

Almost seven years down the road the question may well be arising again as to whether what Mr Benn, now Minister of Home Affairs, had to say then does not, in fact, still hold true.

While the ingenuity of the ‘couriers’ and their handlers should not be taken for granted it is altogether reasonable to assume that competent airport security functionaries can, for the most part, and over time, without enormous trouble, identify a suspected ‘courier’ carrying upwards of a dozen of these birds on their persons (surely they need to dress a certain way) and afterwards institute searches that would eventually deliver the birds. If no one is taking the work of the security functionaries of the CJIA for granted, questions must surely be asked of the security regime at the airport if the couriers and their handlers can continually buck the system. It is either that or we must vigorously probe and if necessary disassemble and refashion the entire security apparatus at the CJIA.