That meeting requested the Social Partners to expand the proposal for "a structured, ongoing and permanent consultative mechanism" and to provide more details on the broad outlines contained in the paper on "Shared Governance." This work was completed and a copy of a "Background paper" for the Second Joint Consultation was dispatched to all partners on 8 November.

In preparing this paper, the Social Partners requested three of the principal actors in the Constitutional Reform process (former Chairman Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, former secretary Mr. Haslyn Parris and former Commission member, Dr. Rupert Roopnarine)to study the problem of delays in establishing Constitutional Commissions and Parliamentary Committees. This group completed their work and their 37-page report has been submitted to all partners in the Consultation process. In summary, their findings include the following observances.

That timely and effective implementation will take place only with the closest possible collaboration among the Government, the Opposition, and civil society. They emphasised the following points.

That efficient implementation required the focused management by a small group or unit, headed by a designated manager who would be held accountable for all aspects of planning, administering, facilitating and monitoring implementation;

That there is need for urgency in preparing and obtaining approval for a detailed work plan listing setting out specific tasks, expected results, estimates of required resources and obtaining approval for these resources; and that implementation of the Constitutional Reform Commission recommendations involved undertaking many interlinked actions that needed to be listed and sequenced for timely and efficient execution.

At the end of September, there was growing apprehension that the absence of a widespread political commitment to an over-arching strategy for addressing the crime situation could derail efforts to engage in wider discussions on governance and the country's future. The Social Partners reluctantly concurred with this view and undertook to assist in developing such a strategy.

A panel of experts including former Chiefs of Staff, Major Generals (retired) Joseph Singh and Norman McLean and former Commissioner of Police Laurie Lewis prepared a paper on the "Prevailing Security Environment" that included recommendations for responding to the deteriorating situation. This paper was submitted to the President, the Leader of the Opposition and Leaders and representatives of the Parliamentary Political Parties at the beginning of October. In the weeks that followed, extensive discussions were held, substantial progress made and consensus was reached on several critical Confidence Building Measures. These included:

1. Without prejudice to any outgoing reform process, the expeditious implementation of a public inquiry into the functions of the Guyana Police Force to ensure it fulfils its mandate as specified in Article 197A (4) of the Constitution as Amended by Act No. 7 of 2001.

2. The undertaking of all Constitutional, administrative and other procedures for ( a) the appointment of the designated Commissioner of Police,( b) the confirmation of outstanding promotions of officers of the Police Force, and, ( c) continuation of efforts to address conditions of service of the Police Force;

3. The replacement of the Target Special Squad by the urgent establishment of a fully trained, equipped and operational special Emergency Response Unit led by professional officers with clear operational guidelines.

4. The holding of discussions between representatives of the Government, the Opposition and Social Partners for the purpose of discussing reservations to certain aspects of The Prevention of Crimes (Amendment) Act; The Criminal law (Offenses) (Amendment)Act; as well as The Racial Hostility (Amendment) Act, with a view to considering what, if any, amendments may be introduced in Parliament to address those reservations;

5. The review and strengthening of operational arrangements regarding the functioning of Community Policing Groups to ensure effective networking with the Police Divisions and Private Sector Firms with clear operational guidelines.

Unfortunately, the participants involved in the process of formulating the Joint Communique on Crime have so far been unable to conclude discussions on a number of outstanding concerns. These include measures to provide for safe movement on highways and roads without endangering the life and property of citizens; the strengthening of the Joint Security Forces to deal with organised crime, the drug trade, and kidnappings; police excesses and redress for innocent citizens affected by these excesses.

Several of these latter concerns fell outside of the envisaged monitoring by the Social Partners' panel of experts. It was foreseen that this panel would provide an independent review of the progress of implementation of any agreed Joint Communique on Crime within thirty days following signature.

Consequently, an agreed approach to monitoring these measures also remains unresolved. The Social Partners therefore urge the participants in this process to urgently continue the search for ways of resolving these outstanding differences.