Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon has conceded that intelligence agencies were not aware of the impending assault on Rose Hall last Monday but downplayed any assertions that the security forces failed in the execution of their duties.
"I don't accept readily that it was this great failure...From the little I know the law enforcement agencies provided the type of responses they were expected to carry out," Luncheon told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday at the Office of the President.
In hindsight, he said if the law enforcement agencies knew they had to confront such a well-organised criminal unit it may have been a different engagement.
"Our intelligence did not provide us with the merest inkling that an outrage of such a magnitude was being planned and was going to take place at that time," he stated.
He added: "We must concede that we are dealing with a fairly well-organised, well-oiled machinery led by people with some skills."
The government has labelled the Rose Hall siege by gunmen as a political crime with the motive to worsen the ethnic divide and demoralise the law enforcement agencies.
Luncheon said Cabinet examined the incident and its implications at its meeting on Tuesday and the site of the incident and the nexus to the body politik was not lost on the administration.
Early Monday morning, a large group of heavily armed gunmen descended upon Rose Hall, the town contiguous to Port Mourant where the ruling People's Progressive Party had just concluded its Congress.
The gunmen killed two policemen and a young delegate of the Congress in their murderous spree in which they also robbed two families, a restaurant and its patrons, and stole five firearms.
Five prisoners escaped from the Georgetown prison on February 23 and since then there has been an upsurge in murders and violent crime.
Luncheon said the nexus that existed between the assault, the location and the timing was one basis for insisting that it was a political crime.
"In the political environment in which we exist, it would be foolhardy for us to ignore a nexus between the attack, its location, and the Congress of the governing party," he stated.
He hinted there may be more information yet to come which would justify the government's contention that the assault was a politically motivated event.
Luncheon said Cabinet was particularly concerned about the prolonged delay in bringing the February 23 prison escapees to justice.
He stated that concern was also raised about developments in the administration of justice.
"It did seem that magistrates seem to be unduly unsympathetic and unresponsive to the efforts of the law enforcement agencies in having dangerous criminals removed from the streets and contributing to the carnage on our homes, our communities and the villages," Luncheon said.
He alluded to the treatment meted out to the individuals charged for the storming of the Office of the President on July 3, treason accused Mark Benschop, and a man and woman apprehended in a hijacked vehicle.
He said his understanding was that most, if not all, of those arrested for consorting with the wanted men were on bail and back on the road.
He pointed out that it was not a new phenomenon, noting that even before the escapees episode people who ought not to have been released have been enjoying their freedom on bail.
Luncheon announced that Cabinet members have been given specific responsibilities in communities and specific sectors of national life to counter the effects of the continuing violence and abuses the Guyanese people have been exposed to recently.