Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has assured that the National Intelligence and Security Agency Bill, which was presented earlier this week in the National Assembly, is just to ensure that the National Intelligence and Security Agency operates in a more organized manner.

While not addressing concerns about the proposed legislation, the Vice President frowned upon concerns raised about the actual agency, saying that it was established more than a decade ago. He said the Former APNU+AFC Government had even promised to present legislation to govern the agency, but that did not materialize.

“There was a promise under the APNU to give this agency a legislative existence and we are now moving forward to do that. It is not unusual for countries to have this many countries in the world have similar agencies,” Jagdeo said.

The proposed legislation mandates that the agency  will report directly to the President and can deploy agents to foreign diplomatic missions as well as collect information from any public authority despite existing laws that may prohibit the disclosure of such information.

“It is a good thing basically to give it a legislation form, it is a good thing to have the subvention from parliament voted directly to the agency and not through another agency’s budget, it will bring greater accountability to the body and that   it is not a political thing, it was there under PPP and then under APNU and now here again,” Mr. Jagdeo said.

According to the Bill, the functions of the agency are in keeping with the defence and foreign policies of the State; protection against threats from espionage, terrorism and sabotage from the activities of persons within Guyana or agents of foreign powers; protection of actions from within Guyana or agents of foreign powers intended to undermine democracy and State institutions.

The Bill states that the agency, with the approval of the President, can engage, communicate and operate with foreign agencies to achieve a particular objective in the interest of national intelligence and security.

Agents of the proposed National Intelligence and Security Agency will be covered by the Police Act and the Defence Act.

The Opposition has already made known its objections to the proposed Bill.

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