The United States Government has agreed to provide office equipment and electronic data base access for the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.{{more}}

This was communicated on Monday, in an email from Kurt van der Walde, Director – Narcotics Affairs Section, US Embassy Bridgetown, to Angie Williams-Jackson, private secretary to the Prime Minister.

“As you may know, the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative is geared toward creating durable security solutions through sustainable programs over which our partners take eventual ownership. A key part of sustainability is putting in place modern criminal laws and building an effective prosecution service. We are grateful for the leadership that St Vincent and the Grenadines has shown in this regard. For that reason, I am pleased to let you know that we will be able to fund all the items Prime Minister Gonsalves has requested.

“We hope to work with St Vincent and the Grenadines to give your government the tools to use civil asset forfeiture against drug kinpins with a dedicated portion of the seized assets going to support additional resources for police, prosecutors, and drug treatment and prevention. In this way, we view this current request as a down payment on the future. In five or six years when these computers are in need of replacement, we hope that St Vincent and the Grenadines will be able to use a dedicated pool of civil asset forfeiture proceeds of buy the next generation of hardware for the DPP,” the email said.

Williams-Jackson told SEARCHLIGHT on Tuesday that the donation will comprise computers, a printer, photocopier and other office equipment.