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Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les, in his maid­en speech to­day, ad­mit­ted that the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty has not been ef­fec­tive in com­mu­ni­cat­ing with the pub­lic.

Speak­ing at the Na­tion­al Drug Coun­cil’s Pil­lar Talk, the new­ly ap­point­ed Min­is­ter praised his pre­de­ces­sor, Fitzger­ald Hinds, for his ef­forts but not­ed that pub­lic com­mu­ni­ca­tion was an area in need of im­prove­ment.

“First, again, let me thank him for the four years of hard work that he has done in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty. I had a long han­dover ses­sion with him up to late yes­ter­day evening. And I must say that based on what I dis­cov­ered, I recog­nise that per­haps the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty has not been com­mu­ni­cat­ing ef­fec­tive­ly with the na­tion­al pop­u­la­tion. This is ex­act­ly what I plan to im­prove mov­ing for­ward. As long as we pro­vide all the nec­es­sary re­sources to State agen­cies to com­bat and push back against the crim­i­nal el­e­ment,” Gon­za­les said.