National Transformation Alliance Political Leader Gary Griffith says while the budget was one of economic reality, announcements regarding national security were “unfortunate.”

In particular, Mr Griffith, a former Police Commissioner and National Security Minister, says the implementation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles should have been in place many years ago and should have been a budget allocation priority since 2014.

On government’s plan to acquire 4 patrol ships and 8 high speed interceptors for border control, he believes the coast guard has all the vessels it requires, but “due to a lack of preventative maintenance, they are not seaworthy.”

Additionally, he says the intention to buy more police vehicles will be meaningless without proper preventative maintenance systems and accountability mechanisms.

Mr Griffith believes the budget announcements failed to inspire confidence in any meaningful or near-term turnaround in the crime situation.