The House of Representatives has passed a bill seeking to establish the State Security Service Research and Development Bureau, a specialised institution designed to strengthen research, innovation and technological advancement within the Department of State Services.
The bill is expected to provide a legal framework for the bureau to coordinate intelligence research, develop indigenous security technologies and enhance the operational capabilities of the country’s domestic intelligence agency.
Presenting the report of the House Committee on National Security and Intelligence before its clause-by-clause consideration on Thursday, the Committee Chairman, Ahmed Satomi, said the proposed legislation was aimed at closing existing gaps in intelligence research and aligning the DSS with evolving global security realities.
“The legislative framework seeks to address the gap in terms of development looking at the global trajectory of security and value.
“The DSS is one agency that has kept this country moving and, in its quest to strengthen its combat operation, there is a requirement that it should have this particular institution within the Department of State Services for the sake of development, so that contemporary knowledge, in tandem with global practice, will be involved for this institution.”
