Int’l fraud experts confident Guyana has strong cases for asset recovery

Jul 03, 2016 News

---

By Kiana Wilburg
An international network of independent lawyers who are extremely experienced in locating the proceeds of corruption, have expressed an interest in helping Guyana in its efforts to recover assets belonging to the state.
This is according to Head of the State Asset Recovery Unit (SARU), Dr. Clive Thomas. The economist noted that the association known as FraudNet recently informed him and his team that it is “extremely confident that Guyana has strong cases where assets belonging to the state can be regained.”
Thomas said he is elated that the global anti-corruption watchdog is interested in helping Guyana in this regard.
He asserted that FraudNet contains some of the world’s leading civil asset recovery specialists. The SARU Head related that the entity’s membership extends to every continent and the world’s major economies. He said, too, that FraudNet’s focus is in locating and recovering assets and proceeds of crime for victims of all types of corruption, embezzlement and Ponzi schemes.
Dr. Thomas said that the network had invited SARU members to participate in a one-day conference which was held in Miami, Florida on June 24, last. The conference was based on the fight against corruption and impunity in 2016 and beyond. He said that representing SARU, there, were two of its leading members; Eric Phillips and Major (Rtd) Aubrey Heath-Retemyer.
Heath-Retemyer said, “To us, it was very informative and to the point. The presenters were actual practitioners in state asset recovery. They explained to us their focus, capacity, experiences in this field and how they handled challenges. Additionally, the idea with the meeting was to make us aware of what is possible if we are to work with them. And they informed us of some of the areas where we could generally build capacity.”
He continued, “I believe that the international community is now moving to a point where it truly recognizes corruption and its harmful effects on the development of a nation. And before, it was observed that while there would be prosecutions regarding corruption, very little assets would be recovered. But now, what is taking place is that there is stronger emphasis on nations or governments rather, seeking to recover assets.”
The SARU official said that a number of techniques on how to trace assets were also discussed at the conference.
“When assets are stolen from a state by certain individuals, they don’t just put it into a single account. They use a number of tricks to confuse you. ..In Guyana, we are working on how we can unravel some of these schemes wherever they may exist.”
The SARU officer said that while the Unit lacks the capacity to have a multi-jurisdictional reach regarding hidden state assets, they are not too worried as they are getting the help they need in this regard.
He said that FraudNet has indicated a strong willingness to provide support in this manner. In fact, Dr. Thomas added that on the sidelines of the one-day conference in Miami, FraudNet officials and the SARU team discussed the legal arrangements needed for providing help in this and other matters.
SARU’s Head said that generally, FraudNet is interested in Guyana and is certain that it can make a huge difference in recovering assets.
“We are getting closer and intimate ties with them and that is significant for the future of Guyana and for the future of SARU,” Thomas added.
The Economist said that this partnership is going to be extremely helpful especially when it is taken into consideration that “hundreds upon hundreds of complaints” come in on a daily basis to the Asset Recovery Unit regarding individuals who held high office and abused or allegedly stole state assets.
Dr. Thomas said that by all legal means necessary, his entity’s mandate to return or regain what rightfully belongs to the state, will be achieved.
Dr. Thomas noted that under the previous regime, the assets of the state were “misused and in some cases stolen in unconscionable ways.” He said that he will make it his duty to see that due process is followed and that justice is served.
The Head of the Asset Recovery Unit stated, “I cannot begin to tell you the number of complaints we get on a daily basis on persons under the previous government who abused assets of the state and in some cases, the evidence would strongly suggest that they stole it for their own benefit or the benefit of a third party. So we have our job cut out for us.”
He noted, however, that in order for this to be done, the entity must be legally empowered to prosecute and this comes from having its own legislation.
Already, a number of cases have been undertaken by the State Assets Recovery Unit one of which includes the misappropriation of state assets by former GuySuCo’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Rajendra Singh.
Dr. Thomas had said that a request was made for more details for some of the transactions and decisions made by Dr. Singh as they involved the misuse of State assets.
The Assets Recovery Unit will be looking into the sale of 2.6792 acres of land at Plantation Good Hope, East Coast Demerara to one Kelvin Gobin. This sale was authorized by Dr. Singh.
Dr. Singh, during his tenure as GuySuCo’s CEO, also entered into management agreements with Global Casetech and Global Cane Sugar Services out of India for the management services on a number of estates at unreasonably high cost, and without approval of the Board of Directors.
Documents also show that he persisted with a commercial bio fertilizer despite advice to the contrary from the corporation’s research and technical personnel. Single sourced procurements were done for the supply of bio fertilizers from Kay Bovet Engineering Ltd. of India in the sum of US$76,680 in June 2014 and Global Cane Sugar Services Pvt. Ltd of India in the sum of US$68,580 in February 2015. Despite being cautioned numerous times regarding the adaptation of a practice that has not been used outside of India, the former CEO persisted with commercial application rather than a trial as advised.
Dr. Singh also made decisions that resulted in millions of dollars being lost by GuySuCo.
The said documents reveal that Singh had responsibility for Finance and Marketing for the company and entered into a one year agreement with Tate and Lyle in 2013 when the company could have entered into one for three years while locking in at a higher sugar price for 2014 and 2015.
This was the first time in the history of the Long Term Agreement (LTA) with Tate and Lyle that a one-year agreement was entered into. The failure to enter into a three-year agreement resulted in a conservatively estimated loss of US$60M in revenue for the corporation for the years 2014 and 2015.
During his time as CEO, he also committed 38,000 tonnes of sugar to Futures Market without locking into a price of $0.16 cents per pound.
The current price is now US$0.11 cents per pound and this decline resulted in a loss of revenue in the sum of US$4.2M for GuySuCo.

---

---