Will SARU Investigate APNU-AFC Ministers?...Jagdeo

Will SARU Investigate APNU-AFC Ministers?…Jagdeo

Jul 16, 2016 News

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo posed the question whether the State Assets Recovery Unit will ever investigate members of the APNU-AFC coalition government. Jagdeo was at the time addressing media operatives at a press conference last Wednesday at Freedom House.
The Opposition Leader said that SARU’s existence is unnecessary. His position is that legislation already exists to allow the police to investigate allegations of corruption made against his administration.
Jagdeo believes that the government intends to use the agency in order to carry out its political agenda instead of promoting transparency. He posed the questions, “If we make a complaint now, with the new legislation, that a Minister is corrupt, will SARU investigate the Minister? What if we complain that President Granger is involved in a corrupt act? Will SARU be able to deal with it in the new legislation?”
According to Jagdeo, SARU seems to be only focused on investigating reports of corruption which would have occurred under the PPP/C administration. Jagdeo said that the whole purpose of the unit is to create legislation for witch-hunting.
Jagdeo doesn’t believe SARU has intentions of investigating the government. He spoke of 16 computers which the APNU-AFC parliamentarians allegedly still have in their possession. Those should have been returned to the state after the May 2015 elections, he said.
He said that these computers should have been returned to the Office of the Opposition Leader. This is one instance that Jagdeo used to form his opinion that SARU can recover state assets from the government but has refused to do so.
He noted that members of his party have been accused of hiding assets abroad. Jagdeo said that his party has pledged to cooperate with the local authorities to investigate these reports with the assistance of Interpol or a private firm.
Jagdeo informed that if a public official is found guilty of not declaring assets to the Integrity Commission which he has abroad, then that person can be jailed.
Regarding local investigations, Jagdeo said that the police can approach the Commercial Banks and the Deeds Registry to find out about holdings in Guyana. He said that these are routine exercises which can be conducted by the police.
Jagdeo said that he cannot identify what is lacking in the Laws of Guyana that prevents local authorities from going after corrupt officials.
Last May, Head of SARU, Clive Thomas, said that his unit has made breakthrough discoveries of corruption. Despite this, Thomas said that his agency is restricted from seizing illegal assets due to the lack of legislation.
Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General, Basil Williams, had informed the press last June, that the administration is finalizing key legislations to assist authorities in taking action on the revelations of the forensic audits. He said that he has seen the draft SARU legislation and it is currently being reviewed.

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