SARA’s powers to snoop around citizens’ private accounts worrying

Sep 08, 2016 News

– Agency poses danger to Constitutional rights – Private Sector

Ensuring that citizens’ banking information is protected and only seen by the authorized bodies has been an issue of interest as of late, particularly for the Private Sector Commission (PSC).
In relation to this sensitive subject, the Commission specifically refers to the financial access that would be made possible for the State Asset Recovery Unit (SARU) when it becomes formally established. Once its draft Bill is passed by the National Assembly and assented to by President David Granger, it will become the State Asset Recovery Agency (SARA).
The PSC accepts that all assets or resources belonging to the State that were unlawfully or criminally transferred to any beneficiary must be recovered and returned to the State, once such unlawful transactions become known and criminal convictions obtained. However, the Commission is of the view that the current draft State Asset Recovery Bill 2016 (SARA Bill) is deeply flawed and inconsistent with many of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.
The PSC said that it has obtained legal representation and will be making known its objections to the legislation to the Attorney General and to members of the Legislature.
The Commission also stated that the SARA Bill is not a good signal to investors who will require access to state resources such as land, licences, access rights etc. It believes that the Bill provides opportunities for legitimate investors to be harassed and politically victimized.
The Commission said, “The Bill has been drafted from the perspective that the Government of Guyana does not know what it owns or what the State has lost over the years. As such, it provides all-encompassing investigative and surveillance powers to the Director and Staff of the Agency to snoop around into private accounts and financial records of citizens to determine what assets of the State were lost and need to be recovered.”
It added, “This is a complete affront to the fundamental rights of citizens and if such powers are granted they can be used to marginalize, suppress and take advantage of vulnerable members of the population through political intimidation.”
With this in mind, the PSC said that it is extremely concerned that the powers provided to the Director of SARA will blur the lines of separation of functions of the Executive and the Judiciary.
The Commission also questioned the need for Ministers to designate to the Director and Staff of SARA, as they see fit, the power of a revenue or customs officer, of a police officer and immigration officer rather than requesting collaboration and coordination of efforts amongst these agencies.
The PSC believes that the SARA Bill is premature and redundant.
In this regard, it said that many of the intelligence-gathering mechanisms to be used by SARA have already been enacted in the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Legislation, and included in the mandate of the Integrity Commission, both of which have not been fully functional to date.
With the aforementioned in mind, the PSC is calling on the Executive and Members of the Legislature to completely reexamine the dangers to civil liberties modeled by the SARA Bill in the context of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.

2 thoughts on “SARA’s powers to snoop around citizens’ private accounts worrying”

Rexy Romeo September 8, 2016 at 9:41 am

This is far too ridiculous for SOCU and SARA to bully their way into people’s private accounts…If this was to occur in NORTH AMERICA the law suits would have been so big the Guyana treasure would have gone bankrupt the next day…Guess dictator days are back and the poor local people has no privacy rights….Too much power is getting to clive tomas head…Way to go to create another SADDAM era in Guyana!
1. rs dasai September 8, 2016 at 5:08 pm
  
  Rexy.
  Such will not happen. This APNU/AFC Gvt has been given the mandate by the citizens to manage the affairs of the Country and it is being done as best as can be. The AG (s) will ensure that our rights are secured.