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Those who stole state property will be brought to justice – Granger

Oct 14, 2016 News

By Kiana Wilburg
In the interest of restoring transparency and accountability, President David Granger emphasised that his Government is committed to promoting standards of probity in public office.
The Head of State made this comment, among others, during his address to the Parliament yesterday.
In this regard, he said that the administration will ensure that those who stole state property are brought to justice.
He added, “We will pursue the recovery of all stolen State assets.”
The President also stated that the State Assets Recovery Bill will establish a State Asset Recovery Agency to recover State property that has been unlawfully acquired, through civil proceedings.
A series of consultations led by the Ministry of Legal Affairs and the State Asset Recovery Unit have already been held. The Bill, according to several stakeholders, has been deemed to be an extremely comprehensive document.
Among other things, the crucial draft legislation contains provisions covering the nature and availability of legal assistance arrangements that may be concluded between Guyana and a foreign state or territory, in relation to matters concerning civil recovery.
The Bill says that the Minister of Legal Affairs may enter into reciprocal recovered property-sharing agreements. The Bill also sets out that the Director may enter into agreements to collect and share information with a relevant foreign authority.
The Court or Director, in acting upon a foreign request for assistance, may take any action including where appropriate, a civil recovery investigation, restraint and civil recovery proceedings (section 95). The Director may make a direct request for overseas assistance, or may issue a letter of request, if he/she believes that there is relevant evidence in a country or territory outside Guyana.
The request may be sent to any authority recognized by the Government of the country or territory concerned as being appropriate for receiving requests, or the court or tribunal specified within the request. Alternatively, a request may be sent through the Central Authority which should forward the request to the court, tribunal, Government or authority in the country or territory concerned.
It was explained by SARU Head, Dr. Clive Thomas that the Director may also initiate proceedings in a foreign country to recover property he/she believes to be proceeds of any unlawful conduct (section 100), but in both cases the Director must inform the Minister of Legal Affairs and Minister of Foreign Affairs in writing of the request for assistance or of the institution of proceedings (section 101).
He stressed that this is designed to ensure the relevant Ministers are kept fully informed, and to avoid the risk of a diplomatic incident being caused inadvertently.
“Evidence obtained by means of a request for assistance cannot be used for any purpose other than for the purposes of the investigation for which it was obtained. However, the court, tribunal, government or authority that received the request and provided the evidence, can consent to the use of the evidence for other purposes,” Dr. Thomas explained.
The SARA Bill also contains provisions granting immunity to the Director, SARA staff, any person acting on behalf of SARA, an Asset Manager or any person appointed by the Court for any act done in good faith in the intended performance of any duty under the Act.
There are also provisions providing protection for SARA staff making it a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment for, among other actions, threatening a member of SARA staff or a member of their family.
Additionally, transitional arrangements are to the effect that existing members of staff of SARU automatically become members of staff of SARA on the coming into force of the State Assets Recovery Act, and within six months thereof, the Parliamentary Committee on appointments must recommend to the National Assembly a person to be appointed as Director of SARA.
Section (106) of the Bill enables the Minister to make Regulations for the carrying out of the provisions of the Act and imposes a criminal sanction for a breach of those Regulations.

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