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Police in full control of SOCU investigations – UK Expert
UK Fraud Expert Sam Sittlington (left) chatting with Head of SOCU Sydney James in the SOCU compound
The United Kingdom-based Financial Crime Expert Sam Sittlington said unequivocally yesterday that the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), which comes under the Guyana Police Force, is making all its decisions independently.
Sittlington is the director of an Ireland-based fraud company which provided training and expert advice to SOCU, a specialised entity set up to investigate financial crimes.
According to the fraud expert, the current investigations being carried out by SOCU into the Pradoville 2 land distribution scheme and other matters are solely police matters and any decision concerning them will be made by the police.
He was further asked where exactly SOCU takes instructions from, to which Sittlington said, “The police entity.” He added that instructions would specifically come from the Commissioner of Police.
It was only yesterday that former Attorney-General Anil Nandlall said that he spoke with Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud and was told by Persaud that he knows nothing of SOCU’s activities relating to the arrests and questioning of ‘Pradoville 2’ beneficiaries.
Sittlington said that any clarification on whether Persaud knew of the activities, the police force would have to provide it.
The fraud expert was further questioned by the media on whether he foresees charges being laid against those persons being investigated to which he responded, “I can’t comment on that. Under the police Act, the police have the power to arrest without a warrant for someone suspected of committing a misdemeanour. Whenever the police require them for an interview and they refuse to, then they are breaching that, and the police can come in and arrest them. The whole point is to bring someone in to gather evidence because you suspect them of committing a criminal offence.”
Sittlington was reminded that members of the Opposition had asked to be interviewed in a different location from SOCU’s Headquarters. He explained that three or four weeks ago the Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, said that he would be willing to assist in the investigations.
However, the expert justified the need for the questioning at SOCU’s headquarters by saying, “This is a police investigation; this is not a PPP investigation. The police dictate where they interview the suspects, not the individuals. Also all the exhibits are here, so they (police) can’t transport them all around the country to do that. It makes sense to do the investigations at the police station where you have all the materials; your recording equipment and visual equipment as well.”
He said that persons who were not arrested went into SOCU voluntarily. Asked to clarify why some persons who handed over themselves to the police were still arrested, Sittlington said that it had to do with the investigators and how they were talking to the investigators.
According to Sittlington, the investigations are moving along smoothly and at the end, he will be making a statement. When arrests begun on Tuesday, members of the PPP/C had accused the government of issuing political directives to SOCU officers to arrest persons of interest in the matter.
The government had also dispelled the claims made by the PPP/C in a statement saying that SOCU is conducting fair, meticulous and independent work in investigating an immensely serious matter relating to state assets.
Those questioned on Tuesday included former Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Roger Luncheon, former Chairman of the Private Sector Commission, Ramesh Dookhoo, daughter of former President Donald Ramotar and General Manager of Guyana Gold Board, Lisaveta Ramotar, son of former Labour Minister Nanda Gopaul, Dr Gansham Singh, former Deputy Head of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Marcia Nadir-Sharma and former Minister of Natural Resources Robert Persaud.
The list lengthened yesterday when former Ministers of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali, former Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, former Minister of Tourism Shaik Baksh, former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, former Minister of Public Service, Jennifer Westford, former Minister of Labour, Nanda Gopaul and former Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, were called in for questioning.
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