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Apr 11, 2017 News
Opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo has accused the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU) of being
a corrupt organization that is shaking down businessmen.
At a press conference at the Opposition Leader’s office in Church Street, yesterday, Jagdeo said that SARU members have collected large sums of money from businessmen.
The former president did not give any details of the allegations that he made but was adamant that SARU is rife with corruption and its members have been able to accrue large sums of money in their personal bank accounts.
He said that the members are Government sympathizers and political hacks who have no skills in the area in which they are employed and that they are operating illegally.
Jagdeo said that SARU was raiding people’s homes and was giving specific directives to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) on how they should do their work.
He once again frowned upon the actions of SARU when it raided the Enmore Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) and seized a batch of desktop computers and power pack that were going to be sold.
Jagdeo wondered if there isn’t anything else beneficial that SARU should be addressing rather than raiding an office for computers that he said does not belong to the state.
He said that the country is in for some rough times ahead with SARU since if they are behaving the way they are currently, in the absence of the necessary legislation, he shudders to think what their approach will be when that body becomes a constitutional one.
He added that no Guyanese will be safe but warned that his party will not sit back and allow
that body to run rough shod over the Guyanese nation. The former president said that the People’s Progressive Party Civic has a voice and they will expose SARU.
Jagdeo said that while SARU is running around raiding people’s homes there are no mechanisms in place to check on questionable practices that these officials are involved with.
The former head of state said the fact that SARU is based at the Office of the President says a lot about the integrity of the organization. It is Jagdeo’s belief that SARU is an illegal body and his party will not remain quiet with respect to the alleged excesses of that entity.
Responding to Jagdeo accusations, Chief Executive Officer of SARU Aubrey Heath-Retemyer said that Jagdeo’s assertion has no basis and he does not take him (Jagdeo) seriously.
Retemyer said that the former president has a penchant for lies and the nation does not have to look very far to unearth those lies. Retemyer said that Jagdeo for years told the nation that he was married but that turned out to be untruthful.
Retemyer said that he and his colleagues at SARU have the interest of the nation at heart and they are patriotic Guyanese who are working for the betterment of the nation.
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