Lincoln Lewis is either genuinely confused or attempting to skew facts and reality about SOCU

May 11, 2018 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Lincoln Lewis’ comments on the work of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) are markedly interesting, given that he wants to talk up the need to ensure good governance and accountability while he remained silent when the Secretariat of the Integrity Commission was disbanded by this APNU-AFC Coalition Government.
He has said nothing about the fact that not one of the current Coalition Ministers has submitted a declaration to the Integrity Commission since taking office. Now three years later, with dozens of corruption scandals at government’s door, there is no way to tell what assets these Coalition Ministers came into office with and what was attained at the expense of Guyanese taxpayers.
More importantly, however, Lewis in his letter published on May 10, 2018, presents himself as a Champion of SOCU; but from reading the first few lines, it is clear that he gets it wrong when it comes to the intended mandate of SOCU.
SOCU was established under the former PPP/C government. The Unit’s establishment was part of Guyana’s international obligations to strengthen its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework and was intended to support the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). SOCU was set up to be an arm of the Guyana Police Force.
The mandate of the Unit is to address investigations, detection and preparation of criminal investigative reports and case files for prosecutions of financial crimes, including money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
Lewis’ ramblings about what he ‘thinks’ is SOCU’s mandate exposes the fact that he is either genuinely confused, or is attempting to skew facts and reality – which is that SOCU is not fulfilling its intended mandate. SOCU is not supporting the FIU. SOCU has not pursued a single case of money laundering or one related to the financing of terrorism.
Lewis’ erroneous claims range from saying that SOCU is supposed to hold “the elected and appointed accountable in the execution of their duties,” which is the role of the Integrity Commission, to claiming that the former PPP/C government “established the Unit based only on the country’s association with the international bodies’ fight against crime at governmental level,” which is something that could not be further from the facts.
SOCU’s mandate is clear. What is also clear is that SOCU has been hijacked by this government and its intended functions subverted (not a strange development given the PNC’s penchant for subverting state institutions).
While Lewis is ‘crying tears’ about the “glorious opportunity” that was missed by the PPP/C to demonstrate respect for the work of the Unit, he ignored basic facts.
If Lewis wants to continue to Champion the work of SOCU in a credible and independent manner, all he has to do is answer a few questions:
1. How can you respect the work of SOCU when it is functioning outside of what was its purpose and has not pursued a single REAL case of money laundering or one related to the financing of terrorism?
2. How can you respect the work of SOCU when there is a clear connection between the Unit and the Coalition Government? How can you explain that the lead SOCU prosecutor is the brother of a sitting Cabinet Minister?
3. How can you respect the work of SOCU when it was moved from under the Guyana Police Force to the Ministry of the Presidency, less than a year after APNU-AFC took office?
4. How can you explain spending of taxpayers’ monies on what SOCU is doing? It was none other than Minister Joseph Harmon, during the Budget 2016 review, who admitted that a massive $40M under the Ministry of the Presidency’s budget was to cover a “top up” on salaries for SOCU staffers – imagine a top up for SOCU officers was paid despite the fact that the expected one month bonus that members of the security forces expect at the end of the year has not been paid for the past few years.
5. How can you respect the work of SOCU when it has been involved in a number of controversial operations, including the high-profile car chase of the wife of a former PPP/C Member of Parliament, which resulted in the death of Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Sergeant Robert Pyle and his wife Stacy, along with another civilian in a smash-up on Carifesta Avenue in December 2015? Where are the answers to the questions on this matter?
Since Lewis is intent about pointing out ‘glorious opportunities’ that were missed, he should not miss the chance to respond to these questions. Maybe then, he might recognise that the manner in which SOCU is functioning is neither free, nor fair, but politically tainted and geared to target political opponents with unsubstantiated charges in order to, if for no other reason, damage reputations and attempt to solidify what APNU-AFC said on the campaign trail about corruption and jailing people.
To claim that the PPP/C, from the start, sought to make the work of SOCU a partisan issue is to ignore reality. Facts are facts and it is time that Mr. Lewis attempts to face them. Not doing so will only confirm what many are already saying, Lewis continues to excuse the actions of this government.
Sincerely,
Neil Kumar JP, PPP/C MP

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