Latest update February 10th, 2025 2:25 PM
“Blame Game” among public prosecutors and investigators reflects poor coordination – SOCU Adviser
Adviser to SOCU, Dr. Sam Sittlington
Investigators and Prosecutors in the public sector indicated that the work of the various organizations involved is fragmented and that there is much work needed to modernize the system.
This was pointed out at a State Assets Recovery and Anti-Money Laundering training exercise, at the Police Officer’s Training Academy on October 2.
British High Commissioner, Greg Quinn, opened the exercise by remarking that he expects the training to improve the quality of DPP prosecutions. Quinn said that imprisoning criminals is not enough.
The onus, he declared, must be placed on stripping them of access to avenues that allow them to make money, because it is wealth that empowers their criminal activities like terrorism and drug trafficking.
Sam Sittlington, Advisor to SOCU, facilitated the training and, from the discussion, inferred that the major issue facing investigators and prosecutors is poor and ineffective networking between these entities, who have so far been working in silos. He says that an investigation is an effective search for material to bring an offender to justice, and that Guyana’s ineffective coordination of this framework prolongs and inhibits the closing of cases.
He said that many cases fail in court and have to be amended because they are inadequately prepared. The group acknowledged that the agencies involved tend to “play the blame game” when addressing the slothfulness and inefficiencies of the system.
In August, the British High Commissioner had said that SOCU should not be held accountable for prosecutions because it is not a prosecutorial body. Junior Minister of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma, had said that it is the responsibility of the police to ensure a good pace of prosecutions, and not SOCU.
Representatives from SOCU, FIU, DPP and SARA
They are the ones who have the authority and resources to summon witnesses and access banking information, he said.
Representatives of SOCU, today, lamented this. There is much difficulty when it comes to accessing information from banks on transactions, deposits and withdrawals, to trace the movements of funds, High Commissioner Quinn said.
They also posited that the structuring and sequencing of investigations need to be reevaluated so that it no longer interferes with the acquisition of evidence.
After identifying these challenges, the group was taken through decision-making exercises to increase their capacity to re-evaluate their practices, and to execute communication and networking protocols for the better functioning of their collective investigating and prosecuting framework.
Representatives in attendance were prosecutors from the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Investigators from Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) and Guyana Police Force’s Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU)
The exercise is a part of the United Kingdom’s Security Sector Reform Programme, and is being conducted by experts linked to the Caribbean Regional Security System’s Asset Recovery Unit. The exercise, said Commissioner Quinn, applies the knowledge of the experiences of the very best in the Caribbean region.
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