Latest update March 24th, 2025 7:05 AM
SOCU AND THE COURTS
In the last few months, the government through the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) has filed a number of cases involving fraud and the theft of state resources against individuals from the former government. Unfortunately, SOCU has lost most of its cases which suggests that either its lawyers are ill prepared to defend its cases or they are grossly incompetent. Last August, SOCU detained a Venezuelan registered Beech Baron Aircraft owned by Guyanese gold miner, Jerome Parkesas as part of its investigations into allegations of money laundering. As reported, during a search of the aircraft, SOCU officials confiscated more than 20 ounces of gold, 50,000 in Brazilian currency and G$1.2 million.But in a recent hearing of the case, the High Court ordered the release of aircraft and fined SOCU G$150000 in costs.
Last year, SOCU filed 17 fraud charges against the former General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board, Jagnarine Singh, and his deputy, Madanlall Ramraj for failing to enter over $4.2 M into the company’s ledger, knowing that it was contrary to standard operation procedures. The incidents are said to have occurred between 2011 and 2012 at the company’s head office in Kingston, Georgetown. However, all the charges were dismissed due to the lack of evidence from SOCU prosecutors. Frustrated by the court’s decision, the head of SOCU, Sydney James blamed the dismissals on the breakdown in communication between the prosecutors and SOCU officials.
The government has also lost another case against the former General Manager of the New Guyana Marketing Corporation, Nizam Hassan and his deputy, Felecia De Souza-Madramootoo on alleged fraud and conspiracy charges to procure money illegally. In November 2016, former Deputy Director of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), Carvil Duncan was found not guilty of the alleged theft of $984, 900 from GPL. The court ruled that a prima-facie case had not been established against him. And it seems that the government has aborted its efforts to return the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of GPL, Aerswar Deonarine who fled the country after being accused of fraudulently transferring $27 million to his personal bank accounts from the Petro-Caribe fund.
The court also dismissed charges of fraud and misuse of public funds brought by the government against the former Minister of Public Service, Dr. Jennifer Westford and her personnel assistant, Margaret Cummings. According to the court, the cases were dismissed because they were “bad in law”which means that wrong charges were filed against Dr. Westford and Margaret Cummings. Based on the Auditor General’s report, it was alleged that between 2011 and 2015 by virtue of their employment at the Ministry of Public Service, the Minister and her assistant who had control of the accounts department, defrauded the government of $639,420,000. The government has appealed the case.
These cases were put together by SOCU and the Criminal Investigation Department based on the advice of the Police Legal Adviser and the Director of Public Prosecutions.To date, SOCU has not won any of its cases, which has been very costly to the taxpayers. Many believe that SOCU lacks focus and that it is involved in too many investigations at a time. It is now involved in the Panama rice fiasco, while its probe into the $148 million Demerara Harbour Bridge consultancy contract is pending. The amount of resources spent on these cases could have been spent to improve the social services, including child care, health care and education.
Failure to win cases in the courts means that it is time for the government to step-up and provide SOCU with more efficient investigators and lawyers to help it prosecute and win its cases. Its lack of success in court has cast doubts in the minds of many that the government would not be able to convict anyone in the former government for alleged illegal practices, corruption or their burgling of the country’s best ocean front lands which they occupied and purchased below the market value at the time.
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