SARA breaches law, fails to have annual plan, Code of Practice tabled …Ram &McRae says Agency should be scrapped altogether

Dec 09, 2018 News

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By Kiana Wilburg

The State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) appears to be in breach of the law which says that it must have tabled in the National Assembly, its annual plan and Code of Practice. This was recently pointed out by Ram and McRae Chartered Accountants.
In its comprehensive review of budget 2019, the firm pointed out that SARA is budgeted to receive $285 million, an increase of $25 million or 9.6%, from the $260 million it received in 2018.
Considering the substantial funds it is about to receive, Ram and McRae believes that the Agency should at least adhere to its reporting requirements.
“Like many other public bodies, SARA appears to have breached the law in respect of the duty to have its annual plan tabled in the National Assembly and the prerequisite steps to lay a Code of Practice and to have its report filed in the National Assembly.”

The firm is of the view that the Agency has clearly failed to live up to the hype and fanfare, which accompanied its establishment when it was expected to recover several billions of dollars of state assets each year.
It noted in its report that the Government may wish to consider scrapping the Agency altogether and assigning its functions and responsibilities to the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) of the Guyana Police Force.
SARA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Aubrey Heath-Retemyer, asked to respond to Ram and McRae’s criticisms, opted not to. He said that the legal firm of one of the accountants, Christopher Ram, has a Constitutional challenge against SARA.
The SARA CEO said, “The matter is still in Court. Based on this and the question you asked, any response may be considered prejudicial or sub-judice hence, no comment.”
2018 PERFORMANCE
During his contribution to the 2019 budget debates, Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General, Basil Williams, spoke to the performance of SARA for 2018.
He noted that the Agency has been working on 25 cases referred to it by the Police Legal Advisor, among others.
Williams said that at present, the Agency has five cases, which are 90 percent complete and are only held up because requests for information have not yet been fulfilled. He said that several agencies are still going through mountains of old documents to find the relevant pieces of information, which are needed to wrap up cases.

In addition, he said that there are another 12 cases with a possible recovery value of over $2B that are about 70 percent complete. He said that SARA, working with NICIL, was able to have three pieces of Government property repossessed from delinquent leasees. Two of these properties are again on the market and interested parties are prepared to pay 300% – 400% more than the previous tenants. The third piece of property was sold to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) for $60M.
Williams said that SARA working alongside the various agencies, which have the responsibility for lands, was able to provide information, which led to several actions such as the Guyana Forestry Commission repossessing approximately 2,000,000 acres of Forestry lands and the Lands and Survey Department reclaiming approximately 80 house lots.
SARA, working with Ministries and Regions, led to improved inventories of equipment and the repossession and reallocation of more than 30 buildings across the country. The Minister said that the Agency working with the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs is seeking to recover revenue loss through gold shipments leaving Guyana.
He said that there have been several cases where an amount declared at Cheddi Jagan International Airport was vastly different to what was declared at J.F.K. in New York.
SARA is also seeking cooperation with Brazil to identify and if possible recover gold held in Brazil due to illegal activities by Guyanese smugglers.
The Attorney General said, “Since corruption is at the root cause of Government property being stolen, the less the nation loses, the less the need to recover. Hence SARA has made meaningful contributions to the anti-corruption efforts.”
Further to this, Williams said that available figures as cited in a series of articles written 2012-2014 show the Government of Guyana losing billions per annum in Procurement Fraud.
“Tens of billions was lost in Illicit Capital Flight and tens of billions of dollars due to the activities of the underground economy. While the analysts in SARA are still working to obtain current figures using three International Indices as references, we have moved several points in the right direction,” the Minister said.

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