Was Sam Sittlington serving SOCU’s interests or other local political interests?

Feb 04, 2019 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The legitimate coalition government of Guyana needs to wake up immediately and begin connecting the dots in wake of the recent worrying developments beginning with the Confidence motion on 21 December.
To begin, it is now public knowledge that Sam Sittlington, who up until his recent firing was attached to SOCU and had set up and incorporated a local branch of his UK Company to undertake the same functions of SOCU.
Sittlington’s actions here has in the first instance demonstrated a clear conflict of interest with perceivable intentions of national significance which I will elaborate on further below.
Guyanese need to take note that the address Sittlington registered as his, on the company’s incorporation documents, is reportedly that of a senior government official. Whether Sittlington did this with or without the knowledge and consent of that senior official is still an unknown factor but the Coalition Government needs to address this with urgency.
Now following the resignation of the Special Superintendent at SOCU and the subsequent vicious attempts in some of the mainstream media and social media (even posting a photograph of the woman’s car on social media) to besmirch and taint the professional integrity of this professional, the coalition government needs to be asking questions as to who are the architects behind this most devious attempt and their strategic intentions.
I have sat in the courts and witnessed this Special Superintendent presenting evidence of her academic qualifications. I do not personally know her but I have consulted widely with stakeholders about her and the feedback I have always had is that she is a person of the highest integrity, professionalism, high intelligence and by far the most accomplished investigator to ever walk through the doors of SOCU. The record number of the matters she has before the courts presents a measure of her output.
No organisation, especially one engaged in the fight against financial crimes, gets rid of or allows its leading resource to leave. Successful organisations do everything in their power to retain and keep their most valuable resources.
Pre- departure interviews are hastily arranged to identify motivation for leaving and to offer solutions in order to retain those resources. They do not passively sit by and allow their valuable people to depart. It’s simply unheard of.
As a result, questions must be asked about the intentions behind this seemingly calculated and manipulative move to let loose the Special Superintendent from SOCU. Everyone I have spoken to has lamented the significant impact Ms James’s departure will have on the work of SOCU and the very real risk now, that evidence gathered will no longer lead to charges and ongoing matters of critical public interest in the courts will now collapse.
This coalition government must realize that the Opposition Leader has all along been challenging them to provide the evidence of their massive looting of the country’s wealth and it is no strange coincidence that at this point, just before a landmark elections, when SOCU is on the verge of presenting evidence (which could impact the outcome of the elections) of the massive looting of the country’s resources by a select group from Jagdeo’s cabal, there has been a move to let go of unarguably SOCU’s most successful resource and the very likely consequences to the very evidence that Jagdeo has been challenging the coalition government to provide.
The coalition government and all patriots with a heart for Guyana needs to wake up now from their sleep and smell the coffee. It is no coincidence that just as SOCU has started receiving significant cooperation from international countries on investigations into financial crimes – a significant accomplishment for SOCU, that its leading investigator has been ‘forced’ to resign and the resignation accepted.
Clearly questions has to be asked, as this is not rocket science and the acceptance of the resignation could only have been successful with the complicity of senior officials of SOCU and the Ministry of Public Security.
It has to be asked if Sam Sittlington who always boasted that he has always had the trust and ear of the Minister of Public Security was not also a player in this coup.
It must be asked about the reason and strategy behind Sittlington not just registering but incorporating a local entity which from all indications has been designed to replicate the work that SOCU presently undertakes.
Guyanese must wonder if it was not a pre-agreed arrangement that Sittlington’s company would get the work that SOCU now does and ruthlessly pursue members of the present coalition administration if a PPP government comes to power after the impending elections.
Jagdeo has already made it public that it would be the PPP’s intention if they regain power at the next elections to scrap SOCU and hire an international company to do the work that unit presently performed.
Again this is not farfetched thinking, given that Sittlington could have already been collecting information critical to the interests of his own private company under the guise of working for SOCU. Jagdeo is a proven master of deception and it is not beyond him and the PPP to be criticising Sittlington in public but privately conspiring and making deals with him.
This coalition government needs to wake up now. The Charrandass treachery on 21 December was not by chance or coincidence. It was a clearly planned and thought out operation to remove a legitimately elected government.
It’s common knowledge that SOCU has been infiltrated by staunch political PPP sympathizers and its incumbent on this administration to isolate compromised PPP operatives. Business cannot continue as usual. Patriotic Guyanese need to be watchful.
I end by stating that the future of Guyana and our long suffering people are at hand here and its incumbent on this legitimate coalition government and all patriots to wake and smell the coffee in order to protect our national patrimony and the interests of our future generations.
History is being recorded and time is not on the coalition’s side.
Yours,
Peter Narine

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