Prosecute SOCU officials fingered in fraud

Prosecute SOCU officials fingered in fraud – PPP

Apr 14, 2019 News

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo

An audit by an impartial and professional auditor, must be conducted into the affairs of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), and all officials found guilty of involvement in fraudulent activity must be prosecuted. This is the demand of the People’s Progressive Party, and it was made after an audit of the financial records of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) uncovered serious irregularities, including the falsification of records.
That audit was ordered by Police Commissioner Leslie James in February following claims of grave mismanagement. It has recommended immediate transfers and a fraud investigation of several of the discrepancies.
The PPP has demanded not just that the unit be investigated with intent to prosecute, but it has also demanded the closing down of the unit, as well as the immediate resignation of the Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan.
In a release, the party stated that it has been publicly complaining about SOCU for some time now, that the unit of the Guyana Police Force is removed from its mandate of combatting organised crimes and money laundering, and that it has been reduced to a rogue unit “carrying out political directions to witch hunt PPP leaders and shake down the business community under the pretext of crime fighting.”
The party complained that the unit has been used as a tool to terrorise PPP public officers and officials, causing irreparable harm to their reputations and to their families
Former senior officials of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) have been the focus of SOCU’s fraud probes, with charges being laid against former Finance Minister, Ashni Singh and Winston Brassington, former head of National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).
The Opposition, according to Jagdeo, had questioned SOCU Advisor, Dr. Sam Sittlington, as to why the PPP officials were the only ones being targeted by SOCU, while numerous reports of corruption by the coalition Government were not being investigated.
One of these issues is the probe into the feasibility study for the new Demerara River Bridge, which Jagdeo had accused SOCU of pussyfooting on. He noted that a report was made to SOCU based on evidence of Government corruption months ago. However, he said that the matter seemed to have slipped below the radar.
Jagdeo had noted that SOCU had questioned all the members of the PPP Cabinet in relation to deals made in the past, “but I haven’t seen any member of this cabinet being called in to say what made them approve such a study”.
According to Jagdeo, this sort of behaviour is duplicitous.
“This Unit has rendered itself absolutely unfit to function as a law enforcement agency and as part of the
prosecutorial arm of the State,” the PPP’s statement noted. This is why it has demanded that SOCU be shut down.

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