Investigations into grand corruption during PPP era in office will go no where

Jan 05, 2020 News

– Key records either locked away, burnt or missing–UK Expert-Dr. Sittlington

By Kiana Wilburg

For more than a decade, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), have separately, and jointly, accused the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) of being responsible for massive scales of corruption which steered billions of dollars away from the national pursue.

UK Financial Crimes Expert, Dr. Sam Sittlington

But after assuming office in 2015, creating a State Asset Recovery Agency (SARA), and starting several investigations, not a single person within the PPP’s hierarchy is behind bars.
During an exclusive interview with Kaieteur News, former British Advisor to the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU), Dr. Sam Sittlington, said he is quite aware of this situation as well as the reasons why Guyana has failed in its attempts to tackle grand corruption.
The UK Advisor was quick to state that the probe into allegations of PPP corruption should be dropped.
From his experience in working with SOCU and interacting with other crime fighting agents, Dr. Sittlington said key records that are needed to support the allegations of corruption are either locked away, burnt or missing.
The UK Advisor on anti-money laundering said, too, that key witnesses are also difficult to locate to make pertinent statements.
“So it is a lost cause,” Dr. Sittlington advised.
He said that the authorities of the day should wipe the slate clean and look at money laundering or corruption cases that are current “because going back 15 to 20 years looking for evidence in Guyana, it is not going to be there.”
Furthermore, the Consultant on a number of anti-money laundering programmes noted that Guyana’s failure to address grand corruption is hinged on a number of other factors.
Dr. Sittlington was keen to note that the handling of cases by prosecutors is far too slow.
He commented, “The cases go from the police to the Director of Public Prosecution and are sent back again to the police because something is not right. The Police Force and SOCU would be sending cases to DPP for advice because they don’t know how to go further but the reality is that they should know. A case should only go to the DPP when it is finished…”
Dr. Sittlington added that one of the impediments to fighting grand corruption in Guyana is the draconian court system. He noted that there are instances where judges have to recuse. themselves from cases due to conflict of interest or cases are dismissed on highly suspicious circumstances.
The Anti-Corruption advisor said that he has seen this very pattern in other parts of the world where corruption cases are dead on arrival because the judicial system is slow and antiquated.
He said that if Guyana is to make even the slightest progress on this front, the foregoing issues, among others, need to be addressed.

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