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“SARA is incapable of doing anything”
Vice President Jagdeo says…
– Unit to be disbanded
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo
Head of SARA, Dr. Clive Thomas
After being in operation since 2017, the controversial State Asset Recovery Unit (SARA) is set to be disbanded by the new Irfaan Ali led People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration.
At a recent press conference, Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, stressed that the unit is “incapable of doing anything” and have done nothing since its establishment.
SARA was created by the then A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) administration solely for the purpose of recovering State property.
The agency has received at the very least $600 million to fight corruption. In 2018, the agency had a budget of $260M and in 2019, it received $285M. For its establishment in 2017, it also received another $116M.
Since receiving those sums, SARA has failed to produce at least one case where State assets were recovered.
The agency had gone after the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) back in September 2019 with claims that it had acquired a property in Kingston that houses its headquarters for $244M, less than its actual value.
The High Court, however, ruled in favour of the bank, on the grounds that SARA lacked the legal standing for such a matter.
Further, SARA attempted to bring a case against Queens Atlantic Investment Inc. in an attempt to recover billions of dollars from the company, which bought the Sanata Complex.
According to reports, SARA was expected to recover more than $3B in State assets from that shoddy deal but the case was halted because of a court litigation brought by Social Activist, Ramon Gaskin, challenging the legality of the SARA Act.
To this end, Jagdeo relayed “We don’t want an agency that uses hundreds of millions of dollars per year to recover $10. We don’t want that and we can’t afford that as a country. And therefore, that was, like I said, a sinecure unit.”
Pointing to the composition of SARA, Jagdeo stated that the agency was “political” thus making the members unfit to tackle its mandate.
SARA is headed by Working People’s Alliance (WPA) member, Dr. Clive Thomas, who in turn, appointed persons whose major qualification appeared to have been their association with the APNU+AFC faction.
He later brought on board Aubrey Heath-Retemyer who is closely aligned with the coalition along with Desmond Trotman.
According to the Vice President, they will have to be advised by the Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, to determine whether they will bring in an agency, the police or conduct an audit into SARA.
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