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Govt. tells Human Rights Committee Police and CANU now responsible for recovery of stolen state assets
Kaieteur News – Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira on Monday told that United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee that amendments to Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act in 2022 and 2023 has empowered the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) to recover stolen state assets.
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira
Teixeira gave this response after the Committee at its 140th session grilled the government on its anti-corruption measures.
United States (US) Candidate to the Committee, Professor Laurence Helfer pointed out the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government dismantled the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) when it took office in 2020.
He asked Teixeira, “which agency is now responsible for recovering stolen state assets”?
Teixeira in her response said, “With regards to the state assets recovery, I wish to assure the Human Rights Committee that the state assets recovery, that act that you referred to… had to be repealed”.
According to the government official, “It was a modulated body where in which the head of the state assets recovery could become the Chief Immigration Officer the Commissioner of Police, the DPP etcetera”.
She then added, “However, we have the powers of the Special Organized Crime Unit, the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) and the DPP have been strengthen by the amendment to the AMLCFT Act of 2022 and 2023 to have a modern confiscation frame work, inclusive of an asset recovery fund, as well as assets sharing arrangements domestically and internationally and a framework for asset management.”
Teixeira said too that these provisions position Guyana as having one of the most modern civil colporteur legislation.
“…And we have a number of cases which we can submit to you after today’s sitting to show the number of cases where there has been civil confiscation during the reporting period,” Teixeira told the Human Rights Committee.
SARA was created under the APNU+AFC Coalition government and the PPP had contended since then that it was not crafted with the best interest of the people in mind. So when it returned to Government in 2020, it wasted no time in dismantling the agency.
Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall had said that from the moment the SARA Bill became public, it evoked widespread criticism from the then (PPP/C) political Opposition, as well as many civil society organisations, such as the Guyana Bar Association, the Private Sector Commission and the labour movement.
Nandlall said the groups found that the Bill was too oppressive.
He explained that, “… Sections had unlawful retroactive effect and that many of the provisions collided with the Constitution, including those Articles that protected the fundamental rights of citizens in relation to property and protection of the law.”
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