Frying small fish instead of roasting the big rats
Oct 28, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...asting-the-big-rats/
It is not surprising that agents of the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) are undertaking investigations into the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA), based on the findings of an audit which were done a long time ago, but which is only now seemingly attracting the crime-fighting unit’s attention.
The SOCU is facing a credibility crisis. It is not doing well in the Courts. One of the persons against whom it recommended charges was freed this past week.
The SOCU is also losing public confidence. It has recommended some of the most interesting charges ever made in the criminal courts of Guyana. Select board members of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) are facing multiple charges for failing to ensure an accounting entry into a register. In another case, charges were filed against members of the Board of the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) despite the fact that the matter is engaging the High Court, which has given the bank more time to produce the documents demanded by the SOCU.
The SOCU was established to fight organized crime. The public perception is that this involves going after the underworld, not those alleged to have committed while collar crimes. There is the State Asset Recovery Unit (SARU) which has a mandate to recover assets of the state which have been unlawfully appropriated. One would have thought that this investigation of state agencies would be better suited to SARU, rather than the SOCU.
The SOCU has been accused by the opposition of carrying out a political witch hunt. It was supposed to be investigating the distribution, under the PPPC, of house lots at Pradoville 2. The alleged basis for the investigation is that the lands were sold below market prices. All government housing lots in Guyana were sold below market prices. What is the SOCU going to do, recommend charges for everyone who received a house lot?
The SOCU was reported in the media as having recommended charges against the former General Manager of the Guyana Marketing Corporation, Mr. Nizam Hassan. Hassan is one of the most honest professionals in Guyana. Yet, this man’s reputation was hauled unceremoniously through the mud when he found himself facing a most egregious charge of having paid out monies for substandard work done on the GMC building.
A decent young professional had to endure months of stress and the ignominy of being placed before the courts for something that he did not do. Look at the amount of money that he would have had to spend in legal fees. He was exonerated this week by the court. But he should never have been charged in the first place. He was the victim of what many professionals are now facing under the APNU+AFC regime.
The way Nizam Hassan was treated is a lesson for all professionals within the public service, who would have worked under the previous administration. There are forces out there who are bent on removing these professionals so they can get their jobs.
A ‘talk name’ campaign is being unleashed against these professionals. Persons are being removed without reason from government jobs. Some are being sent on their leave and told that their services would not be required at the end of that period. The contracts of some professionals are not renewed upon expiration.
Fortunately, there are still good, decent people around, one of whom is the Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, who treats his professionals with respect. Hassan has returned to his job at the GRDB, but for how long, no one can predict.
The SOCU is under pressure to show returns. It is therefore on another mission, this time at the GEA. It needs to win a case in order to restore its credibility. It is only now looking at an audit of the GEA which was done a long time ago. When the government removed the Head of NICIL, Winston Brassington, the SOCU took away piles of files.
Apparently, its officers are still studying these files, because nothing has been heard as yet of that investigation.
They were apparently studying the forensic report on the GEA for months. They are now on site conducting investigations. Some small fish are soon going to be fried by the SOCU in order to prove that there was massive corruption under the PPPC government.
The government should stop wasting time with the SOCU. The PPPC has advised the government to bring in an international team to determine what was stolen, who stole it, and trace the money. This is good advice. It is advice which will be supported by the public.
The Guyanese people are not interested in who did not make an entry into some register. They want to know who thief, how much they thief, and where the money gone.