EBy Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell
Former President, Bharrat Jagdeo is essentially laughing in the face of the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA).
SARA’s Deputy Director, Aubrey Heath-Retemyer
Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo
In 2015, SARA was set up to recover State assets that were stolen or misused. SARA was expected to take several matters to the court and return billions of dollars in assets and cash to the State.
In 2019, the public is still to be made aware of even a cent being returned to the State or at least one court case that has been filed. Smiling at his latest press conference, Jagdeo taunted SARA.
Jagdeo is literally begging the “useless” agency to go after him and several People’s Progressive Party (PPP) officials that were perceived highly corrupt.
Jagdeo said that SARA is just another mean for the APNU+AFC to secure employment for retired citizens. The politician said that many persons who were earning just around $60,000 in pension before APNU+AFC assumed office are now earning salaries around $2M a month.
Jagdeo told the media, “If you shut down SARA, you can hire 400 people. Where are these US$10M cases that SARA was suppose to discover, (they said) that how many people had US$10M and above abroad. What is happening with them? They are just wasting our money.”
SARA was created under the guidance of Professor Clive Thomas, who is considered one of Guyana’s most accomplished economists.
Originally, it was SARU with the U standing for “unit.” Under Thomas’ stewardship, SARU dived into a number of investigations from jump. But without legal powers, SARU was confined to a straitjacket, there wasn’t much it could do on the hundreds of reports it received about corruption.
It wasn’t until 2017 that the National Assembly passed legislation for SARU which then became SARA.
But still with all the powers given in 2017, by 2018 no case was taken to the court.
Hence, SARA came under criticism.
In 2018, SARA’s Deputy Director, Aubrey Heath-Retemyer explained that the entity is facing several challenges. One he pointed to was lack of adequate funding. He noted that the entity’s budget proposal for 2018 was slashed by more than 30 percent. It only got about $200M.
The SARA Director said that budget cuts affected the extent to which investigations could have been carried out. He said that plans to use international companies which are versed in asset recovery had to be placed on the back burner since the funds were not available.
The Deputy Director also addressed criticisms that SARA is moving at a snail’s pace, especially as it relates to bringing cases before the court.
“Our job is not to just take cases to court. Since we have been established we have done a lot of things. We have worked through a number of other agencies to get things done. We worked with the various regions and that work allowed us to slow down theft and leakages. If we don’t do that kind of work then there will continue to be corruption…”
Heath-Retemyer also called for there to be an appreciation of the time it takes to carry out investigations. He stressed that it often involves going after 20 to 30 pieces of evidence to build a case. Heath-Retemyer noted, too, that Guyana being a paper society also makes the job of compiling evidence even more tedious.
SARA is not the only investigative body that has been taunted by Jagdeo.
Last year, Jagdeo called out SOCU.
On many occasions, Jagdeo said that SOCU has no clue what it is doing. In fact, at his press conference, Jagdeo exuded confidence that the charges SOCU filed against the Irfaan Ali—who has since been chosen PPP’s Presidental candidate—will not translate to any conviction. He said that it is just a plot by the Coalition to distract the nation from the “real issues” at hand.
Ali was hauled before the court and slapped with 19 fraud charges.
The former minister is accused of defrauding Government of over $174 M, by selling several plots of State lands, below the market value, to former ministers of the then PPP/C government.
Representing Ali are Attorneys Devindra Kissoon, Anil Nandlall, Priya Manickchand, Jaya Manickchand and Sase Gunraj. Ali was not required to plead to the 19 indictable charges and was released on his own recognizance (self bail).
The charges against Ali stated that between the period 2011 and 2015, he conspired with persons unknown to defraud the Government, when he acted recklessly by selling19 plots of State Lands at Plantation Sparendaam and Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara. The lands which were sold for a mere $39.8M, are valued at $212.4M, according to SOCU.
