An amendment to existing police legislation is all that is required to cement the procedures that would govern the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), which is just another unit within the Guyana Police Force, Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan said last Friday.
Questions were raised about the rules governing the unit, which is an integral part of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework, following a bungled surveillance operation last December, which resulted in the deaths of army intelligence officer Robert Pyle, his wife Stacy Pyle and truck driver Linden Eastman. Questions have also being raised about whether it falls under the Ministry of Presidency or the Guyana Police Force and its independence.
Ramjattan, during the 2016 budget debate in February, had revealed that there were existing draft protocols for the unit, which was created in 2013. He had explained that the previous administration never had operational protocols and steps have since been taken by him to bring their operations in line with the Standard Operating Procedures of the Guyana Police Force, hence the drafting of the protocols.
The document was to be shared and discussed with President David Granger and Attorney General Basil Williams, after which it was to be made public.
It was Minister of State Joseph Harmon who disclosed during a post-Cabinet press briefing last Thursday that the review process has been completed
When contacted on the matter, Ramjattan clarified that a new set of legislation was not needed for SOCU since it is an arm of the Guyana Police Force. He pointed out that it is normal for the force to create various units, such as traffic, narcotics and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), among others.
The security minister said what he has to do is create an amendment to Standing Order 64 of the Guyana Police Force Act. Asked to give specifics on the amendment, the minister said it would make it “more emphatic” that SOCU comes under the Commissioner of Police and that its operating procedures will come in line with the other units that fall under the Police Act.
Minister Harmon stressed to reporters that SOCU “is operating in a legal manner. It is an arm of the Guyana Police Force and what it is doing is consistent with the laws of Guyana and the Act under which the Guyana Police Force operates,” he said. He earlier explained that the information being shared with the media is what was related to Cabinet.
“We looked at the law in relation to the operation of SOCU. SOCU is a department and arm of the Guyana Police Force. It is headed by an Assistant Commissioner of Police and the persons who work [there], they have police rank or if they are civilians they are civilian employees of the police and so the powers of a police rank are the same powers which SOCU has and when we are taking about the protocol and so on it was basically ….a question of looking at a particular section under the Police Act that says that these are the operations that need to be conducted,” he said.
He stated that the evaluation was done and it was now for the Public Security Minister to give full details.
In May, former attorney general and PPP/C MP Anil Nandlall had said that the delay in the release of the protocols was vexing to him, particularly given that he had worked hard to ensure that the unit was set up.
Nandlall said this particular issue was of peculiar importance for several reasons. He explained that SOCU continues to operate as a “law enforcement agency under the umbrella of the Ministry of the Presidency, the premiere executive arm of the state. That alone raises a whole host of issues regarding the agenda of this agency.” Government had previously said that its plan was to remove it from under the control of the Ministry of Presidency—where it was placed by the PPP/C—to the police force.
He questioned from whom it is receiving directions. “It remains a unit within the Guyana Police Force, a statutory body which ought to be autonomous with a statutory mandate, which [it] must execute without political interference. Is this body receiving direction from the Commissioner of Police or the Ministry of the Presidency?” he questioned.
This was one of the outstanding questions following the botched surveillance exercise as Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud had told one section of the media that he was unaware of the circumstances surrounding SOCU’s surveillance activities and made it clear that he deals only with policy-making matters and not with the operational affairs.
Nandlall also expressed concern that SOCU is operating under a protocol that gives all police and Customs ranks the power to seize items specified in the Act as opposed to only those at ports of entry and exit.
He was at the time complaining about the manner in which officials operated in two matters, one of which involved the seizing of gold jewellery from an outbound traveller at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
“We [the PPP] objected while we were in government and we warned the opposition not to pursue the course to insert that in the legislation; that is the power that is given to police officers and Customs officers to enter into people’s home and to seize and to confiscate therefrom sums of money which includes jewellery,” he said.
According to Nandlall, the then government had said that under the requirement this was a condition that must only apply at ports of entry and exit and that it was not a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendation that the provision must apply throughout the country.
“They rejected our proposals and they have inserted it,” he said, adding that in arguments the PPP/C had said that the provision will be abused and misused.
“From all the evidence that is being unearthed, it is clear that our predictions and our apprehensions are being borne out. This provision in the law is being used as a weapon against the people of this country,” he said.
SOCU was set up to deal primarily with investigating suspected cases of money laundering and the financing of terrorism. As it stands, SOCU has its own staff, including police investigators. Its head is an army intelligence officer who was bestowed with the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police.
