Saying that it appears that ministers of the government are not on the same page, former Attorney-General Anil Nandlall has voiced concern over the disclosure by the administration that the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) may soon be separated from the Guyana Police Force.
Attorney-General Basil Williams made the disclosure on Tuesday and Nandlall said that it raises red flags as it is different from what Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan had previously said.
The work of the unit came under the microscope last December after a bungled surveillance operation resulted in the deaths of three persons, including an army intelligence officer. Later, government sought funding for the unit under the Ministry of Presidency and after the parliamentary opposition expressed concern about the situation, it was later announced that steps would be taken to have the unit placed under the police force. Nandlall, who was instrumental in the establishment of the unit, told Stabroek News that according to Ramjattan the operational protocols situate SOCU as part of the Guyana Police Force under the superintendence of the Commissioner of Police and that those protocols are part of the standing orders of the Guyana Police Force.
He noted that these protocols have significantly expanded the mandate of SOCU to investigate a range of offences far and beyond what it was originally established to do, which was to investigate Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT)-related offences only.
Ramjattan had told this newspaper in July that an amendment to existing police legislation is all that was required to cement the procedures that would govern the unit.
Nandlall said that it is against this background that the Attorney-General’s recent statements that SOCU should be separate from the police and its mandate should be restricted to investigate AML/CFT-type offences only are surprising. “Are these ministers part of the same government?” he questioned. “The state’s affairs cannot be managed in such haphazard, ad hoc and capricious fashion. This level of incompetence is wasting precious time and taxpayer’s money,” he added.
According to Nandlall, while there is nothing wrong in principle with SOCU operating separate and apart from the police force, “no sensible reason is being advanced for this sudden change that is from last month to this month.”
Having regard to what he dubbed the “draconian powers” which are conferred upon the Director and officers of the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) in the proposed SARA Bill, with absolutely no oversight, no checks and balances and no insulation from political interference, Nandlall said he cannot help but question whether this “new SOCU would not be another unit like SARA with extraordinary powers but no oversight.”
He had made mention of this last week in his presentation at a public forum, organised by the PPP, on the SARA Bill.
“This government seems bent on creating institutions and conferring them with abnormal legislative powers without oversight, checks and balances. We have already seen the unorthodox, uncivil and authoritarian manner in which SOCU operates. We have seen against whom these powers are being unleashed: the ordinary Guyanese citizens and the business community. We have seen the disclosures of people’s private confidential information. And in the face of all of this are we now going to confer greater powers on SOCU? Something sinister is afoot,” he said.
Williams, during a press conference on Tuesday, had noted that since SOCU was set up under the AML/CFT legislation, it is important that it performs its core functions related to the legislation “and that it is not burdened with other police work,” which would stymie the operations of the organisation and retard progress under the AML/CFT regime.
“So SOCU is a specialised agency and we have to work out—nothing has come to Cabinet yet—to determine its core. Being in the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) world, CFATF world, the impression I have is that SOCU really is to be independent, just like in the manner of CANU. Right now, it is imbedded in the police force and we have to look at that entire arrangement,” Williams said.
“…Cabinet hasn’t really dealt with this issue. We need to deal and address that issue but the important thing is that we cannot remove SOCU from its core functions and that is to investigate crimes under the AML/CFT regime,” the minister said.
