Opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo has criticised suggested plans to separate the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) from the Guyana Police Force (GPF), while warning that it would be used as a political weapon.
“When you transfer these powers to bodies that report to ministers or Office of the President, that’s when it becomes a black hole and they would be influenced to take political actions against opponents,” Jagdeo said at a news conference at Freedom House on Thursday.
Attorney-General Basil Williams on Tuesday said that since SOCU was set up under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (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. …The impression I have is that SOCU really is to be independent, just like in the manner of CANU. Right now, it is embedded in the police force and we have to look at that entire arrangement,” Williams said.
Jagdeo said he would not support SOCU being removed from the GPF, which he noted is governed by laws, protocols, regulations and Standard Operating Procedures.
Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan last month submitted to the National Assembly an amendment to the Guyana Police Force Standing Order No. 62, which makes SOCU a part of the GPF.
Jagdeo also said that the PPP/C believes that the unit was set up under the police to support the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). “The FIU doesn’t need a policing arm, it needs the support of the police force and so that’s what we’ll support.
But clearly, this is a special organised crime unit, it can’t do 21 things; it has to go back to its core function, which was money laundering and terrorist financing,” he stressed.
The former president said that there are other places in the police force where issues such as piracy, smuggling and fraud or murder or counterfeiting of products are dealt with and these are not for SOCU’s remit.
