Attorney-General Basil Williams has dismissed the Private Sector Commission’s (PSC) concerns over the proposed state assets recovery legislation as politicking, while saying that the legislation is based on the international convention against corruption that was signed on to by the last government.
Williams made the comments on Wednesday while responding to recent statements by the commission, including that the draft State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) bill was premature and redundant since many of the intelligence gathering mechanisms have already been enacted in the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism legislation. It also voiced concerns over what it says is the threat to civil liberties presented in the bill.
“The provisions in the [legislation] are not pulled out from somebody’s back pocket. The position is…the last regime had signed on to the Convention Against Corruption, as they had signed on to other conventions, and never implemented them. The international community now is demanding that if you want to be amongst the members of the community and be involved in the community, you gotta comply with all these conventions that you sign,” he said, while adding that the last government ignored the provisions of the convention.
Asked if he would be willing to meet with the private sector one on one, he said that he is not the one driving the process behind the legislation. “That process is being driven by SARU…we are the final word on legislation. When they are finished with the bill, it has to come to us and we will look at the bill etc,” Williams said, while noting that the consultations held so far were a joint initiative. “It was a wide consultation, so the private sector they must stop disrespecting the Guyanese public,” he added.
He said that the State Assets Recovery Unit, which is headed by Dr. Clive Thomas, is chiefly behind the legislation and is working in conjunction with the World Bank and the United Nations on the bill.
The PSC last week said that the draft bill is inconsistent with many fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. It said that it has obtained legal representation and will be making known its objections to the bill to the Attorney General and to members of the legislature.
The PSC charged that the bill is not a good signal to investors seeking access to state resources such as land, licences, access rights etc. as it provides openings for legitimate investors to be harassed and politically victimised.
“The Bill has been drafted from the perspective that the Government of Guyana does not know what it owns or what the State has lost over the years and as such it provides all-encompassing investigative and surveillance powers to the Director and Staff of the Agency to snoop around into private accounts and financial records of citizens to determine what assets of the State were lost and need to be recovered. This is a complete affront to the fundamental rights of citizens and if such powers are granted they can be used to marginalise, suppress and take advantage of vulnerable members of the population through political intimidation,” it declared.
It said it was “extremely concerned” that the powers proposed for the Director of SARA under the bill will blur the lines of separation of functions of the Executive and the Judiciary. The PSC questioned the need for ministers to designate to the Director and staff of SARA, as they see fit, the power of a revenue or customs officer, a police officer and immigration officer rather than requesting collaboration and coordination of efforts amongst these agencies.
“The PSC believes that the SARA Bill is premature and redundant since many of the intelligence gathering mechanism(s) have already been enacted in the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism legislation and included in the mandate of the Integrity Commission, both of which have not been fully functional to date,” it added, while urging that the executive and members of the legislature completely re-examine the dangers to civil liberties posed by the bill in the context of the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution.
Williams also emphasised that a lot of money was spent on the consultations that have been held so far and he questioned whether the PSC attended and criticised the opposition PPP/C for not attending.
“The Private Sector was specifically invited so the private sector must stop playing politics. We are using taxpayers’ money to hold these consultations. When we weren’t holding consultations they made a lot of noise. Now we are holding consultations, they are not attending,” he said.
He also signaled to the PPP/C that it “should be afraid” because the government intends to root out corruption. “Perhaps that might be a good reason for them to stay out of government office because this practice of extracting private wealth from state assets which was practised by the last regime must be addressed,” he said.
“So don’t let the opposition try to fool you. And they must explain to you why they are so mortally afraid of the operationalising of the SARA [bill],” he said.
Williams said that questions on the holding of more consultations and the readiness of the final bill before Parliament comes out of recess next month have to be directed to Dr. Thomas, while adding that there is no guarantee that submissions made on the proposed law would be included in the final version.
