The State Assets Recovery Bill which is due to be debated in the National Assembly today is the best version and one that makes sense, Chief Executive Officer of the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU), Major (rtd) Aubrey Heath-Retemyer said on Tuesday, adding that some of its critics benefited from the theft of national wealth under the previous administration.
“No matter what you put in that Bill they aren’t going to go for it…. We offered clarifications and we maintain that for the Bill to have any teeth we had to make it as tight as possible,” Heath-Retemyer told Stabroek News.
He said there were people who really want the Bill and had concerns. He informed that the crafters of the proposed piece of legislation met with these persons at sessions held in January last year and then later in the year. “People generally asked questions and we made those modifications and we offered clarifications,” he said, before adding that there are some people who just don’t want the Bill. He made reference to individuals who bought government buildings. Some of these persons, he said, are “fiercest critics of this Bill. They have the most opposition [to it].”