By its constant and excessive allegations, the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU) has succeeded in polarising society and presenting the impression that it lacks the political judgement and skills needed to succeed in its mandate.
This is the view of the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) which was responding to a news item in the Stabroek News of March 9 in which it had been criticised by SARU Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Major (Rtd) Aubrey Heath-Retemyer.
In a statement dated March 13th, GHRA said Heath-Retemyer‘s statement is the latest example of the constant denouncing of groups and individuals who have expressed concerns about aspects of the State Assets Recovery Bill which is to be debated in parliament soon.
“This behaviour reinforces an impression that the agency is not overly concerned about putting in place the impartial, broad-based national anti-corruption programme that Guyana so urgently requires”, the GHRA said.
It charged that SARU’s “constant and excessive allegations are fragmenting the broad national consensus on anti-corruption” which contributed significantly to the APNU+AFC Coalition’s win in 2015.
“SARU by these and related actions is succeeding in creating the impression that it seriously lacks the political judgement and skills needed to assure the success of the technical and legal aspects of its mandate. The price of the evangelical animosity towards the major opposition party employed by the Head of SARU (Dr Clive Thomas) since its inception and taken up recently by its CEO will be counted in terms of constitutional reform, electoral issues and all matters that require cooperation of the major Opposition”, the GHRA warned.
Adverting to the GHRA’s criticisms of the bill, Heath-Retemyer questioned in the SN report “where the GHRA was when hundreds of young men lost their lives with no steadfast commitment to pursue justice…”
In its statement in response, the GHRA said this was a “trite and quite misplaced response to the GHRA’s comments and criticisms of sections of the SARU Bill. For his information, while acknowledging the need for the nation to confront those deaths, the GHRA is at least on record at the time as having denounced them. Which prompts the question as to where the zealous Major and his military organization were at that time. This new-found sensitivity to `the tears of parents and wives and children’ stands in marked contrast to its silence when the deaths were generating the tears.”
The GHRA said that it had collaborated closely in the early stages of the establishment of SARU and it continues to fully support a vigorous anti-corruption programme encompassing preventative measures as well as asset recovery and criminal action.
“However, the anti-corruption drive is contaminated when corruption is effectively interpreted as beginning and ending with the last administration. Rehabilitat-ing the impartiality of SARU will be an uphill task, notwithstanding Major Heath-Retemeyer’s belated assurance that members of the current administration suspected of corrupt acts would also be pursued”, the GHRA warned.
It added that there are many imaginative and successful anti-corruption programmes around the world and Guyana does not have to re-invent the wheel.
“The common feature running through them is that while anti-corruption is a crowd-pleaser, it requires shrewd political skills to achieve”, the GHRA said.
