Former Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran has come out in strong support of the controversial State Assets Recovery Bill which was passed in the National Assembly on Thursday.
In his column in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek, Ramkarran, a Senior Counsel, described the bill as a “… bold and vital instrument in the anti-corruption effort, although modern anti-corruption legislation still remains to be addressed. When I wrote in 2012 that the PPP governments had made efforts to curb corruption, but that by then it had become pervasive and further steps needed to be taken, it was legislation such as this that I had in mind”.
Ramkarran quit the PPP in 2012 after nearly 50 years after his concerns that the party was not doing enough to battle corruption in government led to a standoff.
The former two-term Speaker said that one of the triggers for his article in 2012 was the many inquiries made of him for at least two years before his term as Speaker ended in 2010 as to whether Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) legislation was pending. He said that he knew that there was a requirement by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force that such legislation be passed but he noted that it was only when sanctions were threatened after the 2011 general elections