Days after a wanted bulletin was issued for him, former Head of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) Sydney James yesterday surrendered to the police in the company of his lawyers and was released on $300,000 bail.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that James turned up at the SOCU office on Camp Road, Georgetown around 1pm yesterday. He was immediately taken into custody.
James was accompanied by attorneys Dexter Smartt and Jevon Cox.
Contacted yesterday, Smartt told Stabroek News that James was questioned in relation to his actions while he was in office. James denied the allegation/s that were levelled against him and was placed on bail. He was ordered to return to the SOCU office on Friday morning.
In a wanted bulletin issued on Friday, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) had said that James is wanted for questioning over reports of fraud and obtaining money by false pretence.
The offences were committed in Georgetown, the police said.
James, a former army intelligence officer, was appointed under the PPP/C government in 2014 following the establishment of the unit. After it was voted out of office the opposition PPP/C had accused the government of interfering in the work of the unit and issuing directives which targeted members of the party.
In July, 2019, James was sent on administrative leave following the findings of an audit of SOCU after claims of grave mismanagement, including the misuse of its operational fund. His contract was not renewed.
The audit was initiated by the then Commissioner of Police Leslie James.
Among the more than a dozen recommendations made by the force’s Audit Department was the immediate transfer of James and his secretary, Kevin Haywood, who assisted in the writing up of records which were submitted as part of the audit investigation.
The audit focused on the years 2016 to 2019, during which time over $52 million was collected by SOCU from the then Ministry of Public Security for its operational fund.
This fund, according to the audit report, a copy of which was seen by this newspaper, was to be used for the payment of SOCU informants, the rental of vehicles for surveillance, the maintenance of the unit’s building, and basic administrative expenses, among other things.
During the period under audit, the auditors found that several identifiable staff members received sums totaling millions of dollars and while it was claimed in most cases that the money was for intelligence gathering, there was no corroborating documentation. Further, the money paid out to the staff was not far off from what was paid out to informants/sources.
In one instance, the examination of payments of more than half a million dollars each to three ranks in one month in 2016 is said to have uncovered receipts that were backdated to make the payouts look legitimate.
According to the report, the auditors were hampered by the absence of receipts and the lack of records for some expenditure.
