By Svetlana Marshall

Attorney General, Basil Williams believes that the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) might be too burdened with police work, stressing that the unit cannot lose focus of its core functions in policing the new Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.

The AG made the comments at a news conference on Tuesday at which he gave an update on Guyana’s preparedness for an onsite visit by a five-member team from the International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) who will evaluate this country’s AML/CFT regime. SOCU is an arm of the Guyana Police Force. “SOCU as you know is a creature of the AML/CFT regime. It was created under the AML/CFT legislation. It is important for us, and SOCU has been very busy, very up and about, and it is very important for Guyana that SOCU actually performs its core functions, the functions related to AML/CFT and that it is not burdened with other police work.” Williams continued:” We don’t want to be accused, if they go and investigate further…that it is an attempt for us to really stymie the operations of SOCU and so as to hamstring any progress under the AML/CFT REGIME. So SOCU is a specialised agency, and we have to work out, nothing has come to Cabinet yet, to really determine its scope but you know being in the FATF world, the CFATF world, the impression I have SOCU is really to be a kind of independent body.”

Williams said” right now it is embedded in the Police Force, and you know we will have to look at the entire arrangements because what I am receiving at these meetings, is that they expect these agencies to be independent…and without any interference.” Asked whether he was suggesting that the current situation lends itself to interference, Williams said” well it is embedded in the Guyana Police Force and the reporting arrangements, it would appear to be police commissioner and all that. Cabinet hasn’t really dealt with that issue, but it needs to address it, the important thing is, is that we cannot remove SOCU of its core functions and that is to investigate crimes under the AML/CFT regime.” The Attorney General said.

During this year’s budget debate in the National Assembly, the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) had expressed concern over SOCU being placed under the Ministry of the Presidency as an entity to receive funding. $40M was budgeted under the Ministry of the Presidency for SOCU. Minister of State Joseph Harmon in response to the concerns of the opposition said, the situation is a temporary one.
Harmon’s response was deemed unsatisfactory to the opposition’s Chief Whip Gail Teixeira, who said that the Terms of Reference (TOR) of SOCU does not indicate that it should be listed under the Ministry of the Presidency. She said too that SOCU being listed under the Ministry of the Presidency contradicted with the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Legislation.

Earlier this year also Irish Financial Investigation expert, Dr.Sam Sittlington in a report following a study of the unit had raised concerns about the limited human resource capacity of SOCU given the number of cases before the Unit. He said SOCU is tremendously understaffed and is in dire need of human resources. At the time Dr. Sittlington observed that there were nine persons working with SOCU, an assistant director, four investigators, a secretary and three Criminal Investigation Department (CID) detectives who have been seconded to work on the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Ltd (NICIL) investigations currently with SOCU to help sift the vast amount of documents from that case.

“SOCU currently manages a total of 285 investigations, 59 of those are live investigations, of which immediate action is required and the remaining held until further intelligence becomes available.” “They are also expecting further large NICIL-type investigations to reach their doors in the coming weeks. This workload cannot be sustained within the current staff.” A proposal has since been submitted for consideration on the issue. For the year so far SOCU has made several raids and seized cash.

Dr Sittlington in his report had also said that SOCU has been “kicked about like a political football” in the press and that the comments made about the entity “can be demoralising for the staff and certainly for Assistant Commissioner James.”

Additionally, Dr. Sittlington said that the majority of equipment supplied and used by SOCU is from “external sources,” but noted the importance of sustaining the operations of the Unit. “Sustainability needs to be provided for and applied with a complete audit of the unit’s workload, capabilities, responsibilities and successes. If I was to describe the current process of obtaining equipment to assist SOCU operations I would use the terms beg, steal or borrow, and I wouldn’t be far wrong. But I would take out the word steal. So in order to work effectively, SOCU need to know what their budget is and that those funds are immediately available,” he added.

He urged stakeholders to “invest in SOCU,” noting that the “The returns can be substantial and the re-investment potential can have a huge impact on crime such as drug trafficking, gold smuggling, fraud, cash couriers, tax evasion and other acquisitive crimes.”