CABINET has had the final say as to under whose control the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) will be, Cabinet Secretary Joseph Harmon has noted.He told reporters on Thursday that it was made clear in Tuesday’s cabinet meeting that SOCU will remain under the Guyana Police Force (GPF), clearing up the misconception that Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams wants the unit to be removed from under the supervision of the GPF.

“It was clear in cabinet that there was no diversion, it is clear that SOCU is a unit under the Guyana Police Force and it’s under the superintendents of the Guyana Police Force. What Minister Williams did say is that they will have to have a wider role in so far as the Anti-Money Laundering legislation is concerned but he never said that it (SOCU) must be under him [Williams) for his superintendents. It remains a unit of the Guyana Police Force,” Harmon clarified.

Recently Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan committed to trim SOCU’s responsibilities to deal with financial crimes only. He told reporters that while he can concede the reduction of responsibilities for SOCU, he does not want the unit to be separated from the GPF.

The Public Security Minister agreed that the powers granted to SOCU are expansive, but has made the argument that the unit must be in a position to do essentially what the Anti-money laundering Act provides for.

“…but if let’s say there are no Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) investigations ordered, are we going to have 10 policemen sitting a whole year doing nothing? They are good, qualified people to deal with frauds, especially white collar crimes, what do we do? Are we not going to put inside of this thing that they should deal with white collar crimes and fraud and so on?” he asked.

Ramjattan said if SOCU is investigating an anti-terrorist act as a result of money transfers or otherwise that leads to murder, the unit should not have to depend on the Homicide department to deal with that aspect of the investigation.