HEAD of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), James Singh,has been sent on 42 days of accumulated leave, even as government takes steps to beef-up the country’s premier anti-drug agency.The decision to send Singh on leave, coming two days after news broke of a major drug bust which involved four Guyanese nationals, has generated speculations, but Minister of State, Joseph Harmon said it was in line with government’s policy.

Singh proceeded on leave, effective from Wednesday and Major General, Retired, Michael Atherly has taken full command of the operations of CANU. Atherly currently heads the National Anti-Narcotics Agency (NANA), which also has overarching responsibility for CANU.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of the Presidency (MOTP), Minister of State, Joseph Harmon said that in line with Government’s policy to ensure that officers do not accumulate annual leave and in turn request pay in lieu of such, Singh has been asked to proceed on leave immediately.

“This is the practice that we have embraced since we came into office and, therefore, Mr. Singh, who had some leave accumulated, has been asked to go on leave with effect from today (Wednesday) and Major General, Michael Atherly will be heading CANU,” Harmon was quoted as saying in the MOTP release.

The MOTP said this decision was communicated to the Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, who is the person responsible for CANU. Harmon reminded that public officers have always been encouraged to take their leave, “and we want to discourage this practice of accumulating large amounts of leave and then asking for payment in lieu. So we are trying to ensure that all public officers get their leave during that year,” Minister Harmon said.

Major General (ret’d) Atherly was responsible for leading the review of the National Drug Strategy Master Plan 2014-2018. This review led to the development of the National Drug Strategy Master Plan 2016-2020, which was launched last December.

Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on May 20th 1971, Atherly rose to the rank of Major General in May 2004. He held several appointments including: Officer Commanding Colonel Ulric Pilgrim Officer Cadet School; Commanding Officer 3, Special Forces Battalion; Commanding Officer, Training Corps; Commander 1, Infantry Battalion Group and Colonel General Staff, Defence Headquarters. Major General Atherly also served as Deputy Commander of a multi-national Commonwealth Military Training Team to Uganda. He was appointed Chief of Staff in April 2000.

He was educated at numerous international military institutions, including the Canadian Staff School in Toronto, the Canadian Command and Staff College in Kingston Ontario, the Camberley Command and Staff College in the United Kingdom, the Lester Pearson Peacekeeping College in Nova Scotia, Canada and the National Defence University in the United States of America. He has been honoured at the national level with a number of awards that included the Military Service Medal and the Military Service Star.

Meanwhile, he was appointed as head of CANU back in 2008 when, following a series of polygraph tests, the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Government fired the agency’s head, Orville Nedd. Singh was recently accused by convicted drug trafficker, Barry Dataram, of being involved in the drug trade.

Dataram had made damning allegations against CANU agents, contending that they are involved in the narco-trade. Dataram made this revelation during an interview on HGPTV Channel 67’s Nightly News: “CANU them is the most corrupted, rogue security force in this country.” He also claimed: “They are the biggest drug dealer this country has. The same drug that they seize, half of it goes back on the street.”

Dataram reportedly said that he decided to go public with this information after CANU officers had conducted a raid on his nephew’s house and removed $13 million, but could account for only $10 million. Singh had rushed to deny the allegations, saying Dataram was trying to distract attention from the proceedings of the court, and bring the operations of the unit and its members into disrepute. However, the CoI into corruption allegations against CANU made by Dataram had cleared the agency of the allegations.

Following the CoI, government had announced that through establishment of the National Anti-Narcotics Agency (NANA), it was moving to correct deficiencies discovered in the operations of the CANU. Ramjattan had said then that NANA will be implemented as an umbrella agency, under which all agencies in the fight against illicit drugs will operate. He said CANU was found to be deficient in its operations, and its shortcomings are not abnormal, but “can be remedied and should be remedied.