ANTI-corruption is everybody’s business, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Basil Williams SC, said as he enlisted the support of public and private office-holders to aid the eradication of the scourge.

Minister Williams was at the time delivering remarks during an Anti-Corruption Sensitization Seminar on Wednesday at the Region Three Regional Democratic Council (RDC) Head Office at Vreed-en-Hoop. The seminar, which focused on key anti-corruption legislation such as the State Asset Recovery Act, the Protected Disclosures (Whistleblower) Act, and the Witness Protection Act, was organized by the Attorney General’s Chambers and the Ministry of Legal Affairs in collaboration with the Regional Administration.

While stating that the Government is serious in its quest to reduce corruption in the country, Minister Williams said all must get involved. A reduction in corruption would also aid in a reduction in poverty, he posited while noting that these two are correlated.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the State Asset Recovery Unit (SARU), Aubrey Heath-Retemyer said corrupted activities in the country have reduced since 2015 but emphasized that there is much more work to be done to stamp out corruption.

He reported that between 2010 and 2014, the country’s development was significantly hampered as a result of procurement fraud, illicit capital flights and the underground economy.

According to him, during that period, between $28B and $35B was lost to procurement fraud every year. Today, he said, the Government has been putting the necessary systems in place to prevent such corrupt activities. Currently, the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) with support from the United Kingdom is facilitating a rigorous two-week anti-corruption training course, targeting participants from SOCU, the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), the State’s Assets Recovery Unit (SARU), the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

Illicit capital flight was running in the vicinity of $90B every year, the SARU CEO added.
The underground economy, he further posited, accounted for over $100B and while some people believed that it helped, he said one must not forget its damaging effects on society.
In an effort to root out corruption, Heath-Retemyer said that SARU, since its establishment, has been working with Regional Democratic Councils and their Regional Executive Officers (REOs).

Preliminary findings have revealed that some moveable assets such as state vehicles and machines could not have been accounted for because the inventories were total chaos, he reported.

There were and continue to be issues surrounding “fixed assets” such as government houses in the regions, he added while explaining that government officials have either overstayed their time, or vacated but left their families inside, or have renovated to the extent that the ownership is being questioned.

“SARA is not only talking….There are a number of companies in this country that had large tracts of lands assigned to them, and they were paying peanuts at the end of the year in royalty or leases. One such company was just paying for one acre …$25 per annum and they had some 99 years leases too,” he said.

SARU with the help of other stakeholders, took back approximately two million acres of state lands from various companies and individuals, Heath-Retemyer reported.
Stating that SARU’s mission is to reduce corruption and simultaneously increase transparency within government agencies, he assured that with time, Guyanese will feel the effects of SARU’s work.

“We expect that over time the accumulative effect of our work will be felt by each Guyanese. We know that it will take time, but if you ask us, those figures, every one of them, from the time this new administration started, we have been able to reduce those numbers so that they are declining every day that we speak,” Heath-Retemyer assured.
He noted that presently SARU is building a number of cases to ensure that they are ‘watertight,’ before the perpetrators are taken before the courts.

In addition to Heath-Retemyer, Legislative Drafting Consultant Ananda Dhurjon gave an overview of the State Asset Recovery Act while Parliamentary Counsel Ronetta Sargent gave a detailed presentation on the Protected Disclosures (Whistleblower) Act. An overview of the Witness Protection Act was given by Joan Bond – the Principal Parliamentary Counsel while Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Teshana James-Lake, like many of the presenters, asked holders of public offices to desist from corrupt activities and/or report any case of corruption within their agencies. The REO Dennis Jaikaran was among regional officials present.

The anti-corruption sensitization seminar formed part of a nationwide movement by the AG’s Chambers aimed at bringing much-needed awareness about a menu of legislation that would aid in corrupt persons being brought to justice, and the recovery of state resources.