– AG tells anti-corruption seminar

MONEY launderers have been resorting to building houses to hide their ill-gotten money since the traditional system of laundering such as remittances can no longer be used, Attorney General Basil Williams told an anti-corruption seminar in Fort Wellington on Monday.

The Attorney General’s Chambers took their Anti-Corruption Sensitisation Seminar to Region 5 (Mahaica/Berbice) Monday. The team from Georgetown included Attorney General Basil Williams; Deputy Director of the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU) Mr. Aubrey Heath-Retemyer; Chief Parliamentary Counsel, Charles Fung-a-Fatt; Principal Parliamentary Counsel, Ms. Joann Bond; Parliamentary Counsels Ms. Cheyenne Lall, Dianne Woolford and Ariel Haynes; Legislative Drafting Consultant, Mrs. Ananda Dhurjon and Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Mrs Teshana James-Lake.

The venue was the boardroom of the Regional Democratic Council at Fort Wellington, West Coast Berbice (WCB).The participants included staff of the regional administration, teachers, health workers, overseers and other staff of the ten Neighborhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) and other public servants of Region 5, as well as members of the disciplined services.

In his address, Williams told the participants that the seminar was intended to sensitise them of the pitfalls of corruption and of the economic importance to the country of an unbribable public service. He stressed: “This is a struggle we have as a country; a struggle against embedded corruption, since the more rampant the corruption, the greater the poverty of the country.” He noted that Guyana’s standing in this regard in the past was very bad but strides have been made.

According to him, the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) has been working on anti-money laundering and countering of terrorist financing and then the financial crimes came about after audits. He said that he had been told that as a result of anti-corruption strides made, some people had been resorting to building houses to store their ill-gotten money, since the traditional system of money laundering such as remittances can no longer be used. He stated that the developed world is taking even greater interest in fighting the scourge of corruption, since it is their money that is being taken in the form of grants and loans. “They are interested in transparency and accountability for the monies that come from their own workers in their country. They are not prepared to take the earnings of their workers, bring it to our country and then we have people here pilfering it and using it for purposes other than its aim of improving the lives of people in the villages and in the communities and the country as a whole,” Williams told the seminar. He urged the participants to join in this battle against corruption and to disseminate the message of anti-corruption in their agencies and in the communities in which they live and everywhere they go.

He also addressed the recent charges of misconduct in public office of officials of the previous administration which stemmed from three years of investigations by the police and on the advice of Police Legal Advisor Claudette Singh SC. Former Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh and former head of NICIL, Winston Brassington have been charged by SOCU.
On the contrary, he said the charges laid by the People’s Progressive Party against Ministers Volda Lawrence and Dr George Norton had not had the benefit of such rigorous investigations and as such, were considered to be more of a nuisance value and more of an attempt to denigrate the character of these officials than anything else. The Director of Public Prosecutions has since dismissed the charges against the ministers. The participants and the members of the legal team were welcomed to the Region by the Regional Executive Officer, Mr. Ovid Morrison and Member of Parliament, Ms. Jennifer Wade. During the seminar, Mrs. Ananda Dhurjon gave an overview of the State Assets Recovery Act and Mr. Aubrey Retemyer, Chief Executive Officer of the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU) gave an overview of the unit.

Participants heard a presentation on the Protected Disclosures Act by Parliamentary Counsel, Cheyenne Lall; a presentation on the Witness Protection Act by Principal Parliamentary Counsel, Ms. Joann Bond and a presentation on the criminalization of corrupt practices by Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Mrs. Teshana James -Lake. As the event drew to a close, the presenters and the Attorney General were inundated with questions from the participants as they sought to gain more clarity on their presentations.