TWO matters against sitting public officials here have been brought to the attention of the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA), its Director Professor Clive Thomas disclosed on Monday.

Professor Thomas who said “people are thiefing every day” noted that the complaints were lodged by Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira and Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc. (TIGI). SARA’s director told reporters that the details of the complaints were not at his fingertips, but he recalls that TIGI filed a complaint in relation the US$18M signing bonus received from U.S. oil giant, ExxonMobil in 2016.

There has over the past few months been much public discourse over the government’s handling of the US$18M which is currently lodged in a Bank of Guyana (BOG) account, and has since been invested in U.S. Treasury Bills and Canadian bonds where it is accumulating interest. “Well, there is, one person, and one organisation had referred cases to us involving matters related to the current administration,” said Professor Thomas, who also disclosed that the investigations into the complaints have not yet been examined.
Asked to state what has caused the delay in the investigation of those matters, Professor Thomas said, “We have not started the investigation; we have a long list of matters, so it might be a question of time, priority… We have to establish a priori a crime was involved.”
He was quick to point out that SARA cannot on a willy-nilly basis investigate every accusation made to it. “We can’t just take every reference off the street and assume that it is some guilt involved there. If not, we lay ourselves open to pursuing vendettas…people may try to use the organisation in that way, so we have to be careful that we establish procedures for the establishment that it’s worth pursuing as an investigation but the law does not preclude us from that, from undertaking that kind of thing,” he declared.
In this light, SARA is currently in the process of finalising a draft document containing procedures for the handling of such matters. Those procedures will be made public shortly and will serve as standard operational guidelines for SARA; they are currently being vetted by international advisors to ensure it confirms to best practices. “…References have been made to issues that are in the press. A number of them are dated going back to years and those have come from the Chief Whip of the Opposition and Transparency International (TI) have referred to us the case of the US$18M signing bonus,” he said, while maintaining that his entity is seeking to establish a uniform mechanism to apply to every case referred to it.

Professor Thomas said the establishment of standards to which SARA approaches and completes investigations must be done, noting that SARA as a public entity cannot operate without guiding principles. Meanwhile, the SARA director has disclosed that persons in possession of stolen state assets can approach the entity to have same returned. However, Professor Thomas declined to mention whether his entity has received any such request.
“Let’s say these are matters under consideration. I am not in a position to speak publicly about that matter as yet,” he told reporters, while reminding that under the SARA legislation, he is empowered to pursue cases seeking a settlement “if the conditions are appropriate.” “In other words to try and save the resources of the state in pursuing civil proceedings, if the person (s) or organisations agrees to a settlement; I have the powers under the act to do just that,” he stated.