TRANSPARENCY Institute Guyana Inc. (TIGI) has challenged the PPP’s claim of racial profiling in relation to charges brought against former government officials in that party’s administration and pointed out that the first case filed and which is still ongoing, is against two individuals–former Minister Jennifer Westford and the Chief Personnel Officer Margaret Cummings, both of whom are of African descent.

The PPP has been accusing the coalition government of witch-hunting and also racial bias over charges brought against persons who worked in their administration. However, in a wide-ranging statement issued on Monday, TIGI said both the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) was established subsequent to the 2015 change in government and the legal framework for the State Asset Recovery Agency (SARA) was finalised more recently.

According to TIGI the first set of cases that SARA was expected to address were those that would be based on the findings of the forensic audits that were done post-elections. “Given that the forensic audits focused on the operations of the previous government it would seem illogical to expect that the first (and perhaps several subsequent) set of charges would not be against members of the former government,” TIGI pointed out.

It added that prior to the charges, the PPP/C had used the very fact that no charges were filed to criticise the current government and to claim vindication. “The current PPP/C rhetoric therefore appears to amount to taunting the government about its inability to take action then crying foul when action is taken,” TIGI reasoned.

RACE
On the matter of race, TIGI said one only needs to ask who the holders of public offices and of senior posts in the public service in the period covered by the forensic audits were. “Of course, this does not mean that only people of a particular ethnicity held all the offices, but probability would seem to be in favour of individuals of East Indian descent.

It is therefore likely that when former public officials are charged, many would be of East Indian descent without automatically evidencing racial profiling,” TIGI noted. “This does not mean that there is no racial profiling. Instead, it merely means that a charge of racial profiling would require more substantive justification that that provided to date and should not involve omission of the fact that the first case filed and which is still ongoing is against two individuals – former Minister Jennifer Westford and the Chief Personnel Officer Margaret Cummings – who are of African descent.”

The local transparency watchdog said one of the issues cited in the argument is the fact that SARA and SOCU have not addressed more recent matters that have emerged under the current government. This, TIGI said is a reasonable argument which it is inclined to support. “In fact, TIGI has formally requested of the SARA director that the matter of the ExxonMobil signing bonus be addressed by SARA.

However, we note that it took nearly three years for the charges against Dr. Singh and Mr. Brassington to be formally filed and this should help to put into perspective the timeframe within which we might expect more recent matters to be addressed. That notwithstanding, SARA and SOCU are not absolved of the responsibility to deal with current matters and we take note of the fact that it has not indicated that the more recent matters lack merit.

TIGI will hold SARA and SOCU accountable for handling matters that have arisen under the current government, as much as we support it in dealing with matters that arose under the PPP/C.”

Turning their attention to SARA, TIGI said the agency needs a clear and transparent policy on case selection and on the basis for deciding whether to pursue civil or criminal prosecution, and on the circumstances under which it will allow individuals to return assets and avoid prosecution.

“The transparency component of this recommendation means that the policy should be publicly available so that decisions made can be checked against the policy. The director of SARA has indicated that such a policy is forthcoming and we therefore call for urgency in this matter. In the absence of an appropriate and transparent policy, SARA will be unable to address suspicions of partiality,” TIGI declared.