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A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Member of Parliament, Amanza Walton-Desir on Thursday said the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has engaged in the systematic dismantling of institutions and systems that are designed to ensure accountability.
Walton-Desir said the firing of the staff of the State Asset Recovery Agency (SARA) and the dissolution of the Agency is a blatant attempt to evade accountability.
“…. They do not want to be held to account for their actions or their stewardships of our national patrimony and so, for those who believe that there is some sound move in terms of doing this, there is not,” the Attorney-at-Law said during a virtual press conference alongside Member of Parliament, Roysdale Forde, SC.
Earlier this week, the Government, through the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, terminated the contracts of all SARA’s staff. The services of the agency’s Director, Dr. Clive Thomas, and his Deputy Aubrey Heath-Retemyer, were terminated with immediate effect on the grounds that their contracts were in breach of the State Assets Recovery Act No.14 of 2017 and as such, were null, void and of no effect.
The Attorney General said Government will undertake to strengthen asset recovery components of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Legislation and will enact a legislation utilizing the CARICOM model of State Asset Recovery, in respect of state assets acquired illegally.
But Forde said though the PPP/C, in keeping with its initial position in the 11th Parliament of Guyana, has repeatedly said that the State Assets Recovery Act is unconstitutional, never once challenged it.
“They contended then that it was unconstitutional but never have they once instituted a single proceeding challenging the unconstitutionality of this Act. So what you have here is a self-diagnosis, a determination made by the very persons, who in Opposition, opposed the Act, and concluded that it is unconstitutional,” the Senior Counsel said.
He said two months into Office, the PPP/C Administration has dismantled SARA, notwithstanding the fact that it budgeted financial resources for the Agency in the 2020 National Budget. Further, Forde said the reason for the dissolution of the Agency, lacks merit.
“The Attorney General should be called out for what he is doing, seeking to destroy independent public institutions that can hold the Government accountable. This is another part of their political vendetta and agenda against public institutions, against the officers who occupy principal offices and their subordinates, who work at SARA,” the APNU+AFC Member of Parliament said.
He submitted that instead of dismantling SARA, the Attorney General, in keeping with his powers, could have moved to the National Assembly to seek an amendment to the Act to bring it into alignment, if he truly feels that is unconstitutional or weak. Such, the MP said, could have been done without dismantling of the agency.
However, MP Forde said the firing of 42 SARA staff comes as no surprise, simply because it is part of an ongoing process by the Government to deconstruct independent public institutions.
“You have to recall also that they are very upset with SARA as a body because SARA dared to institute proceedings against leading members of the PPP/C, who are now in Government. So I am not surprised,” he said.
Forde said that the fired SARA employees should consult with their lawyers to determine their next course of action.
