Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 13, 2017 News
The State Assets Recovery Bill 2017 will be read for the second time in the National Assembly
today. According to Attorney General, Basil Williams, one important aspect of the Bill is that before assets are recovered, there needs to be a High Court order.
Williams made this clear at a media briefing yesterday in the conference room of the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Carmichael Street. He was in the presence of Head of the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU), Professor Clive Thomas, Legal Adviser, Brian Horne and the Chief Executive Officer of SARU, Aubrey Retemyer.
The Minister said that the Bill is intended to give effect to the recommendations contained in the 2003 United Nations Convention against Corruption which Guyana ratified in 2008.
“To put it concisely there is nothing about the presumption of innocence being eroded and all these contentions. This process, though driven by the director and staff of SARU, requires the invention of the High Court of the Supreme Court of this country before they could give effect to the results of its investigation into whether the property is state property or its desire to institute proceedings for civil recovery orders.”
He said that the Court will be the final determinant whether an investigation and any orders made pursuant to that investigation or any proceeding instituted to recover state property.
He said, “It is strictly a civil recovery proceeding and not criminal. In other words there is a proceeding in which no one will be arrested, no one will be charged, no one will be prosecuted, nor are there any questions under this Act that anyone could be given a custodial sentence. There is nothing criminal about the provisions of this Bill.”
Explaining further, the Minister said that the Act will deal strictly with acts against property. He said that the provisions address state property obtained by the unlawful conduct of public officials or any other person. He emphasised that the route to regain stolen assets will be based on a civil recovery proceedings.
When the Bill is passed in the Assembly, it will become the State Assets Recovery Act and SARU will become SARA, State Asset Recovery Agency. Williams explained that the Act will not be pursuing matters using the criminal standard.
Williams said that Appeals are allowed on decisions of the court as is common in any other area of the law. He added that no proceedings to recover property will be effected if the property is below $10M. In the final analysis, Williams said that if there is a bona fide purchaser for value of the stolen property, that person will be protected.
The Attorney General said that the Court has the power not to issue any orders depending on the circumstances of each case. “It is a court driven process under this Bill.”
Delivering remarks also was Professor Thomas who said that it is clear that there are certain people in the public making mischief concerning the Bill giving the impression that SARU will be empowered to go after people.
He said that once public property has been misappropriated his agency can investigate the matter. “We don’t have to prove the crime. We just have to say that the Bill is linked to the crime that was committed.”
Thomas stressed that the issue of a person’s constitutional rights to property will be protected 100 per cent by his agency. However, he said that no one should have a constitutional right to stolen property. He said that there appears to be confusion on this very issue in the media.
“There is no constitutional right to stolen property. Further, I will say to you that this kind of legislation is very modern and involves concepts that we’re not accustomed to dealing with traditionally
Thomas explained that the Bill seeks to satisfy a provision of the UN Convention which deals with non-conviction civil recovery of stolen assets. It is in this area which SARU will concentrate its efforts. Similar to Williams, Thomas said that the court has the final say whether a particular property ought to be returned to the state.
According to the CEO of SARU, Aubrey Retemyer, a great deal of diligent work went into preparing the Bill to ensure that everything is done within the power of the state to ensure that assets stolen from the state are recovered.
He said that for many years now, efforts have been made to arrest corruption by dealing with the individuals personally. “He or she might be charged and sentenced but very little emphasis had been placed on recovery. In the case of Guyana, we have been focusing on recovery because it is linked to development and it is the expectation of the people of this country that the assets generated by the state should be used in the interest of our development.”
He said that the work which will be done by SARU is no vendetta against anyone but is rather a natural course of action in response to the country losing vast sums of money over the years.
According to Retemyer, based on figures which have been public for quite some time, Guyana has lost about $28B to $35B through procurement fraud; $90B through illicit capital flight and $188B from the underground economy per year.
When asked how soon SARU will begin working after the Bill is passed; Retemyer said work can begin as soon as the next day. When asked about whether specific individuals holding state property have been identified, Retemyer refused to comment.
However, he said that instances identified in the forensic audits whereby state property was misappropriated will inform a great degree of their investigations.
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